The GoldMine Blog - Tips, Tricks & More

The Dear field in GoldMine is given top-billing in its upper-left quadrant…. But how should it be used?



What should be entered, is, whatever should be after the word “Dear” in a letter or email, for example…

Dear Jeremy, or
Dear Mr. Davis, or
Dear Dr. Davis…

This allows for fully automated ‘personalized’ marketing via letter merges with Microsoft Word or, or email blasts with GoldMine.  Some people you may be on a more informal basis with so “Dear Jeremy” would work well…  Others, however, you may have a more formal relationship with so “Dear Mr. Davis” is more appropriate.  

To make this a quick, easy, and error free entry here is what you might see in your F2 Lookup to speed data entry and ensure accuracy.



Here are the actual codes to enter as part of the Lookup…

~"Dr. "+Contact1->Lastname
~"Mr. "+Contact1->Lastname
~"Mrs. "+Contact1->Lastname
~"Ms. "+Contact1->Lastname
~&firstname

In our next entry I am going to talk about the lookup.ini and how you an automate the first name entry as a default.

Have a Great Weekend!

A name was changed, a company misspelled, addresses changed incorrectly can all put a damper on your day. 

Fortunately, we have a quick and easy solution to such a conundrum! 

Turn on “Log Changes to History” for a field.  This setting is universal (affects all users and all contacts) so you’ll need master rights to do this.

On the field you want to turn logging on for Right-Click and select Properties on the field label. 

Then select the Security tab and check Log changes in history. 

Now, whenever changes are made to the field the user making the change, the date, the old value, and the new value will be logged on the history tab. 

Double-Click on the entry to Zoom in on the details… 

PS This can be turned on for any Top Half (Except Email & Website) or Custom Field (Fields Tab).

PPS Screen shots are all from GoldMine Premium Edition but the functionality has been in GoldMine for years.

Don't forget to check out the Archive which lists all 100+ Blog Posts...

http://www.thegmblog.com/archives.html

http://support.frontrange.com/support/gmpe/062807_GM_Comp_Matrix.pdf

Updated 6/28/2007.

http://www.thegmblog.com/2007/08/how_to_use_the_dear_field_in_g.php

To ensure that the Dear fields gets populated with at least your contact’s first name we’ll use the “Lookup.ini”…  The lookup.ini is GoldMine’s way of automatically updating one field based on another.  In our case with the Dear field we’ll be updating it based on the contact field. 

The lookup.ini is an actual file is located wherever your GoldMine is installed whether it be on your local machine or the network.  You may already have one there, in that case just update the one you have…  If you don’t have one go ahead and download this:

Lookup.ini

(Most browsers will let you Right-Click and "Save Target As" to download the File) 

Be sure to use Notepad or another text editor to open and edit the Lookup.ini if you already have one...  Here’s the code to get the Dear field to update when you create a new contact record… 

[AutoUpdate]
New=DEAR

[Dear]
Otherwise=&firstname

Every new record, as long as you put in the contact name will have the Dear field populated with the contact’s first name.  That can always be overridden with one of our “Mr.”, “Mrs.” Or “Dr.” formulas…

From their site... 

What is del.icio.us?

del.icio.us is a collection of favorites - yours and everyone else's. You can use del.icio.us to:

- Keep links to your favorite articles, blogs, music, reviews, recipes, and more, and access them from any computer on the web.
- Share favorites with friends, family, coworkers, and the del.icio.us community.
- Discover new things. Everything on del.icio.us is someone's favorite -- they've already done the work of finding it. So del.icio.us is full of bookmarks about technology, entertainment, useful information, and more. Explore and enjoy.

del.icio.us is a social bookmarking website -- the primary use of del.icio.us is to store your bookmarks online, which allows you to access the same bookmarks from any computer and add bookmarks from anywhere, too. On del.icio.us, you can use tags to organize and remember your bookmarks, which is a much more flexible system than folders.

Check it out at:

http://del.icio.us/

IF you find this interesting be sure to add the plug in to Internet Explorer or FireFox.

http://del.icio.us/help/ie/extension

http://del.icio.us/help/firefox/extension 

Filters in GoldMine allow you to find subsets of data…  Clients… Clients in California…  Everyone in Chicago…  When previewing a filter though you are able to only see Company and Contact names… 

Here’s a very handy trick to see whatever fields you’d like!

We’re going to start in the Contact Search Center, so go ahead and do a Lookup | Company…  

Click View Saved…

Click on the + sign next to filters.

Cool, eh?  Now Double-Click on the Filter you want to see.  GoldMine might give you a couple warnings about searches being slow.  Click “No” and “OK” to bypass those. 



The contacts now listed in your Search Center will now be those that make up the filter. 

Don’t forget the Output To button to be able to send those to Excel (My Favorite), Word, or the Clipboard!

The fields displayed can also be customized:

http://www.thegmblog.com/2006/10/customize_search_center_column.php

Happy Labor Day!

GoldMine’s Real-Time Tab gives management a ‘real time’ look at what actions (appointments, calls, letters, emails) their staff are performing.  

... their "Labor!" (Nice tie in, eh?) 

Real-Time is located in the Activity List (View | Activity List).  



To change the date range, user, etc. you’re viewing do a  Right-Click | Options within the Real-Time Tab.
 

Access to the Real-Time tab can also be restricted.  In the user’s configuration area on a user’s Access tab you can uncheck “Real-Time Tab”.