Splitting First names and surnames

[alexrpaul]

Sounds simple but it it aint!

I am in the process of setting up a small access database that queries the actiniccatalog.mdb using a barcoded order number. This uses a macro to send an e mail to the customer and then stores the information in this new small database. My problem with this is that it is hard to search on a customer name field when the punters write whatever the feel like in it! I have seen that we can limit the options for Mr, mrs etc however modifying the name is much trickier.
As far as I can see I will need to use the user definable line and move where it appears in the template. The problem arises because this is then a miscelaneous field and will then not appear on the automated e mail, pecking list etc... in the correct places.

Does anyone have any better ideas?

Has anyone tried this or heard of anyone tryin it or should I give up?

Thanks as always,

Alex Paul

[cdicken]

As far as I can see I will need to use the user definable line and move where it appears in the template. The problem arises because this is then a miscelaneous field and will then not appear on the automated e mail,

I was about to say 'this is fixed in 6.1.4' but then I see you are on v5. Hmmm.

Could you maybe use the 'Job Title' field as this comes right after the 'Invoice Name'?

With regards to the reports, you may want to have a word in the ear of Jan Strassen (http://www.mole-end.biz/) as she specialises in report customisations.

[alexrpaul]

I am in touch with Jan on a pretty much daily basis!!

I was hoping that I would not have to go to the lengths of customising every report. I will go down this route if needed though.

In fact I have just realised that I am posting in the wrong forum as I am on V6.

Will the latest patch rectify this for me?

Also is there yet an expected release date for V7 and will this have seperate surname and first name fields when it is released?

Alex

[alexrpaul]

I have done as you suggested and used the job title field.

I have than had to change act_order01 and act_order02 to put the first name and surname in the traditional order on the site.

I now need to ask Jan to change the invoice and packing list to show the Job title field (which is now first name) in the right place.

It all looks pretty good now I only see surnames on the actinic main page and can search on surnames much more easily.

Thanks for the help.

Alex

[fleetwood]

It would be nice to see the ability to search on a surname as a standard, without all this tinkering about.
The current way of storing customer details makes it very difficult to find an order if you are getting anything like a decent number in - half my customers are called Mr... (not an easy name to search on).
Personally I would favour built in fields for
Firstname
Surname
Name as appears on credit card
to allow useful searching.

Any other users want this added to the wish list?

[pinbrook]

I second this, the organisation of firstname, surname could be better

[alexrpaul]

Fleetwood,

FYI you can split the Mr, Mrs etc... field from the name easily using Design|text this helps tremendously and is very easy to do.

Kind regards,

Alex Paul

[fleetwood]

Hi Alex

Do you mean by simply unchecking the Mr/Mrs box as a required field? If you know any other workarounds, I am interested.

It would help to some extent, although I think to satisfy credit card regulations, you are supposed to capture the name exactly as it appears on the card, including any Mr/Mrs prefix - can't remember right now if there is a seperate box for 'name as appears on credit card' at checkout, but don't think there is - so you are relying on the details captured at invoice address.

There is no real rationale to storing the name as Salutation+Firstname+Surname, as this makes trying to perform any form of search a nightmare. Its like going to your electoral role and searching under 'Mr Martin Kravetz' instead of the expected 'Kravetz, Mr Martin'.

thanks

Martin

[alexrpaul]

Sorry,

I did mean the mr mrs box and assumed that this seperated out the Mr Mrs in the customername field but by the sound of what you are saying it doesn't.

If you really want to capture the name as it appears on card than you can change the text in the invoice address field to "name as it appears on card" or use one of the user definables (but neither of these are ideal).

I have developed a seperate Access database for shipping info to improve tracking and am probably going to try to make something available for the customer to view on line see http://community.actinic.com/showthr...hlight=barcode


I do agree that the customer name field leaves a little to be desired.

Alex

[fleetwood]

Please keep us posted how you get on with your online tracking program. I think you will find a lot of people would be interested in this, unless Actinic have any plans to include this in a future release.