CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

Just wondering if the preferred option for phones/emails/sms could be a checkbox so if we have a number of any one of these for someone and we want to reset which is the prefered one then we could just put the tick against the one we want, rather than having to copy the information from one to the other.

Hi Dave,
   I like the idea you proposed. Seems cleaner and more straightforward (to me). "Like" information would be clustered together and if you added the option to tick a check box for the preferred address, phone or email, one could see at a glance the best way to reach the contact.
   As a sort of addendum to this: any thought to adding from-to dates for locations? It's not something I've had specific requests about but I know there are a lot of people who live half the time in one place and half in another. Like the "snow birds" 

Thanks,
Cynthia

Well Dave, since you asked, here's my 200 cents 

Thanks for even considering this,
Cynthia

I like the idea of the address, phone, email being on separate lines- with the opportunity to add additional address, phone, email under each during entry- and an expanded list of designations for the fields. And treating fields separate, so that emails, and phone numbers do not have to be tied to specific address locations.
So the entry would look like this, kind of a combination of current and proposed screens

Address 1                use as primary address x  use as household address x
Address type- home- office work
Address Field
Address Field 2
City, State Zipcode
Add Additional Address +(expands to display the same fields for Address 2)


Phone Number  1  use as primary address x
Phone Number Field
Drop down with phone type- Work, Home, Mobile, Fax
Add Additional Phone Number +(expands to display the same fields for Phone 2)

Email 1 use as primary email x
Email Field- x on hold x use for bulk mailings
Drop down with email type -work, home, school
Add Additional Email +(expands to display the same fields for Email  2)

Instant Messenger 1  use as primary messenger
Messenger field
Messenger service -  Aim, Google, Yahoo, MSN, Jabber, Skype
Add Additional Messenger +(expands to display the same fields for Messenger  2)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The display would look like this

Primary Address
Address Field
Address Field 2
City, State Zip
Primary Phone
Primary Email
Primary Messenger

Phones >>>  Phone 2 – type  , Phone 3 – type
 Emails>>>email2, email3
Addresses>>>   Address 2
      Address 2 type
      Address 2 City, State Zip
Messenger >>>> Messenger 2, Messenger 3
Open ID>>>> Open Id

Export would look like this (all on one line for each record)
Primary Address   Primary City  Primary State     Primary Zip Primary Phone
Primary Email Primary Messenger
Address 2    Address 2 City    Address 2State Address 2 Zip
Phone2  xxx-xxxx  phone2  type- home
  Email2 xxx@xxxx.com emailtype-home
Messenger 2, Open ID

Cynthia - you have captured that really well. I can't suggest any further improvements to the phone/email/sms section.

I expect there are technical issues why Billing has to remain as a real location rather than as a 'characteristic' of other locations, but certainly worth floating it I think.

"Snow birds" - lovely term. Wonder it the concept would also work for us when people head off for a long trip so we can denote that they are 'on the road' even if the 'to' date has to be left open.

Peter - Current plan is to include an overhaul of the contact edit form in 2.3. I've added an entry to the 2.3 roadmap as a reminder to include it in the prioritization discussions.

http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRM/CiviCRM+v2.3

Hi,

Nice improvements indeed. Couple of comments:

1) don't use check boxes when you can select only one, the proper tool is radio button
2) instead of having the check box, I'd suggest to be able to have "priorities", and up-down buttons. The first phone is the prefered one, the second is the second prefered one...
3) display thing: don't display the address at the begining: offer "use the employer" address "use the household" +add another
4) when checking "use the" address, it should automatically populate it, and offer to update the employer or household from the individual address

X+