CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

Hi I am part of a brand new nonprofit org. We installed CiviCRM. However, there are a lot of things that I don't understand.

I was trying to enter in contributions. Let's say John and Jane Smith gave a $500 donation together as a couple. Should I list them under individuals or should I list them under household. From what I read, I should probably name them as a household labeled "John and Jane Smith."  The problem comes with the mail list. My version of CiviCRM (and I don't know which version it is right now) has a pull down box for greetings for household. The options are the same for the individual (ex. Dear (first name), Dear ( prefix first last), etc.).
My supervisor wants to know how these greeting are going to show up for the household since there is only one name box for the household. If I put (dear first name) will everything that is in the household box show up, ex. Dear John and Jane Smith. 
If I wanted to make the greeting Dear John and Jane or Dear Mr. and Mrs. Smith, how would I do that? Would I have to make a custom greeting for that. I don't want to have to make a custom greeting for every couple.

This is probably a simple question. However, my supervisor doesn't want me to enter any more donations until we get this cleared up.

Thanks.