Configure: Default Salutations

Contacts: Configure: Default Salutation

1. This tutorial will cover how to configure the default values for salutation fields.
2. Default salutations allow you to create a uniform style for saluting your contacts in communications (there are placeholders for informal and formal individual, organization, and household salutations in Newsletter, Event Invite, Event Notifications, Event Registration Confirmation, Event Notification, Letters, and e-Appeal templates. Plus, the salutation fields can be pulled into reports to be used in creating mail merges outside the system.
3. The default salutation option configures how the system pre-populates the salutation fields on contact records when adding or editing contacts by pulling information from other fields (the nickname or first name field, for example) (the default that pre-populates can be manually overwritten/customized by the user). This pre-population saves time and creates a uniform way of addressing your contacts.
4. To configure the default salutation fields within your system, click on Contacts within the main menu to open the contacts sub-menu and select Default Salutation under the Settings header.

   

5. In the resulting screen you will see the fields for Formal and Informal Individual, Organization, Household Salutations (applies to individuals that are indicated to be spouse/partner and living in the same household. See our tutorial on Individual Contacts: Add Household for more information on households).

   

6. For the salutation type you wish to configure, select one of the available system default styles from the provided drop-down menu. You cannot customize/add to this list of style types.
   

   

7. For the Household Salutation default options:
   • in cases where the style refers to Contact 1 and Contact 2, Contact 1 is the contact record you are viewing/editing at the moment and Contact 2 is the other person. For example, if Sally Smith and John Smith are householded together, and you are editing Sally Smith's record, she is person 1 at the moment (and her name would be listed first on her record in a household salutation that refers to First Name 1 and First Name 2). When you are editing John's record, he is person 1. So on Sally's record the salutation would be styled "Sally and John Smith" but on John's record the household salutation would be "John and Sally Smith."
     

     

   • In those cases where you include Last Name in the default salutation style and the contacts have the same Last Name, then that Last Name will be used (e.g. Sally Smith and John Smith would appear as "Sally and John Smith"). In cases where the two parties have different last names, then both last names will show (e.g. "Ms. Sally West and Mr. John Smith").
8. For organizations, the First and Last Name fields refer to the name of the primary contact for the organization (the person listed on the Org Info tab in the primary contact field).

   

9. The alternate/fall back styles that will be used when part of a placeholder is missing for Individuals and Organizations are as follows:

   Default Style	Alternate Style
   {First Name}	{First Name}
   {First Name} {Last Name}	{First Name} {Last Name}
   {First Name} {Middle Name} {Last Name}	{First Name} {Last Name}
   {Last Name}	{Last Name}
   {Nick Name}	{First Name}
   {Nick Name} {Last Name}	{First Name} {Last Name}
   {Organization Name}	{Organization Name}
   {Prefix} {First Name} {Last Name}	{First Name} {Last Name}
   {Prefix} {First Name} {Last Name} {Suffix}	{First Name} {Last Name}
   {Prefix} {First Name} {Middle Name} {Last Name} {Suffix}	{First Name} {Last Name}
   {Prefix} {Last Name}	{First Name} {Last Name}
   {Prefix} {Nick Name} {Last Name}	{First Name} {Last Name}

10. The alternate/fall back styles that will be used when part of a placeholder is missing for Individuals and Organizations are as follows:

    Default Style	Alternate Style
    {First Name 1} and {First Name 2}	{First Name 1} and {First Name 2}
    {First Name 1} and {First Name 2} {Last Name}	{First Name 1} and {First Name 2} {Last Name}
    {First Name 2} and {First Name 1}	{First Name 2} and {First Name 1}
    {First Name 2} and {First Name 1} {Last Name}	{First Name 2} and {First Name 1} {Last Name}
    {Prefix 1} and {Prefix 2} {First Name 1} and {First Name 2} {Last Name}	{First Name 1} and {First Name 2} {Last Name}
    {Prefix 1} and {Prefix 2} {First Name 1} {Last Name}	{First Name 1} and {First Name 2} {Last Name}
    {Prefix 1} and {Prefix 2} {Last Name}	{First Name 1} and {First Name 2} {Last Name}
    {Prefix 2} and {Prefix 1} {First Name 2} and {First Name 1} {Last Name}	{First Name 2} and {First Name 1} {Last Name}
    {Prefix 2} and {Prefix 1} {First Name 2} {Last Name}	{First Name 2} and {First Name 1} {Last Name}
    {Prefix 2} and {Prefix 1} {Last Name}	{First Name 2} and {First Name 1} {Last Name}

11. When you have finished configuring the default salutations for your system, click on the Save button in the bottom right.

    

12. Now, when you add or edit a contact, the salutation fields will pre-populate based on your settings above. See our tutorials on Adding Individual Contacts, Add Organization Contacts, and Add/Create Households for more information on the salutation field on add/edit contact.
13. If you update any of the default salutation styles, the option to update ALL contact records to the new style or to update just contact records that use the default salutation style will appear.

    

    

14. If you choose to update all records, this will over-ride any custom salutations that you have entered. If you update just records that use the default style, any records that use a custom salutation will be left as is/will not be updated. Please Note: updating the salutations/contact records will be done OVERNIGHT/offline as this is a resource heavy process. Once you change any of the styles and click Save, a green validation message will appear alerting you to this fact.

    

15. Please Also Note: If you update the default salutation style, be aware that updating the stored procedure that builds/populates the salutation fields will update OVERNIGHT as well. This means that if you edit any contact records between the time you change the default salutation style and when the overnight update runs, the system will still use the OLD/previous default salutation style to update the salutation field(s). However, those records will also be updated as part of the overnight process. Once the overnight process runs/starting the next day, going forward, any records added or edited will use the new default style to create/update the salutation fields.