Advanced Exporter

Concepts

To send data to another application, or do a mail merge using Microsoft Word, OpenOffice, or your own database, VSys lets you select the fields to be exported and sends that data into an export file that you can use in other programs.

Getting started

From the User tools panel, click Advanced exporter, or from the Letters, mail merges and mailing labels panel, click on Mail merge via export file.

When exporting from within a project, if a person is registered in the project more than once, he will be exported once for every delegation that he's in.

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Filters

People are only included in this export if they meet all of the criteria you specify.

Fields to include

(see below)

For letters going to 2+ people...

If checked, and two or more people sharing an address are included here, only one label will be printed for all of the people sharing that address.

Initial source

This is the basis for the export, and it can be any of:

Option	Data exported
People	People who meet your criteria
Certifications	Certification records
People on one or more lists	People who meet your criteria and who are on one or more of the given lists
Hours	Volunteer hours records
Assignments	Individual job assignments
Recurring assignments	Recurring assignment information
Job associations	Job associations
Interviews	Interview records
Combined assignments and job associations	Both assignment and job association records
Memberships	Membership records
Mandates	Mandates records
Account records	Account detail records
Awards	Awards records
Survey results	Survey result records
Job definitions	Job definition records
Letters	Letter (including e-mail and SMS message) records
Incoming messages	Incoming messages (SMS and kiosk)
Custom application forms	Custom application forms
Credentials	Credential information
Trainings	Training records - people in training courses or with training history
Training courses	Training courses - no people are included
Comments	Comments attached to volunteers
Transitions	Transition records

Depending on the type of data you're exporting, the filters below will change.

Exclude people with these flags

Only people of these types (globally) or roles (in a project) are included.

Filter entrants by...

Filters for gender, age, group and type.

Add another filter

Addresses

If you have a preference as to what type of address this should go to for people with more than one address, or limit it to specific address types, add one or more address types here. VSys will look for an address of each type starting from the top, and use that one if it meets the further criteria below. Adding the fallback address type (any) will take any address type that meets the remaining criteria. Putting (any) after other address types makes VSys use the others first if available, otherwise whatever other kinds it can find.

You can add any other types of filters by using the Add another filter link. There are over 30 filter options there, and VSys will only include a record in the export if it meets all of the ones you set above plus any of these.

Fields to include

Pulling down the Fields to include editor brings up a pair of lists. On the left are the fields you have available to export, on the right are the fields that will be included in the export. These fields are grouped in the same way they are in the mail merge tool.

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Add a field by dragging it from the left side to the right. In the Included fields in this example, "People" indicates it came from the big category on the left of People, and then specific fields for name, first name and family name within that. (Click on the plus sign in front of "People" to view all the field options.)
Delete a field by dragging it from the right side to the left side, or by clicking on the field and hitting the Delete key.
Re-arrange fields by dragging the up and down on the right-hand list. Fields at the top will appear first in the export.
You can select more than one field at a time by clicking first on one field then, holding down the Shift key, click on the last field. Now you can move the selected fields together as a group.

Sorting

Add one or more sort criteria to make VSys export the records in a particular order for you. Records will first be sorted by the topmost field, then the second field, then the third, and so on. The and arrows next to each field indicate that the field will be sorted ascending or descending, respectively.

Exporting data

After setting your filters, fields and sorting options, select the type of file to be created (dBase, Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Access) and then name the file to be created. You can use the icon for help in choosing where to save your file.

Click on the Export button.

After VSys exports your data, it shows three links:

Add to a list	Adds all of the people who were exported to a list.
Remove from a list	Removes all of the people who were exported to a list.
Mark as printed	If you were using this for an external mail merge, use this tool to post "Letters printed" records for the people who were printed here. You would do that to keep track of who's received what mailings and when, both to filter on it later as well as to see when you've communicated with various people.