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Author: Kristenson, Joel
Last Updated: 2016-10-19
Overview
By default Trail Blazer has certain list & label names (i.e. voters or donors) throughout the application depending on what version you’re using (political or nonprofit). You may want to change some of these labels to something that makes more sense to your organization. For instance, it’s quite common to change the list for ‘donors’ to something more generic like ‘contacts’, OR you may want to use a field like ‘Social Security Number’ to track something else like ‘Password Number’.
This article walks through the steps to perform this task, and shows all the customizable fields at your disposal. Note that these changes will affect all database users with access to your database, and it requires appropriate admin security access to accomplish this task.
Tip: There are two ways to change field names. One is by right-clicking on them (in areas of the application that support this) and the other is from the ‘Custom Labels’ list under the Application Menu. Both are covered below.
Steps
Navigate to the ‘Custom Labels’ list by following Application Menu > System Manager > Settings > Customize Labels
As of the time this article was written there were 94 labels that can be customized:
Any cell that’s green allows you to double-click in it to overwrite the value. In this example I changed the label for ‘Donor’ to ‘Contacts’ since I’m tracking more than just donors in the database (i.e. Prospects, Volunteers, Alumni, etc.).
After making your change(s) you’ll need to click [Save] or [Save and Close] in the bottom-right.
Important: When changing labels via the ‘custom labels’ list it *requires* that you log out and log back in for the changes to take effect. When changing them from within a contact’s record card, it requires that you open a new search window for the changes to take effect.
After making your changes in the Customize Labels list, close down the Trail Blazer application by clicking the red [x] in the upper-right, and then click [OK].
Navigate to the location(s) where you made changes to confirm they look how you want. In this example my main ‘Donors’ list is now called ‘Contacts’.
To change a label using the right-click method, you have two options:
- From within a contact’s record card
- From the search panel
For this example I used the option to change it from within a contact’s record card.
Search for and open any contact (donor/voter) in your database. I used my own record for this example, you could just as well run an open search and load the top 100.
Navigate to the section that has the field you want to rename – (NOT ALL FIELDS ARE CUSTOMIZABLE) – in this example I went to the General > Profile sub-tab which has a default field for Social Security #.
Right-click on the field label that you want to rename and select ‘Rename Label…’.
Create a new name for your label and click [OK]. In this example I renamed ‘Social Security #’ to ‘Passport Number’.
The label will now reflect the change.
*Most of the labels that are used to collect data on a contact record can be queried by back in the Contacts (Voters/Donors) list.
You can also add them into your reports as columns by via Formatting. The system will rename the column to whatever you called it, my example is below.
Img 1 of 2 – Formatting in the Column using the New Custom Label Name
Img 2 of 2 – How the Column Looks in the Grid
The Related Resources below link to a variety of similar articles and videos.
Related Resources
Article: Creating and Saving Default Formats for Reporting with the Grid
Article: How to Rename User Fields, Query by them, Add them to the Grid as Columns, and Utilizing them as Merge Fields in Letter & E-Mail Templates
Article: Add Attributes, Attribute Dates, and Attribute Notes to the Grid by Formatting them in as Columns
Article: How to Create a Year-by-Year Giving History Report using Filtered Contribution Columns in the Grid – Primarily for Nonprofits
Article: Walk List – Selectable Format
Video: Getting Started 103 – Adding a Contact Record
Video: Reporting 103 – Format with various contribution columns
Video: Reporting 102 – Quick Reports and Export
Video: Getting Started 101 – Orientation to the screen
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