The User's Edge : favorites

The Raiser's Edge 7 For Beginners: Top 10 Tips

Douglas Clinton — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:30:00 GMT

Here's more from The Raiser's Edge 7 for Beginners. This Top 10 list is right at the front of the user guide and provides solid tips for everyone.

Save your parameter files so you don’t have to recreate reports and mailings each time.
Use Favorites so you can focus on just the parts of The Raiser’s Edge you use everyday.
Customize your workspace by using Home Page.
Use Dashboard to create reports and get a glimpse of how your fundraising efforts are going.
See only the fields and information you want by using Custom View.
Speed up your data entry by using Batch to enter data in spreadsheet format.
Press F1 anywhere in The Raiser’s Edge. The program knows where you are and offers help on the area you’re in.
Set User Options, or rules, to make The Raiser’s Edge behave the way you want on the workstation you are logged into.
Add system-wide Business Rules to help you work more efficiently in The Raiser’s Edge.
Back up your data!

The Raiser's Edge 7 for Beginners: User Options

Douglas Clinton — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 18:46:00 GMT

Last year, we introduced The Raiser's Edge 7 for Beginners, a User Guide which teaches users about The Raiser’s Edge in a lighthearted and straightforward style. The guide, as its title implies, is a great place for new users to start. From time to time, I'll post tips from the guide here on The User's Edge blog.

User options let you adjust settings in The Raiser’s Edge to suit your needs. To access them, select Tools, User Options from the menu bar. The Raiser's Edge 7 for Beginners has a few suggestions for users:

On the General tab, leave the Show tooltips checkbox marked.
On the General tab, leave the Automatically complete table entries checkbox marked
On the Home tab, leave the Show Favorites checkbox marked.
On the Home tab, add “Open individual” and “Open organization” as favorites.

You can check out the guide for yourself by going to Support, User Guides, Getting Started. Check back here often for more features on the guide.

Tips and Tricks: Using your Home Page

Katy McGinnis — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 16:12:00 GMT

Are there functions that you use on a daily basis in RE that are a little more than a point and click away? RE has the solution: Favorites. With Favorites, you indicate that a specific mailing/record/report/query is a favorite (click on the Folder image with Star on it from within the Record). Marking this option adds the function to your Home page so that you can simply point, click, and run (kind of like a Windows shortcut ).

Other reasons to use favorites:

- You can view dashboard panels on this screen. For example, the action reminders Dashboard will allow users to view pending actions - those that have yet to be completed. This will provide a more dynamic approach to fundraising.
- Use Quick Find to open a constituent or make a whole constituent record a favorite!
- Do you really love your Gift Detail & Summary report? Make it a favorite! You will then see it listed on your Home page where you can run your report directly.
- RE will work with other programs to open web pages, specific Documents, or Spreadsheet files.

With this option, you can get to the point where you can work almost directly within the Home page! You can even organize your favorites in a method that works for you. So go get comfortable in your Home page!

Sarah's Shortcuts: My Favorite Fields (a musical blog)

Sarah McBride — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 12:47:00 GMT

When I'm time-pressed
When my brain hurts
When I'm feeling rushed
I simply select all my favorite fields
And then I don't feel so stressed!

I like to sing, and what better to sing about than Favorite Fields! If you're not already familiar with Favorite Fields, allow me to introduce you to one of the best features in Query.

For those of you who create a lot of queries, I suspect you often utilize many of the same fields to filter on, include in your output, and/or sort by. It can get rather tedious when you're constantly having to scroll through all of the available fields to locate the ones you need. So why waste time and effort when you don't need to?

By taking the following steps, you can add your most frequently used query fields to your Favorites so they'll be easy to access going forward:

Open a query.
On the Criteria, Output, or Sort tab, select the appropriate field in the Available Fields section.
Right-click the field and select "Add to Favorite Fields."

For the uber-efficient among us, you can also quickly select multiple favorites at the same time:

Open a query.
On the Criteria, Output, or Sort tab, select any field in the Available Fields section.
Right-click and select "Organize Favorite Fields." The Favorite Fields screen appears.
- Select the appropriate query type. For example, if you want to select favorite fields for constituent queries, select Constituent.
- In the Available Fields frame, locate the appropriate field and click the right arrow to move it to the Fields to Include frame. Repeat for each field that you would like to make a favorite.
- Click OK.

These steps are also in Knowledgebase: How to add query fields to Favorites (BB520890).

As a final tip, I think you'll find it helpful to sing like Julie Andrews while you select your favorite fields, and I'm sure your coworkers will be appreciative.