Add Contacts Page
As with building a house, the most important part of managing your wedding's correspondence is to lay a good foundation. That foundation is built by properly entering your contacts. The Add Contacts Page not only allows you to quickly enter your data, it ensures that you do it properly and efficiently.
Example of Add Contacts Page
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To streamline data entry, the Add Contacts Page is set up to handle the entry of up to 8 similar contacts at once. What that means is that up to 8 contacts who will receive the same materials (i.e Invitation, Announcement) and have similar affiliations (i.e. know the bride, know the groom) can be entered as a batch. If however, you prefer to enter one contact at a time you can use the View List Page.
For more information on grouping your data into batches and complete instructions on adding contacts to your BridalTrack Database, please see that section of the BridalTrack User's Manual. This guide's focus is on how the Add Contacts Page is set up and functions. The other guide would be a better source for comprehensive data entry instructions.
To maximize the amount of contacts that can be entered at once and minimize the amount of data entry necessary, the Add Contacts Page is divided into 3 sections. These sections work together, allowing you to group your contacts into batches and process all the batches together. This method simplifies the work you have to do and ensures that your data is entered properly.
Add Contacts Page, Section 1
At the top left of the Add Contacts Page is a blue box labeled "Section 1". This is where you will set all the overriding information about the batch of contacts you are entering. If you are entering all the people who know the groom and will receive an invitation and Save The Date Notice you will select "Invitation" in the "Will Receive:" field, check the "Save The Date:" box, and select "Groom" in the "Affiliation:" field.
This allows you to avoid re-entering all that data each time for each contact. By batching your contact's together by what the data in Section 1 will say, you are able to eliminate needless data entry and make the process of adding contacts to your database more effecient.
Add Contacts Page, Section 2
To the right of Section 1 is a similar blue box titled "Section 2". This area requires no input from you and is simply a check against errors. It works by putting into words how your contacts will be entered into your database based on the data you input in Section 1. All you need to do is verify that the statement is accurate.
If the statement generated in Section 2 does not accurately reflect the way you would like your batch of contacts entered, you can manipulate it by editing the inputs of Section 1. The statement is generated based on the data in Section 1, so all you have to do to change it is change the data in Section 1. As you make your changes, the statement will automatically update to reflect the new data.
Add Contacts Page, Section 3
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Immediately below the first two sections, taking up the bulk of the of the Add Contacts Page, is Section 3. The actual data entry of your contact's information is done here. This section itself can be further broken down into its three areas: "1st Person's Data", "2nd Person's Data", and "Mailing Data". Every column of data in each section is labeled and the data each field contains is very straight forward.
The area labeled "1st Person's Data" holds the name of the main person on the contact record. For contacts that do not have a significant other, this will be the only name on the record. Simply select the correct title for the person, enter their first and last name and this area is complete.
The next area, "2nd Person's Data" is optional and can be left blank if there is only one name associated with the contact. The fields of this section are identical to the "1st Person's Data" area: title, first name and last name.
"Mailing Data" denotes the area that will hold the complete mailing address of the contact. It contains fields for the contact's street address, city, state and zip code. Because BridalTrack is a correspondence database all the fields in the "Mailing Data" area are required.
Submitting The Contacts
Beneath the three sections of the form is a button labeled "Add Contacts" that will save the contacts information to your database. After you have entered all the data and Section 2 accurately denotes how you want your data saved to your database, click the "Add Contacts" button. The page will validate your data, save all valid contacts, reload itself, denote what actions occured and reset the form to accept more of your contacts.
Add Contacts Button
If some of the contacts you submitted had invalid data then a message will be displayed atop the reloaded page. It will tell you that not all of the contacts you submitted were saved to your database. When this occurs the data you submitted will be loaded back into Section 3 for you to correct and resubmit.
The entire row will be highlighted in orange and the specific field holding the invalid data will have a blue input area. To correct the data, simply type in the correct information. Once corrected, you can click the "Add Contacts" button, and your data will be processed. The most common errors when submitting data is omitting fields that are required (i.e. 1st person's last name, zip code, etc.).
Everytime the page reloads it is ready to accept new data. Even when errors have be reloaded to correct, you can still fill in the blank rows with contact's data. The key though, is to make sure that any rows you want added to your database are added correctly with the data in Section 1. Do this by always verifying that the statement in Section 2 accurately reflects how you want your contacts entered.
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