Logic field for Nickname/Firstname in communications

Tamara Photiadis
Tamara Photiadis
Fifth Anniversary Kudos 1 Name Dropper Participant
in Blackbaud Higher Education Solutions™ General Discussions

Is anyone else having trouble with their EMS (or other) communications, especially Official Notes, where you must choose between First Name OR Preferred Name in placeholders? This is a real dilemma, because the only field that always has content is the first name, so this is the one that we must use. But it's very formal, and why are we even asking users for their preferred names if we can't use them?

It seems like we must have a logic field which chooses between nickname and first name, preferring the nickname where there is one.

I'm curious to know if anyone has found a workaround for this. And if not, and if you agree that something like this would be useful, will you vote for my idea? (It is idea K12OB-I-2220).

Thank you!

Comments

  • Sandra Ross
    Sandra Ross
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 5 PowerUp Challenge #2 Gift Management August 2025 Monthly Challenge Badge
    Our protocol is to put preferred name for all - if no preferred name given, enter first name.

    That way we have data in the field and can use the preferred name for those who wish to be called by a certain name.

    Works well.
  • Gretchen Adams
    Gretchen Adams
    Fifth Anniversary Kudos 1 Name Dropper Participant
    We do the same thing - load a preferred name for everyone and if they don't provide it, we copy the first name in the preferred name field. But I would love to have logic available for things like this.
  • Tamara Photiadis
    Tamara Photiadis
    Fifth Anniversary Kudos 1 Name Dropper Participant
    Thank you, Gretchen and Sandra, for taking the time to reply and suggest a solution.


    In using this solution, have you found that the automated listings are cluttered? That is, everyone is listed as having a nick-name, so how do the list-reviewers easily find which people actually use a nick-name?


    In other words, if I have a list of names that look like Frank "Frank" Tumble, and only 2 of them have a real nick-name, such as Brenda "Ren" River, then it's visually difficult to find those with a nickname. Usually a name with quotes is a visual flag. Every time one sees a set of quotes, it's an alert that this person uses a different name than their legal name.


    I don't mind this solution so much for the internal staff, but the program directors and teachers would hate a solution like this, since several of our students use nick-names.


    Again, if this idea speaks to you, can you please click here to vote for my idea?


    Thank you!

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