Over the years, I’ve had clients say, “Miss Sandy, we can’t use the standard reports (like the powerful Donor Category Report-a personal favorite of mine :wink:) in the Raiser’s Edge. We have foundation donors who are very insistent that we include the word “The” in their name (i.e. The Brady Bunch Foundation), but they want to be publicly listed under the B’s for Brady. We can’t list them under the B’s in the Raiser’s Edge because the system puts them under the T’s for The, so we have to do it all manually in Excel.” ARRGGG!
Tilting my head coyly and grinning mischievously, I take great pleasure in introducing them to the powerful little left leaning backslash(\). When used in place of a space in the Organization Name field, this little piece of punctuation packs some special powers!
The\Brady Bunch Foundation
|
WILL |
WILL NOT |
| Alphabetize by Brady | Display in reports, mail, etc. |
| Search by Brady | Display in Query results |
| Remove “The” from the Sort Key | |
| Remove “The” from the Sort Name | Export when exporting Organization Name |
While you will see this powerful little fellow in other places in the Raiser’s Edge, like Addressee\Salutation formulas, its job in those formulas is quite different-equally as powerful, but different. When you see a single backslash (\) in an Addressee\Salutation formula, it represents a conditional return. If that formula is used and the values will run off of the right hand edge of a label, for example, it will force whatever follows the backslash to the next line. When you see a double backslash (\\), it inserts a hard return and will always put what follows on the next line.
Its job in the Organization name field is strictly to give you more control over sorting and searching. I like having control, don’t you?
Keeping you on the Leading Edge,
