Constituent Custom Views

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I'm always looking for ways to improve RE for our users and I'm wondering if anyone has found any value in the Custom Views available for Constituents (in a Constituent record from the menu bar; View > Custom view ...)?  How do you use them?  How do they help?

Comments

  • I honestly didn't know this feature existed. I see the merit of the idea, but I think the implementation is pretty bad. The background color alone makes my eyes hurt. Looking at the prospect view right now, and it seems the pledge information doesn't load correctly (I can only see the fund, not the amount, date, or balance). Having your proposals all right there is a little bit convenient, but only a bit. Gift and financial info at a glance is nice, I'll admit. But ultiamtely, this stuff is too limited for any use case I can imagine here. We can't see attributes, relationships, addressee/salutation, the phone numbers are cramped (it would be better if the box they life in dynamically expanded based on the contents), etc. 



    So my first reaction is basically that it's a good idea, but a pretty sloppy implementation. 
  • I found the Custom Views helpful in an environment linked with Patron Edge.  This was helpful for managers who just wanted basic information, if someone was a subscriber or attended.  They didn't want to login to PE.  The views are usually missing one or two fields, and I added information.  It was not the most elegant thing to work with, but did answer the question when I was asked if someone was a current subscriber.
  • Ryan Hyde:

    I honestly didn't know this feature existed. I see the merit of the idea, but I think the implementation is pretty bad. The background color alone makes my eyes hurt. Looking at the prospect view right now, and it seems the pledge information doesn't load correctly (I can only see the fund, not the amount, date, or balance). Having your proposals all right there is a little bit convenient, but only a bit. Gift and financial info at a glance is nice, I'll admit. But ultiamtely, this stuff is too limited for any use case I can imagine here. We can't see attributes, relationships, addressee/salutation, the phone numbers are cramped (it would be better if the box they life in dynamically expanded based on the contents), etc. 



    So my first reaction is basically that it's a good idea, but a pretty sloppy implementation. 

    I tend to forget about a lot of things like this when I haven't used them, which is why when I stumbled across it today I thought I'd ask here if other do use it.  One nice thing is that if you don't like the colors, etc. it really is CUSTOM.  The tools are there to change what you don't like and build your own from scratch if you want to (within the limits of the somewhat simple tools available).

  • I played around with this feature for a while to try and help each of our users see the information they were most interested in.  However, no one really liked the format and were more comfortable looking at their "familiar" RE tabs.  So I spent my time working with each of them to set up their user options to open at the tabs they most wanted to see, bold/color certain information that was important to them, helping them set up dashboards, etc.  This for me was a better use of my time and my other users really appreciated it! 
  • I also found that RE Custom Views were not very helpful for my peers.
  • John - I've always found the RE custom views to be clunky to develop and not well received by staff.



    I think what looks more promising is Omatic software's 'AppOmatic' product.   Anyone out there using AppOmatic?



     
  • John Heizer:

    Ryan Hyde:

    I honestly didn't know this feature existed. I see the merit of the idea, but I think the implementation is pretty bad. The background color alone makes my eyes hurt. Looking at the prospect view right now, and it seems the pledge information doesn't load correctly (I can only see the fund, not the amount, date, or balance). Having your proposals all right there is a little bit convenient, but only a bit. Gift and financial info at a glance is nice, I'll admit. But ultiamtely, this stuff is too limited for any use case I can imagine here. We can't see attributes, relationships, addressee/salutation, the phone numbers are cramped (it would be better if the box they life in dynamically expanded based on the contents), etc. 



    So my first reaction is basically that it's a good idea, but a pretty sloppy implementation. 

    I tend to forget about a lot of things like this when I haven't used them, which is why when I stumbled across it today I thought I'd ask here if other do use it.  One nice thing is that if you don't like the colors, etc. it really is CUSTOM.  The tools are there to change what you don't like and build your own from scratch if you want to (within the limits of the somewhat simple tools available).

     

    I never knew this existed....interesting.  I do not like that you can not edit information so it might be an ok snapshot but then if the user wants to edit they have to go back to edit mode.



    Where can you customize colors/themes - under config?



    I might show this to a few of my MGOs to see if it would be helpful but overall I doubt it.



    Was nice to learn about it though so thanks John!

  • I’m very curious about this too!  I’ve
    already asked our IT Dept. to upload the free plug-in but I’m still
    waiting.  I’d love to hear what people have to say about
    it.

     

    Margaret S Whitaker

    Novant Health Foundation Database Program Manager

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  • I do use Appomatic and love it for several reasons:

    You can put all regularly used reports &  tasks on the dashboard and group them.

    You can customize the dashboard with reports for each role in the organization, so they do not have to go anywhere, but just open the main screen and click on the desired report. There are several free tools available that are helpful for analysis.

    The feature I do not use is Custom Views. I found it a bit cumbersome to put together and also I found it too easy for others to move things around. Appomatic has some glitches, you will certainly find out soon, but overall it is free and well worth the download.
  • We've created a number of custom views for clients. It's not easy, but it's a very under-appreciated facet of RE that, when done right, can rock your users' respective worlds. Please click "Good Answer" if you think these look good!  :-)



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  • We were really hoping to use AppoMatic and had started playing around but then the feature stopping working on our machines!

    We're now forced with the task of having to complete a view using the regular RE Custom View. :(



    Is anyone else experiencing issues with AppoMatic? We also learned that support for this feature is going away next September, so I'm not sure if Omatic has this on their priority list at this time.

     

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