Ward Photo Directory Template

[russellhltn]

can someone tell me how to export from MLS to my Palm.

I don't remember the details, but I think the files MLS creates isn't quite in the format Palm wants. It takes some minor text editing to make it happy. But I could be wrong. Expore the different MLS exports, I thought there was one that specifically said "Palm".

[WelchTC]

can someone tell me how to export from MLS to my Palm.

I tried exporting today and got a .csv file. However, when I try to install/sync with my palm, I received an error msg saying that there was no application on my palm to read the file. I currently have; Documents-to-go, Mobipocket and of course Contacts on my Palm

Import the CVS into a MS Office document on your PC, format it the way you want, and save the document. Then you can sync that new document with DocumentsToGo.

Tom

[mprusse]

I am a ward clerk for a singles ward and use FileMaker Pro to create our ward picture directory. I did not complicate the directory with contact information as that data is easily available to all members on the web site, etc. Rather, I simply maintain a folder on my computer with ward member pictures all cropped to the correct size and named how I want them listed in the directory. FileMaker Pro then allows you to create a new database based upon the contents of a folder. I simply point to the folder with FileMaker Pro and it imports all the picture data and puts the file name (member name) under each picture. It is a very simple process and takes no more than 5 minutes to produce a PDF directory from FileMaker Pro every month.

If anyone is interested I can share the FileMaker Pro template. Reading a folder as a data source requres FileMaker Pro 6 or greater I belive.

Mike Prusse

[thedqs]

can someone tell me how to export from MLS to my Palm.

I tried exporting today and got a .csv file. However, when I try to install/sync with my palm, I received an error msg saying that there was no application on my palm to read the file. I currently have; Documents-to-go, Mobipocket and of course Contacts on my Palm

The only instructions I found on the Training CD was how to export but found nothing else.

Chuck James

You have to import it into your contacts program (Outlook, KAddressBook, etc) and your contacts program will sync it with your palm's contacts. I am assuming that is where you want to access your MLS info.

[jmgalloway-p40]

It looks like this program would be perfect! Can anyone tell me how to create a .csv file?

There are some instructions how to use MS Excell to create a csv file that I had placed with my program. All a csv file is, is a text file representing a table, where the columns are separated by commas, and each row is on a different line. You could even create it in Notepad or some other text editor, but it is more difficult of course.You can open the example .csv file in Notepad to see what I mean though.

[russellhltn]

All a csv file is, is a text file representing a table, where the columns are separated by commas, and each row is on a different line.

That's the basics, but there are differences in how some things are handled. Some versions (like the kind created by Access) places all text between double quotes. Numbers are usually not quoted.

Other versions (like the kind created by Excel) will only use double quotes if the text field contains a comma.

There are probably other flavors of CSV as well.

Some programs as fussy about the details of the formatting. But ultimately it is a text file, so a text editor can be used for experimentation.

[bartbarker]

I don't currently have a church position that gives me access to the MLS system. Is there a way to create a CSV file from the directory data available on the Ward and Stake Web sites to which we have access as members?

[russellhltn]

Is there a way to create a CSV file from the directory data available on the Ward and Stake Web sites to which we have access as members?

Yes. Log into the website and go to the Member Directory. If you look toward the top right, just above the first household listed, you'll see a number of hyperlinks. One of them is "CSV"

[bartbarker]

Oh.

I was looking at the Leadership Directory, which doesn't have those options. I just assumed both directories worked the same way. Obviously I didn't look far enough. Thanks.

The csv file is a little odd. It throws the email address into the "name1" and "name2" field along with the husband's and wife's names, respectively.

[Pete]

The csv file is a little odd. It throws the email address into the "name1" and "name2" field along with the husband's and wife's names, respectively.

This was an arbitrary decision (perhaps a bad one) that I made when creating the export together. I put two pieces of information in each name column - the given name we had on record and the email address if we had one. It would be easy to do as two columns. The vast majority of the time the second column is going to be empty, but that may make it easier for people to parse.

I'm going to get a chance to make some slight tweaks to the output format - I'd like to do this in a way that doesn't break stuff that running against the current format. I'm interested in comments on the following:

1. mark the last name with / / when it appears in the name* column. The last name is included when it is different than the head of household last name - should it just be included all the time?
2. each row is variable length, depending upon the number of children. We only list name1 and name2 in the column headers. We could add more column headers (name3, name4, ...) or we could go through the list once, figure out the maximum number of family members for this csv, and then create that number of column headers. I realize the second approach is more robust, but I'm trying to keep the code supporting this as simple as possible, and doing two passes through the ward list, one to figure out the maximum family size and one to print everything out seemed like more effort than it was worth.
3. split the name and email into two distinct columns. Currently they are combined, it is trivial to split them. The column headers would be name1, email1, name2, email2,
4. distinguish between parents and children - currently name2 contains information about the first child in single parent households.
5. birthdates - still up in the air whether or not we can include them. We need to understand the privacy implications world-wide.