Creators, This is just a thought to keep in mind as you are remodeling this site. Please keep the persons year showing when ever the name shows up on any page at all. Not only year but also maiden name too.
Thanks

Hmmm. That's an interesting idea. Obviuously this would apply only to "multi" sites such as yours.

Where are maiden names not showing up currently that you'd like them to? I can't think of anywhere in the system where we're not showing maiden names, but maybe there's something I'm missing.

Right now instead of Maiden name it says "married name" on the import form and in memory form. This is a little confusing. If someone has a married name that is that name I use. If someone has a maiden name I usually put in () before the last name.

They have to be two different fields. And the fields have to be applicable to both men and women. The Last Name field on the Excel import is for men's last names, but for women this is where you would put their Maiden Name. Then the next column, Married Name, clearly only women's new last name would go there. For men you'd always leave the Married Name column blank of course. I don't think there's a clearer way to do it. That's why on our sample names when you first download the import template we have a John and Mary. You can see for John's sample entry the Married Name field is left blank.

That is why my fields are backwards. I will probably never get this resolved because there are too many.
You guys are the Creators but I think that is more confusing. A persons name is a persons name period. If a woman gets married she gets a new name. That is her name. If she hypenates her name then that is her name. Her Maiden name always remains the same. This becomes useful for Alumuni becaus this is of course how we knew them. In your system if a persons Maiden name is Susie Smith and she gets married then her name is Susie Jones Smith or Susie Smith-Jones Smith. I think that it is logical that she becomes Susie (Smith) Jones or Susie (Smith) Smith-Jones. This is what will be printed on the envelope. If you are printing the database you will have to join the fields. I see your method but somehow I think that is more confusing. I would ask my wife but she does not hypenate (haha). Not a complaint just discussion. Do other databases do it the same way?

They have to be two different fields. And the fields have to be applicable to both men and women. The Last Name field on the Excel import is for men's last names, but for women this is where you would put their Maiden Name. Then the next column, Married Name, clearly only women's new last name would go there. For men you'd always leave the Married Name column blank of course. I don't think there's a clearer way to do it. That's why on our sample names when you first download the import template we have a John and Mary. You can see for John's sample entry the Married Name field is left blank.

The vast majority of Classmates know their fellow female Classmates by their Maiden names only. Throughout our entire system you're going to see women's names as <(Married Last Name)>. This is the only logical way for Classmates to find their female fellow Classmates, as more often than not their new married name is not known. Moving the Maiden name to parenthetical info in the middle of the name would make it next to impossible to find people in any of our lists, such as Classmate Profiles or Missing Classmates. Trust me if I changed it like this I'd get about a thousand complaints in 2 seconds.

To your point though, as you indicated you can download your Class List for mailing labels, etc. All of this information is easily configurable when you set up a merge. I.E. if you want to print the Classmate's first name and married name only you can do that. Or any other combination of things for that matter. That's the advantage of having the info in Excel. All the power of Excel is at your fingertips to do whatever you want with your data.

No problem, I sure it would not take 2 seconds! haha

As for your earlier question of where do I want years to show up I will give some examples. First in the email that shows someone signed on. I need this because I then go to my database to crosscheck. Then on the "profile update" it would help so that I have an idea of who it is when I send a welcome. And any other time I see a name show up it would be nice if the year was with it. We have many duplicate names in differant years and even a few in same year.

Ok. Got several things from you including notes from your phone call with Rhonda on our "to do" list. Hang tight, we're a little tied up with getting the themed designs out the door but we'll be getting to these items for "multi" sites shortly.