VSys One: Volunteer Management Software

Exporting Data

VSys lets you select the fields to be exported and sends that data into an export file that you can use in other programs. Send data to another program, or do a mail merge using Microsoft Word, OpenOffice, or your own database.

Getting started

Select Advanced exporter from the User tools panel.
Advanced exporter screen showing All Active Volunteers setting

Initial source is the basis for the export and your choices of data to be exported will vary depending on the option you select. The options here are the same as available in custom reports.

Fields to include

Pulling down the Fields to include editor brings up a pair of lists. On the left are the fields you have available to export, on the right are the fields that will be included in the export. The available fields vary depending on the Initial Source selected. These fields are grouped in the same way they are in the Mail merge tool.
Available and included fields panel in the advanced exporter

Add a field by dragging it from the left side to the right. In the Included fields in this example, People indicates it came from the big category on the left of People, and then specific fields for name, first name and family name within that. (Click on the plus sign in front of People to view all the field options.)
Delete a field by dragging it from the right side back to the left side, or by clicking on the field and hitting the Delete key.
Re-arrange fields by dragging them up and down on the right-hand list. Fields at the top will appear first in the export.
You can select more than one field at a time by clicking first on one field, then holding down the Shift key, click on the last field. Now you can move the selected fields together as a group.

Records are only included in this export if they meet all of the criteria you specify.

For records to 2+ people...	If checked, and two or more people sharing an address are included here, only one record will be exported for all of the people sharing that address.
Exclude people with these flags	Use this to exclude people based on their status.
Filter people by...	Filters for Gender, Age, Group and Type.

You can add any other types of filters by using the Add another filter link. There are over 30 filter options there, and VSys will only include a record in the export if it meets all of the filters you set above plus any of these.

Address types

If you have a preference as to what type of address this should retrieve for people with more than one address, or to limit it to specific address types, add one or more address types on the left navigation bar. VSys will look for an address of each type starting from the top and use that one if it meets the further criteria below. Adding the fallback address type (any) will take any address type that meets the remaining criteria. Putting (any) after other address types makes VSys use the others first if available, otherwise whatever other kind it can find. Chose to Include or Exclude incomplete addresses or records without a matching address.

Sorting

Add one or more sort options to make VSys export the records in a particular order. Click the Add sort link for each sort criterion. Records will first be sorted by the topmost field, then the second field, then the third, and so on. The and arrows next to each field indicate that the field will be sorted ascending or descending, respectively.

Output file

After setting your filters, fields and sorting options, select the type of file to be created (dBase, Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Access, DIF or tab-delimited) and then name the file to be created. Click on the Export button.

When VSys One makes a Microsoft Excel file it does not use Excel to create that file. Doing that would require that you have Excel installed and would usually introduce version compatibility issues. Instead VSys uses a special library to create the .xls files.

After Exporting

After VSys exports your data, it shows three links:
Confirmation window after export

Add to a list	Adds all of the people who were exported to a list.
Remove from a list	Removes all of the people who were exported from a list.
Mark as printed	If you were using this for an external mail merge, use this tool to post "Letters printed" records for the people who were printed here. You would do that to keep track of who's received what mailings and when, both to filter on it later as well as to see when you've communicated with various people.

When exporting from within a project, if a person is registered in the project more than once, he will be exported once for every delegation.