Tech Forum

I'm sure this has been addressed in other threads. But I have yet to find a "MLS" resolution. Is there anyway to have a phone directory which shows 2 phone lines vs. just one? We can work around which number belongs to who i.e. husband vs. wife. But I'm trying to figure out how to print a "telephone directory" with 2 numbers.

I guess loading the info in is also a concern...please advise.

I really don't want to maintain a separate ward phone directory from MLS

Thanx in advance...

spitfire wrote:I'm sure this has been addressed in other threads. But I have yet to find a "MLS" resolution. Is there anyway to have a phone directory which shows 2 phone lines vs. just one? We can work around which number belongs to who i.e. husband vs. wife. But I'm trying to figure out how to print a "telephone directory" with 2 numbers.

MLS already has a secondary phone number field that can be associated with a household. If that works for you, then the data entry task is quite straightforward. The secondary phone number appears on the full Directory of Members, but nowhere else that I know of, except for a Custom Report.

If you want to tie the number to an individual, then the best option is probably a Custom Member Field, which can be accessed via a Custom Report.

spitfire wrote:I'm sure this has been addressed in other threads. But I have yet to find a "MLS" resolution. Is there anyway to have a phone directory which shows 2 phone lines vs. just one? We can work around which number belongs to who i.e. husband vs. wife. But I'm trying to figure out how to print a "telephone directory" with 2 numbers.

I guess loading the info in is also a concern...please advise.

I really don't want to maintain a separate ward phone directory from MLS

Thanx in advance...

As for changing the idea of household phone numbers (primary and secondary) to phone numbers per person, you are right. This idea has been proposed several times on these forums and Church employees have responded that this is a direction they would like to head, but it would require significant changes in the underlying data schema and architecture of both MLS and the Church servers.

What I have done in the past is use the two phone # fields and follow the number with the first initial of the phone owners name. I realize that it only works for full directories but, that's all that anyone seems to want anyway.

I would like to know if its possible to list the individual phone number (for either husband or wife) in a custom report. I looked through the criteria available in Custom Reports, and the only phone number available is Household phone number.

Is it possible to add criteria to Custom Reports?

It has been more than a year since some of the posts and replies in this thread; more and more people have cell phones only (no landline). Any help with individual phone numbers in reports would be much appreciated.

hyattg wrote:I would like to know if its possible to list the individual phone number (for either husband or wife) in a custom report. I looked through the criteria available in Custom Reports, and the only phone number available is Household phone number.

For custom reports, there are two distinct lists of fields:

1. Selection criteria determine which records are selected for inclusion in the report
2. Format fields determine which fields are displayed in the report for each selected record.

The list of selection criteria is considerably smaller than the list of format fields. So although it's true that the Household phone number is the only phone number that can be used as a selection criterion, there are three phone number fields which can be included in the format fields: Household phone number, Individual phone number, and Contact phone number (this is defined as the Individual number unless it is blank, in which case it is the Household number).

So unless you really need to select records based on the presence or absence of an individual phone number, or need to select specific numbers, the inability to use individual phone numbers in selection criteria is not a big deal. You can certainly include individual numbers in the output of the report.

hyattg wrote:Is it possible to add criteria to Custom Reports?

The lists of fields allowed for criteria or for format fields are fixed; you can't add fields beyond those that already appear in those lists. But the flexibility inherent in the current options is often more than people realize at first. See the wiki article Custom Reports for more details.

About 2-3 years ago I had the same issue come up so I entered hers as primary and his as secondary. The reason? She was the RS President and they agreed that made sense.