Preferred name on new directory

Discussions about the Ward Directory and Map tool on churchofjesuschrist.org.
Post Reply
coloradotechie-p40
Member
Posts: 91
Joined: Wed Sep 16, 2009 8:50 am
Location: Colorado, USA

Preferred name on new directory

#1

Post by coloradotechie-p40 »

I love the new directory (currently at http://new.lds.org/directory ).

I'm running into an issue though: I can't seem to figure out how to change my preferred name.

Does anyone know how to change my preferred name?

Thanks~!
jonesrk
Church Employee
Church Employee
Posts: 2361
Joined: Tue Jun 30, 2009 8:12 am
Location: South Jordan, UT, USA

#2

Post by jonesrk »

coloradotechie wrote:I love the new directory (currently at http://new.lds.org/directory ).

I'm running into an issue though: I can't seem to figure out how to change my preferred name.

Does anyone know how to change my preferred name?

Thanks~!
You can change it in MLS and it will get up to the new directory overnight.
coloradotechie-p40
Member
Posts: 91
Joined: Wed Sep 16, 2009 8:50 am
Location: Colorado, USA

#3

Post by coloradotechie-p40 »

ryan jones wrote:You can change it in MLS and it will get up to the new directory overnight.
Ah... tricky tricky :)

I guess I can't change it via my web browser. :(

The reason why I asked is because of the following: it is hard to update everyone's preferred name at the church building... it is much easier to spread the work (updates to directory info) around during the week on evenings and lunches from a work or home computer.

I know the "it is hard" statement is relative... I guess it is just hard to keep everything up-to-date on the computer at the church... being able to update these sort of things from ANY computer has opened up ALL sorts of time for me (I have time here and there and at home to dedicate to keeping membership info up-to-date... at church my time is limited because so many people are asking for so many different things, reports, forms, updates, information, toner, paper, etc etc...)

Anyhow, do you (or anyone else) know if members (or clerks) will be able to update preferred name on the new directory like they could on the old directory? Maybe within the next year?

Thanks so much~!


---------------------

PS Here is why I'm asking:

MANY people in our ward print out a ward directory. Up until this week, this paper copy of the ward directory was maintained by hand (updates done in a MS word document).

What changed this week is I started producing the ward directory using the "Export Members" feature from the new.lds.org/directory site.

I use excel formulas to make our ward (250+ families, 600+ people) fit on three sheets of paper in the following 2-column, landscape format:

Household phone | LastName, HeadOfHousehold (HoH_Individual_Phone [if there is one]) & Spouse [if there is one] (Spouse_Individual_Phone [if there is one] and then their address

e.g.:

801-555-1212 | Smith, Joseph (801-346-8811) & Emma, 123 Nowhere St.
801-444-1234 | Johnson, Jake & Jill (801-449-8794), 1883 Lombard Ct.
801-333-1234 | Jacobson, Alex & Mary, 53587 Wrigley
801-222-1234 | Sonders, Tracie (801-111-1234)
801-111-4321 | Abellard, Spencer, 4539 Western Way
801-123-4321 | Alton, Milo (801-234-5678) & Ginnie (801-456-1234), 3929 Parkway Circle

Essentially, people print this directory out and put it in their cars, in their binders, on their fridge, etc., and they use it all the time.

What makes it useful is that it has the household phone AND individual phones AND the address (the printout from the new.lds.org/directory doesn't have individual phones right now) AND it is a paper copy (many people LOVE the directory online, but they also LOVE having a paper copy in their car with individual phone numbers on it).

The SUPER DUPER BONUS of all of this is members can update their own phone number via the web. We put a URL at the top of the directory and encourage members to update the info themselves.

----

So, you can see that we are almost there with this method... the one snaggle we've run into is preferred name. The handmade directory had this solved but we paid the price in time. Using the CSV download from the new directory we get all the information but no way for anyone to easily update it (again, "easy" is relative... with a large ward and trying to keep everything else running we've kind of put updating preferred name lower on the priority list).

Any suggestions would be most appreciative!
jonesrk
Church Employee
Church Employee
Posts: 2361
Joined: Tue Jun 30, 2009 8:12 am
Location: South Jordan, UT, USA

#4

Post by jonesrk »

coloradotechie wrote: Anyhow, do you (or anyone else) know if members (or clerks) will be able to update preferred name on the new directory like they could on the old directory? Maybe within the next year?
The online editing of member's records is coming in the mls/leader section of new.lds.org. I don't know when, but they are working on the page designs for it.
coloradotechie-p40
Member
Posts: 91
Joined: Wed Sep 16, 2009 8:50 am
Location: Colorado, USA

#5

Post by coloradotechie-p40 »

Yay! Thank you thank you!
kcushing
New Member
Posts: 15
Joined: Sat Jan 08, 2011 11:06 pm

#6

Post by kcushing »

On the old web site people used to be able to update their own preferred name by clicking on "edit profile" in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. Now they can go to the new online directory, click on "My Household" and "Edit Profile", but it seems they can only edit their phone numbers and email addresses. I don't see a way for them to change their preferred names. Am I missing something?
User avatar
aebrown
Community Administrator
Posts: 15153
Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2007 8:48 pm
Location: Draper, Utah

#7

Post by aebrown »

kcushing wrote:On the old web site people used to be able to update their own preferred name by clicking on "edit profile" in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. Now they can go to the new online directory, click on "My Household" and "Edit Profile", but it seems they can only edit their phone numbers and email addresses. I don't see a way for them to change their preferred names. Am I missing something?
You're not missing anything. The new site's philosophy is that it syncs with MLS, so you will see the preferred name from MLS, as explained earlier in this thread. I imagine the phone number and email address can be edited by the user since they may well change over time. A preferred name is much less likely to change.
Questions that can benefit the larger community should be asked in a public forum, not a private message.
russellhltn
Community Administrator
Posts: 34417
Joined: Sat Jan 20, 2007 2:53 pm
Location: U.S.

#8

Post by russellhltn »

aebrown wrote:You're not missing anything. The new site's philosophy is that it syncs with MLS,

IIRC, the old system only retrieved the legal name from the membership record. It didn't have access to the Preferred Name. Much like it didn't have access to the callings stored in MLS. So that feature was actually a work-around for a limitation of the old system.
Have you searched the Help Center? Try doing a Google search and adding "site:churchofjesuschrist.org/help" to the search criteria.

So we can better help you, please edit your Profile to include your general location.
Post Reply

Return to “Ward Directory and Map”