Contact Search Results

General Structure and Table Columns

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When you search for a contact, the search results will be provided to you in the form of a table where each row contains the information from an individual result. The information is separated into a series of columns, each of which relates to a particular category of information. If there are more rows in the current page of the table than your screen can show, you can use the scroll bar on the right (or whatever means of scrolling through a website you prefer) to scroll through the results. If there are more columns in the table than your screen can show, you can use the horizontal scroll bar immediately below the visible portion of the table (and just above the pagination tool) to scroll through the columns. You can control which columns are visible in the results by using the Show/Hide Columns button. The available columns are:

  • Last Name; Organization Name; Last/Organization Name: which of these is present depends on the search criteria. When searching for an individual, Last Name will be present; when searching for an organization, Organization Name will be present; when searching for both (or searching via the Quick Contact Search), Last/Organization Name will be present. In any case, if the contact is an individual, this will contain the contact's last name; if it is an organization, this will contain the contact's name. Clicking the name in this column will open the contact's contact card in a new tab.

  • First Name: The contact's first name. Always blank for organizations. This column is technically available in the Column Chooser even when searching only for organizations, but even if you drag it into the table, it will automatically remove itself again when any other action is taken.

  • Other Name: The contact's other name (for organizations) or nickname (for individuals).

  • Prefix: The prefix for the contact's name (e.g., Dr.). Always blank for organizations.

  • Suffix: The suffix for the contact's name (e.g., Esq.). Always blank for organizations.

  • Birth Date: The contact's birth date. Always blank for organizations.

  • Contact Type: The contact's contact type.

  • Specialty: The contact's specialty (for experts, doctors, hospitals, and medical offices).

  • Subspecialty: The contact's subspecialty (for experts, doctors, hospitals, and medical offices).

  • Comments: The comments in the contact's contact card.

  • Address: The first line of the contact's primary address.

  • City: The city of the contact's primary address.

  • State: The state of the contact's primary address.

  • Zip: The ZIP code of the contact's primary address.

  • Phone No.: The contact's primary phone number.

  • Email: The contact's primary email address.

  • Organization: The organization employing the contact. Always blank for organizations.

If any of the above columns have not been set or do not apply (e.g. "Specialty" for a non-medical contact), those columns will be blank.
There is also one additional column which is always visible and is at the far left of the screen. Its header only contains a checkbox, as do each of the cells in the column. This column allows you to select cases for the use of the Mass Action function, described below. Clicking the checkbox in the column header will select all of the rows in the table. Clicking it again will deselect all of the rows in the table.

Mass Action, Edit Search, New Contact

To the upper left of the table are three buttons. The first is labeled "Edit/New Search." The second is labeled "New Contact." The last is labeled "Mass Action" with a triangular icon, and unless at least one of the rows in the table is selected using the checkbox, this button is greyed out. Clicking "Edit/New Search" will bring up the Contact Search Criteria panel with all the criteria from the current search (if any) filled in. Clicking "New Contact" brings up the Add New Contact panel. If you have selected at least one row, clicking "Mass Update" will reveal a list of actions you can take on all the selected contacts at once. Those actions are as follows:

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  • Add Contacts to Mailing List: Brings up a small panel that allows you to either add the selected contacts to an existing mailing list or create a new mailing list and add the selected contacts to that one. The panel contains two radio buttons, one labeled "Select Mailing List" and the other labeled "New Mailing List." Associated with "Select Mailing List" is a dropdown containing all existing mailing lists; if the "New Mailing List" radio button is selected, this dropdown is greyed out. Associated with "New Mailing List" is a text input field, and a larger text input field labeled "Description:"; if the "Select Mailing List" radio button is selected, these fields are both inaccessible. To choose an existing mailing list to add the contacts to, select the "Select Mailing List" radio button then choose the desired mailing list from the dropdown options. To create a new mailing list to add the contacts to, select the "New Mailing List" radio button, enter the desired name of the list in the smaller text input field, then enter a description for the list in the larger text input field. In either case, once you are done, click the "Add Contacts" button at the bottom to add the contacts to the mailing list (and create the list itself, if applicable). At any time before clicking the "Add Contacts" button, you can click the "Cancel" button at the bottom or the white X in the upper right to discard any changes and close the panel.

  • Generate Document: Brings up a panel that allows you to generate documents from a template, one document for each of the selected contacts. The panel contains a dropdown allowing you to optionally choose the template group the template is in, and another dropdown allowing you to choose the particular template from the selected group (or from all templates if you did not select a particular group). There is a checkbox allowing you to cause each generated document to automatically be added to its respective contact's Contact Card in the Notes and Documents section; if the checkbox is selected (which it is by default), you can select the document type and description. Finally, there is a dropdown to select the relevant office, for merge codes involving the office. Note: Because the document is being generated based on a contact and not a case, merge codes that rely on case-specific information will not function. Only codes that apply to contacts, or to firm information generally, will function. You can click the Analyze button once the template has been selected to see if any of its merge codes will fail to function.

  • Merge Contacts: Brings up a panel that allows you to combine the information from multiple contact cards into a single contact, deleting each of the other contacts. This is used primarily if you have multiple contacts that refer to the same person or entity and want to prevent duplication and confusion. The panel contains a radio button list with each of the selected contacts listed, along with the address information of each contact. It also includes several checkboxes. To use this panel, click the radio button next to the one contact that should be kept. Select the checkboxes next to the information you wish to include from the contacts that are not being kept. The checkbox options include the physical addresses, documents in the contact cards, notes in the contact cards, website addresses, the contact comments, email addresses, telephone numbers, and any other field that is unused in the contact being kept. If contact comments are copied, they will simply be appended to the comments of the contact being kept, and the Other Details Fields option may behave unpredictably when there are more than three contacts being combined into a single contact; for all other options, the copied information will simply be added as a new line in the respective table in the contact card of the contact being kept.

Note that you cannot merge Individual and Organization contacts. If the contacts you have chosen include both Individuals and Organizations, you will receive an error message stating that you "Can't merge individual contact and organization".

  • Remove Contacts from Mailing List: Brings up a small panel that allows you to either remove the selected contacts from a particular mailing list or remove the selected contacts from all mailing lists. The panel contains two radio buttons, one labeled "Select Mailing List" and the other labeled "Remove From All." Associated with "Select Mailing List" is a dropdown containing all existing mailing lists; if the "Remove From All" radio button is selected, this dropdown is greyed out. To choose an existing mailing list to remove the contacts from, click on the "Select Mailing List" radio button then choose the desired mailing list from the dropdown options. To remove the contacts from all mailing lists, select the "Remove From All" radio button. In either case, once you are done, click the "Remove Contacts" button at the bottom to actually perform the action of removing the contacts. At any time before clicking the "Remove Contacts" button, you can click the "Cancel" button at the bottom or the white X in the upper right to discard any changes and close the panel.

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