Checking for duplicates in an Outlook/FoxPro Merge

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thruopendoors

Checking for duplicates in an Outlook/FoxPro Merge

Post by thruopendoors »

John,
Emptied my FoxPro records into Outlook. Found that most helpful. Started using a freeware PLAXO to update contacts on Outlook. Many are now updated. Want to merge them...but, just noticed on your website that FoxPro does not check for duplicates in the entires. I would end up with many many duplicates. Is this a feature that might be added in the future, or do I just need to begin the updates manually?

Thanks - Michelle
jmuehleisen
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refreshing DM data from Outlook / what works, what doesn't

Post by jmuehleisen »

Hi Michelle,

If you "re-import" your data from Outlook into the Donor Manager, here is what the Donor Manager does:

First of all, it looks at the name in your outlook find and looks to see if that same name is present in the Donor Manager. It it doesn't find it, then it adds a new record to the Donor Manager.

But, if it does find the same name, then it simply updates the Donor Manager record with the information from Outlook.

Now, this works fine except for one thing: if you have updated some of the fields in the Donor Manager that are blank in Outlook, the update will replace that data with what is in Outlook (which is nothing!)

These are the data items that are brought over from Outlook (at least in version 5.31):

name, name2, address, city, state, zip, country
phone, cell phone, email address, website,
comments / notes

Not good if you have updated these fields (especially, perhaps, the "notes" field) in the Donor Manager.

So, if you have just a few updates, then I'd do them by hand. I think that will be much easier.

If you did want to try re-importing your Outlook data, then I'd suggest that you do a backup of your donor manage data (making a "pack and go" file is great for this), then do the import. Take a look and see if you like the results. If so, then you are good to go.

But, if not, then you can always go back and restore your pack and go data.

Now, having said that, I am working on a synchronization routine to go from Outlook -> Donor Manager and Donor Manager -> Outlook. I'm not sure when it will be done (other things are crying louder for attention right now), but it will be done eventually.

I hope that helps!

John
John Muehleisen
Mentoring Emerging Christian Leadership in Africa for Excellence / Integrity / Innovation
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