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FortuneFlow Lookups
(Queries)
One of the many features that make FortuneFlow
products the tools of choice for effective
e-Marketing is their superb Lookup/Query
Engine. This is an incredibly effective
tool for looking up and acting upon precisely
the contacts you are after, using either e-BLAST!
or e-Scribe. It is well worth the
time to work through and understand how to do
this, as it will save you lots of time and help
make your e-Marketing campaigns run smoothly.
The
FortuneFlow Query Builder is much easier to use
and gets results much faster than ACT! itself!
The FortuneFlow Query
Builder is Pictured Below. The first dropdown list on
the left, is where you select the lookup type or field that
you want to start with or use to perform the entire
lookup. The Middle drop-down list allows you to pick a
"Boolean Operator", such as "Starts With",
"Contains", "Blank", etc. and the criteria
dropdown on the right, allows you to either type in a value or
select from a list when available..
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The lookup options displayed, disable
controls that are not relevant to the current
selection. In this example "All
Contacts" is selected, so there is no need for
selecting a Boolean operator (center drop-down list)
or criteria on the right.
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| Selected fields that have an editable
dropdown list in ACT! present that list in the
criteria dropdown. The lookup type dropdowns are
first letter sensitive, so that typing the letter C
for example will page you through the list, jumping
from item to item that starts with the letter C.
This way, the most relevant types of lookups and most
commonly used fields are nearest the top of the list,
rather than sorting them alphabetically, which would
place less relevant fields to the top of the list,
such as "2nd Contact". |
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Queries by Date and Range of Values
mm/dd/yyy..mm/dd/yyy
The two dots between the start
and ending range for any two lookup terms defines
a range of values to lookup.
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If the ACT!
field you have selected to perform a lookup against is a Date
or Date/Time field, the query builder will display a three
month calendar window. To select a date, simply click
it, or to select a date range, drag your mouse across the date
range desired. When you release the mouse the range will
be entered in the criteria in the form:
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Ranges
are like a lookup in an encyclopedia, so "A..Ge"
will return records in a character field from "Aa to Gdz"
but will exclude "George", because it's past the
specified range. |
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Saved ACT! Lookup Queries and Criteria Sets
Click the Save Criteria Button to
save your Criteria for
re-use anytime. This will display a standard file save
dialog.
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Select your saved query or lookup
by double-clicking on it
in the file list or from the drop-down criteria list.
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Selecting
either "Saved Query" or "Saved Criteria"
will show the file selection dialog and populate the dropdown
list with the list of Saved ACT! queries (*SQY file extension)
or Saved Criteria (*.ELU file extension)
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Selecting
Multiple Lookup Criteria
Think of everything between OR
operators as a separate
set of conditions, which together, must be met.
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The example opposite, illustrates the correct use of multiple
criteria (added by clicking the down arrow on the Add/Subtract
criteria up/down arrow button on the right side of the
dialog.)
Combine criteria with either the AND operator or the OR
operator.
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Above, we
have a lookup by ID/Status Starts with "Customer"
AND State Starts with "CA - California" (This will
lookup both the abbreviation and the full spelling of
California automatically with an OR operator). We then
add the OR operator and ID/Status Starts with
"Prospect". If we stopped here, the query
would return every record that matches the first two
conditions OR the third; so a contact in Oregon whose
ID/Status was "Prospect" would also be returned
along with all the other Prospects regardless of
geography. So the fourth criteria set, re-asserts the
State Starts with "CA - California" to narrow the
range to the desired set of records.
Boolean Operators
The FortuneFlow Query Builder allows you to use the
following Boolean Operators to return exactly the records
you're looking for:
Starts With
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Returns all records where the
data in the selected field starts with the
text entered in the Criteria ComboBox. This is the
default value.
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Ends
With
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Returns all records where the
data in the selected field ends with the text entered in the Criteria
ComboBox.
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Contains
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Returns all records where the
data in the selected field contains the
text entered in the Criteria ComboBox anywhere in the
field data.
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=
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Returns all records where the
data in the selected field that exactly match the text entered in the Criteria
ComboBox.
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<> and NOT
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Returns all records where the
data in the selected field that don't
exactly match the text
entered in the Criteria ComboBox.
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>
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Returns all records where the
data in the selected field is greater
than the value of the text
entered in the Criteria ComboBox.
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<
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Returns all records where the
data in the selected field is less than the text entered in the Criteria
ComboBox.
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<=
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Returns all records where the
data in the selected field is less
than or equal to
the text entered in the Criteria ComboBox.
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>=
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Returns all records where the
data in the selected field is greater than or equal to the text entered in the
Criteria ComboBox.
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BLANK
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Returns all records that don’t contain data in the selected field.
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NOT
BLANK
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Returns all records that contain any data in the selected field.
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Doesn't
Start With
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Returns all records where the
data in the selected field doesn't start with the text you enter in the Criteria
ComboBox.
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Doesn't
End With
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Returns all records where the
data in the selected field doesn't
end with the text you enter
in the Criteria ComboBox.
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Practice working with FortuneFlow Queries and you will be
richly rewarded for the time spent. Whether you are
using e-BLAST! or e-Scribe, they are a powerful tool to
help you get the job done quickly. Practice by
previewing the lookup results in e-BLAST! or, simply
importing the results into the e-Scribe import table to make
sure that the results are what you expect. This will
help you understand exactly how they work and to get the job
done quickly. |
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