TOPIC:

One of my clubs (7373) currently uses the agenda template from Toastmasters International and would like to keep that format in conjunction with using the signup system that is part of FTH 2.0. The agenda is populated using an automated mail merge. If the member sign-ups from FTH could be exported to a comma delimited file with each role name followed by the member name were placed on seperate lines that information could then be used to merge into the existing agenda template.

This structure with an instruction document, which I am willing to create, would give everyone significantly more freedom in the format of their meeting agendas from the current system.

Further, it would be nice to have a second option that allowed for exporting several consecutive meetings for creating a signup sheet in a similar manner. In my ideally situation this export would start with check the current date and exclude the immediately next meeting and then output a set number of meetings based on a variable that could be changed on the admin console.

Member Signup is available in html or as an excel xls file.

Click on the Sign up icon and in the top right corner you can download the role report as an xls and you can export that as a csv file from excel.

Attached is a PDF of a CSV file that I produced from the Multiple Meeting Sign-up sheet. Time to produce this was less than 10 minutes. How I did this:

1. Click on the button for the multiple meeting signup sheet in the Agenda view page.

2. When you see the Print Dialog box, Cancel/Close the dialog box. (but leave the report screen displayed)

3. Select the rows containing the meeting dates, roles, and sign-ups with your mouse. Do not include the report heading.

4. Copy the selected text to the clipboard.

5. Open Excel and paste from the clipboard.

6. The text will likely be transposed from what you need for a mail merge. In other words, you probably need the dates down the left side and roles across the top.

7. To transpose the text, select all the relevant text and Copy it back to the clipboard. (You must do it this way, since the first copy/past also does a information conversion from text format to Excel format--cannot do just one copy/paste.)

8. Using the right mouse menu, select Paste Special with the mouse cursor pointing to a fairly empty part of the worksheet. With the Paste Special dialog showing, click on the Transpose checkbox so that the cells will be transposed when you paste.

9. Do the paste and voila! the cells should be transposed in the ordering and layout you need. Just clean up the old unneeded cells that you copied from and move the tranposed cells to the upper left corner to allow for saving to a CSV file. The first "record" contains the "fieldnames" for the CSV file. If you don't need it, then delete that row. If you do need it, then you may want to type in "Date" as the column heading for the date column so that is included in the CSV file.

10. Do a Save As, select CSV file and you are done. Presto! you have a CSV file containing role sign-up information for the next 5 meetings.

As I said above, I was able to do this in less than 10 minutes.

I will send you my bill for services rendered above. (just kidding... I am a volunteer. )

Steve

and, if this is something that you do on a frequent basis, and you know someone that can write an Excel macro, it is a 10 minute task, 1 time, and a 30 second job after that.

I charge the same rates as Steve.

Thanks Steve and Roger.

Those solutions though, even with a macro, feels clunkier than it needs to be. There is already a procedure for parsing the database to output the information in the exact order i am looking for. The change I am requesting is that it be placed into a CSV instead on an HTML table.

Further, I would like to see the number of of future meetings included on the member signup to be configurable through the admin console. For example, The Forks (club 7373) currently is using an eight meeting signup sheet yet the suggested process outputs a maximum of five meetings.

This would seem like a fairly minor change from a programming perspective that would add an extra level of functionality.

Bump