Abacus Consulting, LLC

Getting Started - What are the Options? 

Step 1 - Identify your Standard Fax Field

In order to create a calculated field containing the properly formatted MaxEmail address you must have an existing fax field on the contact form.  For purposes if this example, we will use the default fax field (CON:PHONE2), and we will also edit the default contact form. Normally, when editing a contact form, it is best to edit a specific Form Style rather than the default Form Style.  The location of the default fax field is shown below:

Step 2 - Create the new Calculated Field

How do you plan to use the MaxEmail Field?

This is where all of the fun happens.  The purpose of the calculated field is to format the Name and Fax number information so that it is suitable for MaxEmail.  Before we move on to create this field, we need to decide how it is going to be used.  There are three general approaches available:

• Create the calculated field, and use a highlight, copy, paste approach to get the MaxEmail formatted information into a Time Matters recipient field.
  
  The advantage of this approach is that it only requires the use of a single field, and the information will always be current.  The disadvantage is that it requires additional steps (Highlight, Copy, Paste) to get the information into the email form, and you do not have an email button to click.
  
  
• Create the calculated field, and use a lookup field to map the information into a Time Matters email field on the contact form.
  
  The advantage of this approach is that in order to send a MaxEmail, you will only need to click the email button on the form.  The disadvantage is that it requires three fields on the contact form, although one of them can be a 'phantom'. Furthermore, there is an extra step of performing a lookup when the contact record is created.  Finally, if the original fax field shown above is changed, the calculated field will automatically update, but the field that is mapped from the lookup will not.
  
  
• Periodically copy the calculated field to an email field using process > change.
  
  This approach also allows you to click an email button to send a MaxEmail, but uses only two fields, one of which can be a 'phantom'.  In order to populate the MaxEmail field, it is necessary to setup a process > change template the copies the contents of one field to the other.  This template can be run occasionally to update the MaxEmail fields.