converting ward lists into excel

Okay, real basic question. Hopefully a real simple solution. I'm wanting to put our ward membership into an excel spreadsheet so that I can easily manipulate it to note when people have spoken in Sacrament meeting, etc.

Is there a way to input people's names into excel without having to type them all in manually? I hope so....

And if anyone has any nifty templates that they find helpful, I'd love to take a look.

Thanks,

Peter

PSpencer wrote:Okay, real basic question. Hopefully a real simple solution. I'm wanting to put our ward membership into an excel spreadsheet so that I can easily manipulate it to note when people have spoken in Sacrament meeting, etc.

There are a variety of ways to do this, but the easiest is to copy and paste from MLS using the clipboard. For details, see MLS keyboard shortcuts.

The problem with using a spreadsheet is keeping it updated without losing the information.

Unless you have a very static ward, I'd suggest looking into some of the MLS companion databases. I think they simplify the update process.

Sorry, I don't have any experience with any of them, so I don't have any recommendations.

Another possibility is to create a custom field in MLS. That way your list of members is always current. Just be sure to do a test by creating a custom report. The greatest weakness of the custom fields is the reporting.

I wonder how easy is to get MLS data in outside world.
My question is: Why keep MLS data security so restricted and let a widely door open?
If security is not an issue, why don't use an open database format? (DB, MySQL, ecc?).

you can always export as a .csv, which you can even do from the web. Problem is families will be listed on a single line, so you would have to manually eliminate primary children, and then seperate YM, YW, and spouses to separate lines. But it can be done with a little time and TLC. And it would be free!

We maintain a separate Google Doc (spreadsheet) to capture talks. This does require some maintenance, but it primarily serves as a way to organize our sacrament meeting agendas, not to track when the last time Sis NNNNN or Bro HHHHHH gave a talk. Though you can conduct a search and find this info. If you are going to try and track this in MLS, you will find it difficult to include High Council Speakers, other outside of the ward speakers, Full-time Missionaries, etc.

My columns are:

Date, topic, Youth, adult 1, adult 2, adult 3

Just some thoughts from a guy with some experience with this issue.

marianomarini_vi wrote:If security is not an issue, why don't use an open database format? (DB, MySQL, ecc?).

Security is an issue and not all fields are exported.

An easy way to get it in Excel is to create a custom report in MLS w/ the fields you want and save it as a file (will be a csv, which can then be opened with excel). After you open it in excel, be sure to save it as an xls file.

If you are not able to get access to MLS, you can use the LUWS and save the directory as a csv file.

PSpencer wrote:Okay, real basic question. Hopefully a real simple solution. I'm wanting to put our ward membership into an excel spreadsheet so that I can easily manipulate it to note when people have spoken in Sacrament meeting, etc.

yes, as others have said, its real simple to get the MLS data to excel. Either make yourself a custom reports showing just the data you need, and Save to a jump drive or desktop. Or, pull up almost any screen with the data you want, and copy then past into your spreadsheet of choice. (I use Openoffice.org)

I export things all the time to spreadsheets to make HT reports, graph attendance data, fill out agenda's, but maintaining a ward list manually would be tough. If there is some "MLS companion" that will help, great. I don't use any.

What we do: Don't track who hasn't spoken, track those who do - its far easier. I'll post sample files in a day or two to show what we do now. Youth are track by year, so we have a running total of each year, and when each youth spoke.

I've entered custom fields into MLS to track speaking, because ultimately I think this will be superior, but it's still in "beta." If I ever get it worked out, I'll post it.

RussellHltn wrote:Security is an issue and not all fields are exported.

I wonder wich one?
If I could set a custom report with that fields included and then print it out into a file (CVS) would MLS deny that operation?

MLS will not export custom report data. It gives that impression from the custom reports management screen but the export there is only to export the filtering criteria and the report format for a custom report. The data does not accompany that export. The MLS export function is limited to the data in the export dialog. Any filtering of data not done by MLS at the export dialog must be done after the data is exported. Since MLS filters some data to be excluded during export there is no other way to include the data other than manually adding it after the export.

jdlessley wrote:MLS will not export custom report data. It gives that impression from the custom reports management screen but the export there is only to export the filtering criteria and the report format for a custom report. The data does not accompany that export. The MLS export function is limited to the data in the export dialog. Any filtering of data not done by MLS at the export dialog must be done after the data is exported. Since MLS filters some data to be excluded during export there is no other way to include the data other than manually adding it after the export.

But you can open a custom report, then click the "Save to File" button at the bottom of the screen. This saves the data in the report as a CSV. It is an export, it just isn't labeled "Export." (The custom-report function that is labeled "Export" does just save the report criteria.)

In this way it is possible to devise custom reports to export various membership data elements that are not included in the general export functionality found under File -> Export at the main MLS menu. For example, home-teaching history, or date of joining the ward, can be exported this way.

Thank you for the correction. Since I have never needed to use the "Save to File" button before the labeling is a bit cryptic. I guess that would answer marianomarini_vi's question.

jdlessley wrote:MLS will not export custom report data. It gives that impression from the custom reports management screen but the export there is only to export the filtering criteria and the report format for a custom report. The data does not accompany that export. The MLS export function is limited to the data in the export dialog. Any filtering of data not done by MLS at the export dialog must be done after the data is exported. Since MLS filters some data to be excluded during export there is no other way to include the data other than manually adding it after the export.

You can print the custom report as a pdf. When selecting a printer just click on the xps document writer. This "prints it" to a file, this file can then be converted into xcel with several different online applications for free.

jdlessley wrote:Thank you for the correction. Since I have never needed to use the "Save to File" button before the labeling is a bit cryptic. I guess that would answer marianomarini_vi's question.

I believe you need export permissions to do so, which is only granted to administrative users, IIRC.

PSpencer wrote:Okay, real basic question. Hopefully a real simple solution. I'm wanting to put our ward membership into an excel spreadsheet so that I can easily manipulate it to note when people have spoken in Sacrament meeting, etc.

Is there a way to input people's names into excel without having to type them all in manually? I hope so....

And if anyone has any nifty templates that they find helpful, I'd love to take a look.

Thanks,

Peter

Here are some posts where people have uploaded forms for tracking callings.

jbh001
Rasmussen
Mr.Intel
jbh001 (2)
nutterb

geeksmith wrote:

jdlessley wrote:Thank you for the correction. Since I have never needed to use the "Save to File" button before the labeling is a bit cryptic. I guess that would answer marianomarini_vi's question.

I believe you need export permissions to do so, which is only granted to administrative users, IIRC.

No, the Save to File option does not require administrative permissions; it is available to all users of MLS, even those with only Organizational permissions.

Save to File is a button on the bottom of the screen when you are looking at the results of a Custom Report, or it is on the Edit menu in many other situations, and available through Ctrl+Shift+S in even more.