Overview
When entering data in Music Monitor, you will often see a drop-down list of options to choose from. This article is about how to edit the list so it includes the option you wish to choose.
There are two main ways these lists are populated:
Auto-Populating List: Everything that appears in this field in other records becomes an option in the drop-down list
Managed List: Options in the list are drawn from a different table.
Auto-Populating List
In Music Monitor, you can identify an auto-populating list in two ways:
The options appear in a white rectangular box as in the image below.
There is no Pencil icon next to the field label.
Example: When terminating a tuition enrolment, you can enter a Reason for the termination, and that field has a drop-down menu.
If the Reason you want doesn't appear on this list, all you need to do is click again in the empty box, and then type in a new option. What you enter here will then become an option for use later.
Tip: Choose suitably broad options. If you put too much detail in this field, you will end up with dozens of slightly different options, drawn from all the different entries that have been used over time. Using broader options that encompass more circumstances keeps the list shorter, and easier to use.
How to Tidy an Auto-Populating List
If you have a long list of drop-down options in an auto-populating list, tidying it can be a little laborious. It's always better to keep it short in the first place. But the following approach can minimise the time you have to spend on it.
In the example case of a Termination Reason list, first determine what's important information to record. Come up with a basic list of circumstances you want to capture - you might choose things such as:
Stopped Learning Instrument
Changed Instrument
Teacher Decision
Financial Reason
Illness or Injury
Left School
Completed Year 12
But your actual records may have entries such as:
left in November
finished school
no longer at the school
not at the school
not at teh school [sic]
No longer at school
Each of these is slightly different and will be listed as its own option in the drop-down. To shorten the list, you need to change them all to one of the standard options that you've settled on in the step above.
First go to a screen where you can see these entries in a list. For the Termination Reason field, you'll need to go to Home > Student Activity > Tuition > Super Users and modify the table to include that field (see Modify Super Users for guidance).
Perform a Find to bring together groups of records that can all be changed to the same entry. Exactly what terms to search for depends on what is in your data. To include the entries in the example above, you might search for the word "school" in that field. Check the list for any that you want to change to something different from most and omit them from the list. Change one record to the standard entry you want to keep and use the Replace Field Contents function to copy that to the rest of your found set.
Repeat that until it's no longer efficient, then work through changing individual entries until everything has one one of your standard options entered.
Managed List
Managed lists in Music Monitor have two main identifying features:
The options are presented in a rounded rectangle with a grey background
There is a Pencil icon next to the field name.
Example: When creating a new Ensemble enrolment, there are drop-down menus that you cannot edit from within the New Ensemble Enrolment window.
The menu shown above, in the Discount Description field, is drawn from the Fees file (showing only those with the Fee Category of "Discount"). To edit this list, you need to go to the Fees file and add or edit a record.
The Pencil icon shown above that field takes you directly to the table where you can edit the records in this file. Closing the Fees file brings you back to the enrolment window to continue creating the enrolment record.