PracticeMaster Q&A: Combining Similar Contact Categories

April 2020    Tags: Contacts, PracticeMaster

We have multiple contact categories that we want to combine. We also have some old contact categories that we want to remove. Is there a way to do this?

To combine categories, replace the old category from the Category field with the desired category in each of the associated Contact records. Once all records have been changed, you can then delete the old category.

To determine which contacts must be changed, filter the contact list for the category you want to remove using the built-in Contact Category filter in the Filter group of the Quick Clicks pane.

If there are only a few instances of the Contact Category that you need to change, you could open each Contact record and change the Category field manually. However, if you have a large number of records to edit, you can optionally use the Find and Replace utility (Edit | Find and Replace) while in the Contact file to quickly change the value for multiple records at a time. When using the Find and Replace utility, select Only replace matching text in the Replace Options section to ensure that other contact categories are not removed.

Once all instances of the contact category have been changed and the unwanted category is no longer assigned to any contacts, run the Rebuild Contact Categories utility (Utilities | Rebuild Contact Categories). Once the process has completed, a message will be displayed stating that the contact categories have been removed and the Contact Link file has been rebuilt.

Note: Running the Rebuild Contact Categories program will remove all unused contact categories. Additionally, rebuilding will recreate all of the default contact categories.