The "Suppressions" Section in Every Step
No matter what other criteria you're using in your search, there'll be a "Suppressions" section at the bottom of every step.
Ignore it.
The only one of these Audubon uses is to exclude people marked as Deceased from your searches, by default. All of the other suppressions are turned off, because we use different mechanisms to control email and mail logic.
However, we can't make that section disappear, so just remember: it does virtually nothing. Pretend it doesn't exist.
Some Sections Have a Necessary Initial "Include" Dropdown
In some sections, all fields will be greyed out and unusable unless you choose to either include or exclude in a dropdown at the top of the section.
Always choose Include, for reasons the details of which we will spare you in this article. The sections with this step are:
- Events
- Online Forms
- Targeted Emails
One situation in which this can get conceptually tricky is if you're using a "Remove Contacts" step; you STILL want to use Include in this case. That means the contacts for whom the details you've specified in the section are true are included in the removal.
Logic Within a Step
You can use more than one section of Create a List in the same step, but it's important to know how the logic works.
Within the same section, it's always OR logic. In other words, if you're selecting more than one activist code, event, form type, etc., the search will always return contacts associated with AT LEAST ONE of those things.
Between sections, it's always AND logic. That means, as in the example given here, if you're using both the Activist Codes and Targeted Email Summaries sections, the search will return contacts for whom the criteria in the first section is true AND ALSO the criteria in the second section is true.
Between steps, the logic is more transparent; the step actively tells you what it's going to do (i.e. Add or Remove contacts).
Using Date Selection Fields
Many sections — most, in fact — have date selection fields that let you filter by date ranges in a few different ways. The most commonly used are "Between" and "In the Range Of". For this example I'll be using the "Date From" field for Online Actions submissions, but always check the label for cues as to how the filter will work.
Between simply lets you choose a start and end date. The single brackets in the calendar picker moves by months, and the double brackets move by years. Click the day on the calendar to select. If you prefer, you can also type the date.
Between also allows you to choose either a start or end date, and leave the other field blank. This will create a filter on whatever section you're choosing that goes up to or after the date in question.
Using Between gives you static dates: a saved search using between will never update its range.
In the range of lets you set dynamic date ranges. Choosing this option will reveal an additional dropdown with a few set ranges like "yesterday" and "last fiscal quarter". This can be particularly useful in looking up quick counts for reporting when you don't really need a lot of contact data, just a simple number.
Perhaps the most powerful range option is Custom because it lets you type the number of days, weeks, months, or years you want to target, up to 999. There's also a dropdown to toggle between "Ago" and "From Now" but we recommend keeping things simple by leaving it as "Ago".
You CAN have a value in the first field and leave the second blank, which Create a List interprets as there being a 0 in the second field. But we recommend always using both values. Incidentally, it doesn't matter whether the larger number comes first or last.
