Official Note Merge Fields need to Include the First or Preferred Field like the new columns in Lists. Our admissions team spends so much time adding the first name to the preferred name field when parents do not specify so that the Official Notes can pull the preferred name field.
Hi Josceline,
If you're using the Preferred Name placeholder in an official note, the format for that field is "Preferred else First", which means it will fill in a preferred name if the candidate has one, and it will default to their first name if they do not. So in this case, you should not need to put a first name in the preferred name field for anyone who does not have a preferred name. We made this change back in October, so it's relatively new but it should have updated any templates created before we made the change. If you're having any trouble with it, please let me know.
Thanks!
Kelsey Huijgen, Product Manager
Also should have mentioned that when we have to add the first name to the preferred name field then the student's record looks ridiculous. It will say
Sarah "Sarah" Smith for instance. Thank you for your consideration!