Smart fields are among the most useful things in Altru, and building one can be one of the most cramped. You open the dialog to add or edit a smart field, and the parameters, filters, and value groups all sit in a fixed-size window. Long dropdown entries get cut off, and you end up scrolling inside a small box while most of your monitor sits empty.
The short version: we aren’t aware of a dependable built-in way to maximize those dialogs, and behavior can differ between browsers and Altru releases. To check your own setup, hover over the edges and corners of the open window to see whether the cursor turns into a resize arrow. If it doesn’t, the options below make the work much easier anyway.
Get more room on screen
Altru runs in your browser, so the browser and your display settings decide how much fits in the dialog.
- Zoom out in the browser. Ctrl and minus (Cmd and minus on a Mac) shrinks everything. Going to 80 or 90 percent often shows the full value group grid or a long filter list without scrolling. Ctrl/Cmd and 0 sets it back to 100 percent.
- Go full screen. F11 on Windows, or the full-screen option on a Mac, hides tabs and toolbars. A modal window that’s centered vertically gets some of that space back, depending on how your browser draws it.
- Use your biggest monitor. If you have a second screen, drag the Altru browser window onto it before you open the smart field. Some admins keep a browser profile set aside for setup work, kept zoomed out, so their everyday Altru window stays readable.
- Check the display scaling setting. Laptops are often set to 125 or 150 percent scaling at the operating system level, which makes every dialog feel smaller. If your eyes are fine with it, dropping that while you do configuration work helps a lot.
Zoom changes only your own view. It doesn’t affect the smart field or anyone else using Altru.
Do the thinking outside the dialog
Much of the frustration comes from making decisions inside a small window. If you plan first, the dialog becomes a place to type answers in, not a place to work them out.
- Write the spec first. Before you open Altru, write down what the smart field should return, which records it covers, any date range, and which revenue types, designations, or membership programs it should filter on. A few lines in a doc or spreadsheet is enough.
- Draft value groups in a spreadsheet. If the smart field sorts results into ranges (giving levels, visit counts, years of membership), list the ranges and labels in a spreadsheet and check for gaps or overlaps there. Then copy them into the dialog one row at a time.
- Follow a naming convention. Names get cut off in narrow lists, so put the distinguishing words first: “Rev Total – Last 12 Months – Donations” is easier to find than “Total revenue amount for donations in the last 12 months.”
- Use the description field. Spell out the filters there in plain words. The next person who opens the smart field can then tell what it does without clicking through every setting.
Editing an existing smart field without losing your place
Editing is harder than adding because you have to understand what’s already set before you change it. A few habits help:
- Write down the current settings first. Before you change anything, note or screenshot each section of the dialog as you scroll. If the change causes problems, you’ll know exactly what it was before.
- Find out what depends on it. Smart fields often feed queries, selections, and reports. Changing a filter can quietly change a mailing list. Search your queries for the smart field before you edit it.
- Consider making a copy. For a big change, it’s often safer to build a new smart field, compare the two in a query, and switch over once the numbers match.
- Re-run the process afterward. Smart field values are calculated by a process, not live. After an edit, run it (or wait for its schedule) before checking results, or you’ll be looking at old values.
Check results in a query, not in the dialog
The edit window shows settings, not results. To confirm a smart field does what you meant, add it as an output column in a constituent query next to the fields it’s based on, such as revenue records or membership dates. Look at a handful of constituents you know well. If a long-time member shows up in the wrong value group, you’ll catch it there much faster than by rereading the filters in a small window.
If the window size is really slowing you down
Tell Blackbaud support. Include the browser and version you use, your screen resolution, and which smart field type you were working on. They can tell you whether resizing is supported in your release and whether a fix is planned. Until then, the combination of browser zoom, a larger screen, and planning outside the dialog takes most of the pain out of it.
Quick answers
Does browser zoom change anything in Altru’s data?
No. It only changes how the page looks on your screen.
Why do my smart field numbers look wrong right after I edit it?
The values probably haven’t been recalculated yet. Run the smart field process, then check again in a query.
