Quickstart Guide

Prior Documentation Revision This section contains a prior version of CiviCRM Documentation. Go to Documentation Home for all current topics.

CiviCRM is designed with a great deal of flexibility and extensibility - allowing it to be used by a wide range of groups and organizations. The CiviCRM 1.2 Quick Start guide provides step-by-step instructions for organizations and individuals that quickly want to be able to use CiviCRM to store contact and relationship information. The quick start guide is designed to be followed step-by-step. If one of the steps does not pertain to your organization, simply skip it.

Installation

• Install the Software
  Install CiviCRM 1.2 on your web server with the automated CivicSpace installer or the manual instructions.
• Enable CiviCRM in Drupal
  Make sure you can access CiviCRM.
• Enable CiviCRM Drupal blocks
  Make sure the CiviCRM quick action blocks are enabled.
• Sync Drupal Users
  Create CiviCRM records from Drupal users.

Planning

• Define contacts
  Decide what types of contacts you plan to manage with CiviCRM.
• Define actions
  Determine what you plan to do with the contacts in CiviCRM.
• Identify import data
  Identify any existing information you plan to import into CiviCRM.

Configuration

• Organize Contacts
  Create relationship types, groups and tags.
• Customize contact data
  Create custom data groups and fields.
• Import existing contact information
  Configure import mappings and use the import wizard.
• Deciding what activities to record
  Create new activity types.
• Integrating with a website
  Set up registration, user maintained data and listings settings.
• Setup User Roles & Access Permissions
  Define which users have access to which groups.

Use

• Understanding what is happening in CiviCRM
  Navigating the CiviCRM interface.
• Input new contacts
  How to create contacts.
• Create new relationships [ Under Construction ]
  Creating new relationships between contacts.
• Take action with targeted groups [ Under Construction ]
  Logging activities and maintaining groups.
• Exchanging data between CiviCRM and other systems [ Under Construction ]
  Export functionality and APIs for exchanging data.

Other resources

• Administrator Guide

• Frequently Asked Questions