Import Phone Numbers

Importing phone numbers.

QUESTION: When some values are selected for a column, a additional selections opens up to the right with another pull down. I don't understand this. If a column has a phone and the next field has a selection of (home, main, other, work) another selection is also there (phone, mobile, fax, pager). Does this mean every item in the import file must have the same phone attributes?

RESPONSE: CiviCRM offers quite a bit of flexibility in identifying phone numbers. You can differentiate home, work, main, but you don't have to. If you just have a single column of assorted phone numbers then set the mapping to 'Main + phone' and they will be happily imported.

If you do have differentiated phone numbers, e.g. home, work, mobile, then create a separate column for each in your import file and use the CiviCRM import mapping to link the column to the appropriate field.