The standard field of Preferred Name can be merged into form or event communications as "sys-preferred," even when Preferred Name is not collected on the form itself. This field must appear as an option in the merge fields bar of the message in order to be used.

Preferred Name as a Merge Field

In Deliver messages, the Preferred Name export can be added and included as a merge field. Note that no Liquid markup is required to conditionally display the record's first name if no preferred name is provided. The preferred name merge field in a Deliver mailing automatically merges in and displays the preferred name if one exists. Otherwise, data in the first name field appears.

Form and Event Communications

The "sys-preferred" merge field for form-based or event-based communications considers the values of Preferred Name and First Name in the following order:

1. sys:preferred from the form response

2. sys:first from the form response

3. sys:preferred from the student record

4. sys:first from the student record

If a form only collects "sys:first," the "sys-preferred" merge field selects "sys:first" from the form registration (option 2 above).

If no Preferred Name is entered on the form, Slate automatically merges in the First Name entered on the form for the "sys-preferred" merge field.