Understanding Your Two Options
Fields like Skills, Interests, Employer, and College can be set up in one of two ways:
Open Text (default) —
Alumni type into the field and see suggestions as they type. They can pick a suggestion or enter something entirely new.
This gives alumni full flexibility and works well when you want to capture a wide range of values — for example, when you don't have a complete list of employers or skills and want alumni to fill in what's relevant to them.
Dropdown —
Alumni see a searchable dropdown and must select from the available options. They can type to filter the list, but they can't submit a value that isn't in it.
This works well when you want consistent, structured data — for example, when you need clean filters and reports and don't want five different spellings of the same employer.
When to Pick What
| Open Text | Dropdown |
Best for | Fields where you don't have all possible values upfront and want alumni to contribute freely | Fields where data consistency matters for reporting, filtering, and segmentation |
Trade-off | Flexible for alumni, but can lead to duplicates and messy data over time | Structured and clean, but alumni can only choose from what's already on the list |
Good examples | A newer institution is still building out its employer or skills list | A large institution with established field values that wants reliable data for outreach and reporting |
You can mix and match — convert some fields to dropdowns while keeping others as open text. It's entirely per-field.
How to Set It Up
Where to Find This
Go to Site Settings → Resource Fields Settings.
The settings are organized into three groups:
Other Educations — College, Course, Branch, Specialization, Department
Employment — Employer, Designation, Domain
Interests & Skills — Interests, Skills
Each field has a toggle. Flip the toggle to convert a field from open text to a dropdown, or back.
What Happens When You Convert a Field to a Dropdown
When you convert a field to a dropdown, all existing values on alumni profiles — whether entered by alumni themselves or previously imported from your CRM — are automatically added to the dropdown list.
No data is lost. Every existing value remains intact on the respective alumni profile.
From that point on, alumni updating that field will see a searchable dropdown and must pick from the list. They can type to filter options, but they cannot submit a value that isn't in the list.
Example: Your institution converts the Employer field to a dropdown. James Thompson goes to update his profile and types "Deloitt" — the dropdown filters to matching entries. He selects "Deloitte" and saves. If he tried to type something not on the list and hit save, he'd see a message asking him to choose from the available options.
What if You Switch a Field Back to Open Text?
You can switch any field back to open text at any time. No data is erased — all existing values remain as they are, and alumni can once again type in new values freely.
Managing Dropdown Values
Admins cannot directly edit, rename, or remove values from the dropdown list — that capability is not available yet. However, when new data comes in through a Raiser's Edge sync, a BBCRM sync, or an Excel import, any values that don't already exist in the dropdown are automatically added. So you don't need to worry about keeping the list up to date when pulling in data from other sources.
If you need to rename or remove values, reach out to the Almabase support team (see "Cleaning Up Messy Dropdown Values" below).
Cleaning Up Messy Dropdown Values
After converting a field to a dropdown, you might notice the list contains messy or duplicate entries — that's expected, since these are the values alumni typed in over time when the field was still open text.
To clean this up:
Reach out to the Almabase support team to get the list of dropdown options for the fields you've converted.
Review the list. Prepare two lists: the values you want to keep and the values you want to remove. For each value being removed, note which existing value it should be mapped to (so alumni records are reassigned, not left blank).
Share both lists with the Almabase support team, and they'll handle the cleanup for you.
This ensures no alumni data is lost — records tied to removed values are simply remapped to the correct ones.
FAQs
What happens to the values alumni already entered before I convert a field to a dropdown?
Nothing is lost. All existing values — whether entered by alumni or imported from your CRM — are automatically added to the dropdown list, and every record stays intact.
Do admins also have to pick from the dropdown when editing alumni profiles?
Yes. The dropdown restriction applies to the profile editing form regardless of who is filling it out — admins included.
Do I need to manually add new values when importing data or syncing from Raiser's Edge?
No. Any new values that come in through a Raiser's Edge sync, BBCRM sync, or an Excel import are automatically added to the dropdown list.
Can I edit or remove dropdown values myself?
Not yet. Admins cannot directly modify the dropdown list. To rename or remove values, share your cleanup list with the Almabase support team and they'll take care of it.
How do I clean up duplicate or messy values in the dropdown?
Reach out to the Almabase support team to get the list of dropdown options. Review it, mark the values to keep and the ones to remove (with mappings), and share it back with the team. They'll handle the cleanup without losing any alumni data.