Customising field names in Synergetic

You can customise how Synergetic refers to different fields in Synergetic. For example, it may suit your organisation to refer to:

  • given names as christian names
  • form groups as house groups
  • surnames as last names
  • suburbs as cities.

You can also change the meaning of some fields if they are not applicable to your organisation. For example, change:

  • Publish Career Information to Family Credit Check
  • Tertiary Registration Code to International Baccalaureate.

Overriding Synergetic's field names with the Synergy.rl file
To rename fields in Synergetic:

  1. Navigate to the Synergetic folder on your server.
  2. Create a text file called Synergy.rl if one does not already exist.
  3. Open the text file.
  4. Scroll down to the end of the text file.
  5. Type a pipe character ( | ) followed by the name of the field you want to rename.
  6. On the same line, type another pipe character followed by what you want the field to be renamed to.
  7. Create a new line and repeat steps 4 through 5 for any other fields you want to rename.
  8. Save and close the file.
  9. Restart Synergetic.
    The fields are renamed.

Troubleshooting Synergy.rl file
Windows may override the .rl extension with one that it recognises, like txt, which hides it from Synergetic. If your computer is set to hide known file extensions, this may not be apparent. To see if Windows is renaming the file:

  1. Navigate to the Synergetic folder on your server.
  2. Locate the SynMain.exe file.
  3. If you do not see a '.exe' at the end of the SynMain file, your computer is hiding file extensions.
  4. To make file extensions visible, select Organize > Folder and Search Options on the Windows Explorer tool bar.

    The Folder Options window is displayed. 
  5. Select the View tab.
    The View tab of the Folder Options window is displayed
    .
  6. Clear the Hide extensions for known file types field.
  7. Click .
    The file extensions are displayed.
  8. Check that the Synergy.rl file does not have any extra extensions. For example, Synergy.rl.txt. If it does, rename the file by right clicking on the file and selecting Rename.


The relabel order can be important:

Ensure that you have entered your relabelling information in the order you wish the changes to occur.  The changes will occur line by line.  

Relabeling 'Bording' and 'Boarding House'


Scenario 1:

Synergetic will first relabel all Boarding to Student type.  It will then look for Boarding House and relabel it to Living Arrangements.  

This is the result in the Current Student Search Criteria Screen  

Since 'Boarding House' was first renamed to 'Student Type House' line two in the RL file will not pick up the change.

Scenario 2:

Synergetic will first relabel all Boarding House to Living Arrangements.  It will then look for Boarding and relabel it to Student Type.  

This is the result in the Current Student Search Criteria Screen