Workflow rule for Opportunity Naming

[Jim Dees]

Hi, my name is Jim Dees and I am the System Admin at SMU School of Engineering.  We've been using SFDC for a little over 2 years.  I'm trying to set up a workflow rule to automatically assign names to Opportunities when they are created. 

I've checked the help resource on SFDC, but can't seem to get the naming convention I want.  We assign opportunities at the Contact rather than Account level, therefore I'd like the Opportunity Name to default to the Contact name when the Opportunity is created.  Many of our Contacs have rather long, complicated names, so this would help reduce time spent typing. 

I've not been able to figure out how to do this.  Is what I want to do possible?  I sure appreciate any help. 

[Gemini@Work]

Here's a high-level walkthrough -- may need to tweak settings to your preference and or custom fields:

1. Setup -> Create -> Workflow & Approvals -> Workflow Rules.  Click New.
2. Select Object (Opportunity), click "Next".
3. Rule Name = "Create / Edit Oppty"
4. Description = "Prepends Contact name to Oppty name field"
5. Rule Criteria: Evaluation = "Every time a record is created or edited", Amount NOT EQUAL TO 0 (or some such criteria, to ensure workflow runs every time).  Click "Save & Next"
6. Add Workflow Action = New Field Update
7. Name = "Prepend Contact Name to Opty", Field to Update = "Oppurtunity Name", check "use a formula to set the new value"
8. Show formula editor, Formula Value = Contact.Name,"-",Opportunity.Name

[Jim Dees]

JP,

Thanks so much for the help!  I really appreciate it and will give it a shot.  I figured there had to be a way to do it, but got frustrated after a while.

Jim Dees