In Customers, you can write and send letters while you have a customer's record open with one of the following tools:
■ Microsoft Word™ Integration (Letter System)
■ QuickLetter
Tip: If you have created the Letter activity type, creating a letter for an individual customer generates an activity record for that customer.
To create a letter for a single customer using QuickLetter
1. From Customers, select Manage customers.
2. Find the customer's record.
3. Select the Letters tab.
4. Click New Letter to display the Letter Text window.
You can create a standard letter, which you may customize, or you can create your own letter.
□ To create your own letter, click New and type the text in the white text entry box.
□ To use a standard letter, select Standard Letter on the Letter Text window to open the Find window.
□ Select a standard letter and click OK or double-click the letter to open it in the Letter Text window.
Note: The bracketed text in the window tells iMIS to automatically access this information from the current system settings. For example, [today] automatically generates the current date and enters it into the letter.
5. Enter text for the letter.
6. Click Save as Standard on the Letter Text window to save the letter for this customer.
7. Enter a Letter Name in the space provided.
Note: Do not choose the same name as an existing iMIS Standard Letter. If you choose the same name as an existing Standard Letter, your letter replaces the Standard Letter, but revisions are overwritten during a System upgrade.
8. Click Print. An activity record is created.
To add system variables to a letter created using QuickLetter
Designing a customized standard letter is much like setting up any mail merge template. You create a master letter that has field name markers where the merged data will display.
Where you want personalized information to display, you will enter the appropriate variable name enclosed in square brackets [ ]. For example, the format of the variables is [Table.FIELDNAME], and [Name.INFORMAL] brings in the informal name or nickname from the customer record (the Informal field of the Name table).
When you print the letter for a customer, the variable names will be replaced by the actual data from the customer's record or other appropriate places. The variables can call any field in the Name table and fields created in the Customizer.
In addition, iMIS supplies the following special variables that are preset to retrieve certain formatted fields or current system settings:
■ [Today] - Prints the current date in the system.
■ [Name.TITLE] - Prints the customer's title as it displays in the Manage customers window.
■ [Name.INFORMAL] - Prints the customer's informal name as it displays in the Manage customers window.
■ [Name.COMPANY] - Prints the customer's company name as it displays in the Manage customers window.
■ [Name.FULL.ADDRESS] - Prints the customer's formatted preferred mail address.
To change a letter format in QuickLetter
In the iMIS standard letter system, you can use the Letter Format option to change the following:
■ Heading (to print an organizational header across the top) or No Heading (to print on letterhead paper where the letterhead is across the top)
■ Print Width (5 ½ inches or 6 ½ inches). The 5 ½-inch print width is designed for printing on letterheads where the letterhead is down the left side of the page.
■ Signature or No Signature (to print at bottom) if you have a signature set up in Report Specifications
Note: When you change the format for a letter, the selected format is written to the report description so that the next time the report is selected from the Letter Text window, the most recently selected format will be used.
To modify any of these settings, follow these steps:
1. From Customers, select Manage customers.
2. Find the customer's record.
3. Select the Letters tab.
4. Click New Letter to open the Letter Text window.
5. Click Standard Letter on the Letter Text window.
6. Select and open a Standard Letter in the Find window.
7. Select Options on the Letter Text window (in the upper right corner).
8. Select Letter Format and choose a format for your letter.
Note: The Letter Format options correspond to the six available letter report formats on the Report Specifications window.
□ If you want to print on letterhead paper (where your letterhead is at the top of your paper), make sure you pick a format that begins with the words No Heading. If your letterhead is along the left side of your paper, select a letter format that includes the words 5” Print Width.
□ If you want to print your organizational header at the top of the letter and your header was specified in system setup, pick a format that begins with the words iMIS Standard.
9. Click Save as Standard on the Letter Text window to save the letter for this customer and open the Letter Name window.
10. Enter a descriptive name for the letter and click OK to save the letter.
11. Set your report destination to screen (File> Report Destination) to see a preview of your letter. To actually print your letter once you approve of the page preview, select P in the top right corner of the window.
When you close the customer record and then reopen it, you can select the Letters tab to see a history of the records sent to the customer. The letter you just created and printed will be listed there.
12. From Customers, select Manage customers.
13. Find the customer's record.
14. From Customers, select Generate reports to open the Generate reports window.
15. Select Letters from the Report Types column.
16. Select a letter from the Available Reports column.
Note: Sample MS Word templates cannot be used with QuickLetter.
17. Click Run to open the Member/Contact Selections window.
18. Select Individual Only from the Member/Nonmember category.
The template opens with the text displayed. Select the Print icon to print the letter.
To merge a letter for a single customer using the Letter System
Note: When using the Letter System, you will need to close any other instances of MS Word that you may have open.
1. From Customers, select Manage customers.
2. Find the customer's record.
3. Select the Letters tab.
4. Click New Letter to open the Membership Standard Letters window.
5. Select the letter to merge from the Membership Standard Letters window.
6. Click Merge and enable the activity options for your merge:
7. Enable the Create Activity records with merge option to create the LETTER activity for each customer record.
8. Enable the Create EMAIL Activities with merge option to create the EMAIL activity instead of the LETTER activity.
Note: If you want to email the letter to customers and create an e-mail activity, you must enable both options. An EMAIL activity type must be defined in the database.
9. Enable the Include Bad Addresses with merge option to include in your merge, those addresses that have an invalid status.
10. Click Continue to open MS Word.
The template opens in MS Word with the text and merge fields displayed.
Note: An activity is automatically created for a merge completed on the Letters tab.
11. Start the merge process:
□ In MS Word, select the Merge to New Document icon on the toolbar to open the Merge to New Document window.
□ Select All records or enter a range.
□ Click OK to display the letters.
If you selected New document, the letters are shown.
12. Print the form letter.
13. Close the Form Letter window.
14. Close the template (.DOC) file.
To merge an email letter for a single customer using the Letter System
To ensure all letters are delivered by email, verify the E-mail field for each customer is populated on the Manage customers window.
Note: When using the Letter System, you will need to close any other instances of MS Word that you may have open.
1. Open your email program.
2. From Customers, select Manage customers.
3. Find or insert a customer record.
4. Select the Letters tab.
5. Click New Letter to open the Membership Standard Letters window.
6. Select the letter template to merge.
7. Click Merge to open the Membership Standard Letters window.
8. Enable the Create Activity records with merge option to create the LETTER activity.
9. Enable the Create EMAIL Activities with merge option to create the EMAIL activity for each customer record.
Note: An activity is automatically created for a merge completed on the Letters tab. If you want to email the letter to customer and create an email activity, you must enable both options. An EMAIL activity type must be defined in the database.
10. Enable the Include Bad Address with merge option to include those addresses that have an invalid status.
11. Click Continue. The template opens in MS Word with the text and merge fields displayed.
12. In MS Word, select the Merge to E-mail icon on the toolbar to open the Merge to E-mail window.
13. Select NameEMAIL from the To drop-down list.
14. (optional) Enter a Subject line.
15. Select the Mail format drop-down list and select the appropriate format.
Note: If you select the Attachment format or the Plain Text format, two message prompts will display for each record that is being merged. Click Yes for each prompt. The message prompts will not display if you select the HTML format.
16. Click OK to display the letters
17. Close the Form Letters window.
18. Close the template (.DOC) file.
To view a letter or email activity
You can view activities for a letter or email on the Letters tab or the Activities-All tab.
Note: A given LETTER activity will reflect a letter's text only when that text differs from the permanent text stored in the letter template. For example, if you send a letter to all of your customers but add additional information (such as an answer to a customer's question) to only one of the letters, the entire text of that letter would be stored for that customer's LETTER activity.
The letter text associated with the template is saved to the Activity_Attach.ATTACH_TEXT table. Once a template is saved, all future letter activities will use the original template, regardless if the template is changed.
1. To view a letter from the Customers module:
□ Select Manage customers.
□ Find a customer record with a LETTER or EMAIL activity record.
□ Select the Activities-All tab.
□ Double-click an EMAIL or LETTER activity to open the Activity Detail window.
2. To view an EMAIL or LETTER activity through the Letters tab:
□ From Customers, select Manage customers.
□ Find a customer record with a LETTER or EMAIL activity record
□ Select the Letters tab.
3. Double-click the letter or email line item to open the Activity Detail window.
The Letters tab