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We are about to recreate all new letters (for the new fiscal year and b/c its 'supposed' to solve some issues we are having w/MS Office 2007).
I'm wondering about setting the letters up in configuration?
Has anyone used that? - Is it easier to edit the letters if they are stored there? (not having to go through the exercise of running the acknowledgement process just to get to the letters to edit).
Has anyone else been having issues w/RE Mail integration w/MS Office 2007?
The letters set up in config are for single use only - they do not work in mail to do batch gift acknowledgments. All you can do with them is go to the gift and run a single acknowledgment for that gift. Some small shops do this as they do gift entry in a record (not using gift batch) so they enter it and acknowledge immediately. Most places do not do gift entry or acknowledgment that way.
I agree and it was on our list 2 years ago when we peresented to the design team at the Blackbaud conference but i do not recall if it came up last year. I'll look through the ideas section and see if it is in there - if not I'll add it.
I have been testing MS Office 2007 and EE and RE for a planned roll out this summer and have not noticed any issues; what issues did you run into? I would like to be prepared for anything this summer. Can you post a more detailed description?
Thanks,
-Kate
__________________ Kate Schandler
Database Administrator
Shady Side Academy
The problem is that the letters in config are only for use if you want to print a single letter from the gift record. Many users go there to set up there letter types and assume they should also set up the letter while they are there. So they go through the painful process of writing and programming a letter that they expect to be able to use in Mail. Then they go to Mail and not only can they not access the letter they created they can't go to config and copy it then come back to Mail to paste it because the field names in Config and Mail (not to mention Export and Query) are named differently for the exact same fields and many fields are not accessible in Mail.
It is a really silly mistake that BB made in setting this up. Left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing.
because my tech department is planning to roll out MS Office 2007 and I have not noticed any issues; I really wanted to see what issues Lisa ran into.
Thanks,
-Kate[/quote]
Kate, go to the official BB forums and look under the section about RE and Office '07 - I've posted my rants there about '07 issues and Mail. I've gotten used to the struggle now, but it's still very annoying to me how little BB is prepared to support users running '07 - their solutions are for older versions of Office and have not been updated. You might have issues with your homepage/dashboard and also outlook integration that need a little work - I've gotten them to update those instructions to include '07. I would just say prepare for issues that crop up and solutions that do not work for '07 and tech support at BB that are clueless because they are not running '07 there in Charleston. I am hoping that when 7.85 comes out later this summer some of the issues will be cleared. Though I am running '07 I am not running Vista, so there may be additional issues on that, or not.
We are about to recreate all new letters (for the new fiscal year and b/c its 'supposed' to solve some issues we are having w/MS Office 2007).
I'm wondering about setting the letters up in configuration?
Has anyone used that? - Is it easier to edit the letters if they are stored there? (not having to go through the exercise of running the acknowledgement process just to get to the letters to edit).
Has anyone else been having issues w/RE Mail integration w/MS Office 2007?
Thanks.
Lisa St. Hilaire
Southern NH University
I'm using RE 7.82 and the issue we had with Donor Ack Letters and MS Word 2007 was that when I merge the letters, RE would 'hang' at the Microsoft Word Mail Merge window (the one with the globe spinning around exporting the data). It didn't matter how many letters need to be acknowledged, it would just freeze. When I was using MS Word 2003, once I press Merge and save the letters to a specific location, MS Word would automatically pop up with all the letters. It's funny because it was working fine for a while on Word 2007 but after a couple of months, RE seemed to 'forget' where to merge the letters to.
I've contacted Blackbaud and apparently RE Mail merges are not configured with MS Word 2007. The solution they provided was to press Alt+Tab and keep pressing tab until you see MS Mail Merge and when the SQL command window opens, click 'Yes'. I just tested an acknowledgement letter in 7.84 on our test server and the same thing happens so I'm guessing they haven't fixed it yet.
I'm using RE 7.82 and the issue we had with Donor Ack Letters and MS Word 2007 was that when I merge the letters, RE would 'hang' at the Microsoft Word Mail Merge window (the one with the globe spinning around exporting the data). It didn't matter how many letters need to be acknowledged, it would just freeze. When I was using MS Word 2003, once I press Merge and save the letters to a specific location, MS Word would automatically pop up with all the letters. It's funny because it was working fine for a while on Word 2007 but after a couple of months, RE seemed to 'forget' where to merge the letters to.
I've contacted Blackbaud and apparently RE Mail merges are not configured with MS Word 2007. The solution they provided was to press Alt+Tab and keep pressing tab until you see MS Mail Merge and when the SQL command window opens, click 'Yes'. I just tested an acknowledgement letter in 7.84 on our test server and the same thing happens so I'm guessing they haven't fixed it yet.
I hope I am misunderstanding you(!).... Are you using the Word Merge Wizard in Mail? And you have to press Alt + Tab etc just to get your letters to appear?
In other words, it's not quite as automatic as it was with older versions of Word? I think I am going to be ill if this is how it is with Word 2007.
I think they'd better configure those 2 together pretty soon. I can't believe that they have not provided some kind of patch so that you don't have to jump through all those hoops just to produce letters.
If I've jumped to an incorrect conclusion here, please correct me!
__________________ Anne Marie
I was born with nothing, and I still have most of it.
I hope I am misunderstanding you(!).... Are you using the Word Merge Wizard in Mail? And you have to press Alt + Tab etc just to get your letters to appear?
In other words, it's not quite as automatic as it was with older versions of Word? I think I am going to be ill if this is how it is with Word 2007.
I think they'd better configure those 2 together pretty soon. I can't believe that they have not provided some kind of patch so that you don't have to jump through all those hoops just to produce letters.
If I've jumped to an incorrect conclusion here, please correct me!
You definitely did not jump to an incorrect conclusion! I am using the Word Merge Wizard in Mail (Conditional merges) and yes I do have to press Alt + Tab everytime I want my letters to appear which is quite annoying because you don't know exactly when the 'Word is creating the document, please wait...' finish merging (I figure I usually let the Mail Merge 'globe' spin for a minute or so before I Alt + Tab).
If you are perform the simple mail merge, it seems to work fine. If you have multiple conditions in your conditional merge, then the merge hangs.
If I had known this, I would have stayed with Office 2003 until Blackbaud fixes it!
Thank you for explaining that Ruby. That seems like a major glitch compatibility wise. Let's hope the situation is rectified soon.
Sounds like a real pain just to create your letters. Surely there has to be a simple solution for BB to remedy it.
I am sure that there are many RE Users who may be upgrading to Office 2007 who use conditional merges in their ack. letters.
In an earlier post Erica said that BB isn't using 07 "there in Charleston". Am I expecting too much to feel that if RE is supposedly so integrated with Microsoft that they should offer patches or whatever to keep up with the most current versions of these products???? Huh?
I'm getting a headache...........
__________________ Anne Marie
I was born with nothing, and I still have most of it.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but - after reading some threads about the issues with RE Mail merge and compatibility with Word 2007, I noticed that at the bottom of the RE electronic newsletters where they mention updates, patches and compatibilitiy they are still telling folks they are completely compatible with Office 2007.
If there are major issues, they need to pull that statement from further newsletters.
Our issues were many - and I am no longer the one dealing with them on the day to day basis - so I dont have all the details - but I can say this:
-The issues began when we created a 'new' letter type in RE MAIL (using the conditional mail option) and that new letter was created in word 2007 - the rest were in there from before.
-We got the same neverending globe -mentioned above. My coworker found several work arounds (none of which ere the Alt-Tab remedy) they would work for awhile then stop working. (I can get the details if someone really needs them)
-Blackbaud customer support's 'solution' was for us to re-create all the letters in Word 2007. So we are doing this now (Since we typically edit/change most of the letters at fiscal year end -the timing was good) - we have most of them done and it appears to be working (in tests) - we'll know for sure soon.
I'm getting a headache...........