[ida]

Hi

Do you know if there is a way to change the default letter in a Constituent record? This is the one that opens when you click on the Word icon in a Constituent record.

It defaults to Times New Roman and some particular fields but I'd like to change all that.

Thanks
Ida

[wolfganghario]

Hi Ida,

I don't know if you're already discovered this, but if you click on the small arrow beside the word icon then you have the option of 'creating a new letter format' from which you can create whatever template you want and then that template will always be available for future letters - you'll still have to click on that small arrow though...
I don't know if these templates will only be available to you or whether they're available to the masses.
Hope this helps!
Lee

[dyednwool]

Ida -

I've just spent about 2 weeks figuring out the constituent letter feature -- basically I haven't spent too much time on the "quick letter" default since I've created my own letters that have more functionality.

However, here's some info I've gleaned:

- Apparently you cannot change the default date format that is used (Weekday + Date) - RE tells you that this is controlled by Windows. So users need to manually delete the weekday out of the letter.

- As far as other formatting, I believe it uses the .normal Word template. So possibly you could alter your template with your desired changes. I don't think you can change the template that it is accessing.

- The only thing I like about the default letter is the one they provide for organizations. This gives you the ability to select from ALL the relationships to create your letter to a specific person at the organization. I couldn't figure out how to duplicate this with a custom merged letter (appears that you can only select by contact type) so I'm going to recommend that this is used for this specific function only.

- I think this is a really IMPORTANT thing that's been omitted from the quick letters. RE will use the preferred address but it doesn't seem to check if this address is checked Send Mail. So you can create a quick letter for an address that may be marked to not receive mail! I would have thought that would be a setting that the sytsem would look for.

To get around this, I created custom letters for the PREFERRED, HOME and PRIMARY BUSINESS addresses and used a conditional merge for these. The merge checks the status of the Send Mail on the specific address.

- If the address is not checked Send Mail, a word document comes up with a message "NOTE: this address is not currently checked to receive mail. Please check the record ... etc.)".

- If the address is checked Send Mail, then the letter is generated.

BUT onALL these letters the other condition you should include if the address is for a business -- should the Position field be printed? You know how there's a Print Position? checkbox. Well this should be considered when you generate the letter. So I also built in an IF THEN ELSE statement into these letters to either print the position or not, depending on the checkbox.

In order to be careful and true to your data, there are these small points that actually aren't so small when you generate a letter. So setting up these letters can take some time.

ALSO, if you want to generate these same templates from within the Action record, you have to create them as Action letters as well. So I had to duplicate my entire set of letters as both constituent and action letters.

Hope this helps anyone attempting to use this feature. I am more than willing to share the information and learnings I've acquiared over the last two weeks!!!

Gina Gerhard
If

[ida]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wolfganghario

Hi Ida,

I don't know if you're already discovered this, but if you click on the small arrow beside the word icon then you have the option of 'creating a new letter format' from which you can create whatever template you want and then that template will always be available for future letters - you'll still have to click on that small arrow though...
I don't know if these templates will only be available to you or whether they're available to the masses.
Hope this helps!
Lee

Hi Lee

Thanks for that but it's not what I'm looking for unfortunately. We do use that feature but for those who want to write a quick letter freeform, it would be good if the main letter was formatted according to our house style, rather than in Times New Roman and so on.

Thanks anyway
Ida

[ida]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dyednwool

Ida -

I've just spent about 2 weeks figuring out the constituent letter feature -- basically I haven't spent too much time on the "quick letter" default since I've created my own letters that have more functionality.

However, here's some info I've gleaned:

- Apparently you cannot change the default date format that is used (Weekday + Date) - RE tells you that this is controlled by Windows. So users need to manually delete the weekday out of the letter.

- As far as other formatting, I believe it uses the .normal Word template. So possibly you could alter your template with your desired changes. I don't think you can change the template that it is accessing.

- The only thing I like about the default letter is the one they provide for organizations. This gives you the ability to select from ALL the relationships to create your letter to a specific person at the organization. I couldn't figure out how to duplicate this with a custom merged letter (appears that you can only select by contact type) so I'm going to recommend that this is used for this specific function only.

- I think this is a really IMPORTANT thing that's been omitted from the quick letters. RE will use the preferred address but it doesn't seem to check if this address is checked Send Mail. So you can create a quick letter for an address that may be marked to not receive mail! I would have thought that would be a setting that the sytsem would look for.

To get around this, I created custom letters for the PREFERRED, HOME and PRIMARY BUSINESS addresses and used a conditional merge for these. The merge checks the status of the Send Mail on the specific address.

- If the address is not checked Send Mail, a word document comes up with a message "NOTE: this address is not currently checked to receive mail. Please check the record ... etc.)".

- If the address is checked Send Mail, then the letter is generated.

BUT onALL these letters the other condition you should include if the address is for a business -- should the Position field be printed? You know how there's a Print Position? checkbox. Well this should be considered when you generate the letter. So I also built in an IF THEN ELSE statement into these letters to either print the position or not, depending on the checkbox.

In order to be careful and true to your data, there are these small points that actually aren't so small when you generate a letter. So setting up these letters can take some time.

ALSO, if you want to generate these same templates from within the Action record, you have to create them as Action letters as well. So I had to duplicate my entire set of letters as both constituent and action letters.

Hope this helps anyone attempting to use this feature. I am more than willing to share the information and learnings I've acquiared over the last two weeks!!!

Gina Gerhard
If

Hi Gina

Thanks for your reply - really informative. However, I am pretty familiar with this function and we use custom letters normally but I've just never been able to figure out how to change the default letter. It's one of the few remaining things I need to learn but as we've gotten around it for so long, I haven't bothered much until now.

Chaning the Normal template style on Word doesn't change the default letter settings in RE - is there some way to change the Normal style in RE?

Default Date - you can change this for custom letters by using the options in Word when creating your letter. Then the thing to remember is whether to tick the 'update' button or not. If you do tick it, remember that any letters you save on an action will update every time you open them so the original date gets lost.

Once you start getting into using mail merge in Config, Mail and Export it all gets rather messy and bits that you might expect to link up, just don't, etc... It's really hard to explain it to new members of staff without them just getting confused and giving up

Thanks again
Ida

[Melissa Siobhan]

I do not understand why you can not create your own "house style" formatted letter and recommend that users use that instead of the default.

There need not be any content to a letter you create so it can still be a "freeform" letter so they have a choice - click this button and get the default style or click this button and get the same type of letter in the "house style"

[ida]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Melissa Siobhan

I do not understand why you can not create your own "house style" formatted letter and recommend that users use that instead of the default.

There need not be any content to a letter you create so it can still be a "freeform" letter so they have a choice - click this button and get the default style or click this button and get the same type of letter in the "house style"

Hi Melissa

We have lots of Constituent and Gift letters that people use and some are quite free, but what I want to be able to do is just have that default letter as our house style. If it can't be done, then we work around it but if it can be done, then I want to know how. Aside from anything else, I'm curious

Also, if we have a default 'blank'letter, don't we need to get everyone to add it to their drop-down menu? Can't honestly say I care enough to bother.

Thanks
Ida

[dyednwool]

Ida -

Thanks for your comments. I didn't think about the issue of the date on the letters "refreshing" when you reopen them, so I'll need to fix that on my formats.

if you find anything out about changing the default letter, please post it as I also have that question.

As far as I know, each user is required to modify their Letter Menu in order to add new formats, so yes that is a hassle.

Thanks,

[ida]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dyednwool

Ida -

Thanks for your comments. I didn't think about the issue of the date on the letters "refreshing" when you reopen them, so I'll need to fix that on my formats.

if you find anything out about changing the default letter, please post it as I also have that question.

As far as I know, each user is required to modify their Letter Menu in order to add new formats, so yes that is a hassle.

Thanks,

You're welcome, I learned that the hard way!