Producing Letters       Letter or Document ????

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The sequence used to create, produce and send a letter, email, fax or SMS message is basically the same, irrespective of whether the letter is to a single recipient using the [Mail] button or is to many recipients using Mail Merge, and irrespective of whether the letter is a standard letter, modified or not, or created with completely unique text which is never used again; and regardless of whether merge codes are used or not.

A brief outline of single letter and mail merge follows and full details can be found by following the links in those paragraphs.

To produce a single letter:-
  • The individual person or organisation receiving the letter is first selected on the appropriate main screen
    then [Mail] is pressed
  • The type of letter, email or fax, being produced is selected
  • When the "Letter To" screen appears the letter is created either from a standard document, or as a one-off letter
  • If the letter is to be posted [Print] is pressed and the normal printing routine followed
  • If the letter is to be emailed [Email] is pressed
  • If the letter is to be faxed the letter may be
      4 either printed and manually faxed in the usual manner
      4 or if the computer has the ability to fax directly, or via the [Print] button where the Fax printer is selected as the printing device.
  • If the letter is to be sent as an SMS message [SMS] is pressed.
  • See XXXX for details

    Where the same letter is sent to many recipients Mail Merge is used:-
  • the type of recipient is selected from the appropriate Mail Merge menu, see Which MailMerge selection to choose below
  • when the "Letter To" screen appears the letter is created using any of the methods mentioned in the first paragraph above
  • The system will work through the previous selection grid creating the appropriate document for the selected recipients
    If the letters are to be posted [Print] is pressed and the normal printing routine followed
    If the letters are to be emailed [Email] is pressed and emails are created on the Admin menu > Email Queue
  • If the letters are to be faxed the letter may be
      4 either printed and manually faxed in the usual manner
      4 or  if the computer has the ability to fax directly, usually through a Fax printer, via the [Print] button where the Fax printer is selected as the printing device.
    If the letter is to be sent as an SMS message [SMS] is pressed.
  • See XXXX for details



    Which MailMerge selection to choose
    In the normal course of events you can not write a letter to a property, hence no property [Mail] button.  The letter will always be to a landlord or a tenant.  However, when mail merge is used to produce letters to landlords in which property details are required the mail merge menu chosen may sometimes be MailMerge menu >  Properties MailMerge and Export.

    This is because the relationship of a property to a landlord is one to one, that is a property can only be attached to one landlord.  Whereas, the relationship of a landlord to the property may be one to many, that is one landlord may own multiple properties which then requires a selection of which property or properties the letter is about.  Having to manually select properties and then possibly tenants as well for every landlord who has multiple properties defeats the purpose of mail merge when "bulk" mailing is the intention.

    Instead, selecting the properties about which the letter is about automatically selects the landlord and the full benefits of mail merge can be achieved.  If the letter is being saved to the Correspondence File or as a Note it will be saved in the landlord's Correspondence File.

    Note, however, the same mail merge considerations and restrictions apply when writing letters to tenants, namely they can not be used from the landlord or property mail merge functions.

    But, individual letters can be produced from higher levels because you can select the one property and one tenant involved.

    In summary:-
    When writing a letter to an individual landlord or tenant choose the recipient's [Mail] button to write the letter from.
  • When using mail merge to landlords and data about each property is wanted use Property Mail Merge.
  • When using mail merge to landlords and no property data is wanted use Landlord Mail Merge.
  • When using mail merge to tenants use Tenant Mail Merge.





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