Managing Standard Letters

Security Application: Marketing.StandardLetters

Standard letters can be used as a basic template for communicating with customers. For example, you can create a standard letter to send to selected customers thanking them for a recent donation. Standard letters can contain generic content or dynamic content pulled from fields in a view. Standard letters can be generated and sent via FND630, MKT800, manually from a contact tracking record, or in acknowledgement of a tribute donation in Donation Entry.

Standard letters should be saved on the server location designated in the TimssInterfaceConfig.xml file.

As opposed to a generic standard letter, Microsoft mail merge documents allow you to customize a standard letter to constituents by adding fields from a view that will dynamically populate the document with the appropriate data. For example, instead of including a generic greeting in your letter (e.g., "Dear APA Customer"), you can add the <<customer_label_name>> field from the CUS_PRIMARY_INFO_VW view and so the letter will address the customer by name (e.g., "Dear John Smith").

When a file is attached to a standard letter, the file is uploaded to the following location: ..\Application Service\[PersonifyReleaseVersion]\ServerFiles\StandardLetters\[OrgId]-[OrgUnitId].

To create a mail merge (Personalized) standard letter:

1. From Marketing Central or the left navigation menu, select Manage Standard Letters.
   The Manage Standard Letters page displays, as shown below.
   
2. Select +New Standard Letter.
   The Add Standard Letter page displays, as shown below.
   
3. Enter a unique Letter ID.

4. Select the appropriate Subsystem from the drop-down.

5. Based on the selected subsystem, select the appropriate Letter Type from the drop-down.
   Values in the drop-down are populated based on the non-fixed codes defined for the "LETTER_TYPE" system type. Please note that the LETTER_TYPE system type is available for each subsystem, which is why the Letter Type drop-down is populated based on the selected subsystem.

6. Select whether or not the new standard letter is Active.
7. If your organization is using the USPS "Address Change Service", and if you are doing a mailing to the selected customers, set the Update Last Used ACS Flag toggle to YES and the system will update the "Last Used" date on the addresses selected for the mailing. Your mailing should include an Intelligent Mail Barcode so that the USPS can notify you if a customer's address has changed.
8. Set the Personalized toggle to YES. 
   This toggle indicates that the standard letter contains mail merge data.
9. After selecting the Personalized toggle, the View Name field displays.
   
10. Select the appropriate View Name.
    Options in the drop-down are populated based on the views defined on the Manage Application Views screen.
11. After selecting the View Name, the Download Template button displays to download the template for that view.
12. Select the button to download the template, then within your Microsoft Word document, navigate to the Mailings tab. From the Select Recipients drop-down, select Use an Existing List, then select the template you just downloaded.
    
    Now you are able to see the merge fields from within your document.
    
    You must perform this step as described to be able to insert the merge fields and have them function correctly.
13. Create your desired letter in Microsoft Word using the inserted merge fields.
14. From the Attach a File field on the Add Standard Letter page, select the Select files button.
15. Locate and select your Word document created above. 
16. The document is uploaded.
    
17. Enter a Description of the standard letter.
18. Select Save. 
19. If a document already exists on the server with the same name, an error message displays. You must rename your file and upload it again.