This article will give examples of situations where a mail merge might be considered and what can be done in each instance.
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS ARTICLE IS ONLY TO GIVE EXAMPLES OF SPECIFIC USES FOR THE MAIL MERGE; IT IS NOT A STEP BY STEP GUIDE. PLEASE SEE OUR MAIL MERGE MANUAL BEFORE READING THIS IF YOU ARE NEW TO THE MAIL MERGE FEATURE.
Case 1:
Scenario:
I am creating a mail merge as I would like to send a welcome letter to the Leaseholders of a new block. It is a simple letter that needs to pull the Leaseholders address and salutation and the block name in the subject. The body of the letter will be generic.
Example of the letter I have created in word:
Here I have written in red the details I would like pulled from the system. These will need to be replaced with codes to pull the data in a moment but I can see from looking at this that all of the wording in black is generic. This means that this letter can be used for all blocks without me having to change it. This means that the template I create for this will not need to be changed in the future once it is created.
Now I will use the codes document to copy and paste the real codes into my word document. Here is how it looks now:
Now that I have my letter ready I am going to create a mail merge template so that I can create letters using the data from Resident. I will go to my block and start the creation process by navigating to 'Settings' > 'Templates' > 'Mail Merge Templates'. I will select to create a Leaseholder template as this will be sent to my Leaseholders. I can create a Director version later if I need to send it out to those, too.
Here is what my template looks like once I have filled it all out:
Now that I've created the template I have created a new batch of mail merge letters. This is how they come out:
Note that the writing is only red because I selected it to be red on the template as shown above. The pulled data will come out whatever colour you give the font for the codes.
Conclusion:
This letter has come out exactly how I planned and all custom data can be pulled using codes. This means that I can use this template for all new blocks going forward without having to amend anything.
Case 2:
Scenario:
I need to send out the invitation to the AGM meeting next month. I need to input the date for the meeting and the location. I will not be able to pull this data from Resident so I need to make sure that I put this in the letter manually.
Example of the letter I have created in word:
In this instance I can see that there is a lot of data that can be pulled automatically however, I have marked in green the specific data that I have had to write in manually. I will not be able to add a code for this.
Now I will use the codes document to copy and paste the real codes into my word document. Here is how it looks now:
Now I will go ahead and create a mail merge template for this.
As you can see, I have tried to make the title and message content box as generic as I can so that I don't have to amend this if I want to use this template for another meeting/block. However, I will have to make amendments to the word doc if I want to do that.
Since this current letter that I am raising will be specific to the AGM meeting in January I will give it this title when raising it:
Once I have raised this letter for the block it came out looking like this:
As before, the colours are something I added to indicate data that is pulled vs data that is manually input. This will be all black on your letters as long as your font is all black on the template.
The letter has pulled everything I wanted it to pull and so this is a successful mail merge.
Now I want to send the same letter to another block of mine. Here are the facts to consider:
1. The red writing will be fine as it is codes and will pull data from the block I am raising the mail merge in
2. The black writing will be fine as it is generic and can apply to any block/date etc.
3. The green writing was specific to this block and time period. This writing will NOT be fine to keep in the new mail merge for another block.
What can I do about this?
Well, all I need to do here is change out the green writing for the information that is relevant to the block I am now wanting to send a letter to. This is very simple.
All I have to do here is find the mail merge template I originally made in 'Settings' >'Templates' > 'Mail Merge Templates' and open it.
Here I have my AGM minutes template open. Because I made sure to keep the title and message template generic, I wont need to touch these. All I have to do is scroll to the bottom of the page and do as follows:
1. Download the word document file I created originally
2. Remove or amend the green writing and save the word file
3. Re-upload the file to this page using the upload box
Once this is done and I have clicked the 'Update' button, my mail merge is now ready to be used on a different block or for a different date.
Now every time I need to send an AGM invitation letter I can use this template by just amending the specific (green) data on the word doc.
Case 3:
Scenario:
I want to send out our newsletter.
Here is my news letter:
This letter does not pull any data from Resident and so all of the information is static. This letter type is not suitable for sending via Mail Merge.
This letter would be better suited to be sent as an attachment on a message. Please see the messaging article for more information.
Case 4:
Scenario:
I want to chase arrears for all of my Leaseholders.
This feature is not suitable for arrears chasing. Please see the Arrears feature for information regarding chasing arrears.