Generating a Form Letter Batch

You are able to generate a batch of form letters for any group of tenants or customers who are managed in the Tenant Accounts Receivable program.

Note: For instructions on how to generate a single form letter for a specific tenant, please review the Generating Individual Form Letters topic .

From the Main Menu screen, click FORM LETTERS. The Process Form Letters screen appears with all form letters created by the logged in user displayed in a table.

Hint: To view all form letters created by all users, select the Show All Form Letters button located at the top, right-hand side of the screen. The user who created the form letter will display in the table.

Click

on the toolbar. The Generate Form Letter Wizard is initiated.

Select the template group that contains the form letter template you want to use for this letter, then click START.

Check the checkbox(es) of the form letter template you want to use for this letter, then click NEXT to continue. (Since you are generating an individual form letter, the wizard skips Steps 3 through 5.) See "Form Letter Templates"

Note: A template is a data record that contains all of the setup information for one form letter. It is the electronic equivalent of a blank master copy of a form that you photocopy and fill in for each individual recipient. For more information on creating a new form letter template, please see the Setting Up Form Letter Templates topic.

Select a field name to work with. This selects a single data field from the template’s data source and is the field on which the batch is filtered.

Hint: This wizard step has two view modes: standard and advanced. If it is in standard mode, the Advanced button allows you to switch to advanced mode, and vice versa. In standard mode, you can only set up one filtering criterion. In advanced mode, you can set as many criteria as you need. You can set up to three sort criteria regardless of the mode the tab is in.

Choose an operator. This is a mathematical expression used for filtering, like “equal to” (=) or “greater than” (>), that performs a comparison between two things. This allows you to specify how you are checking individual database records against the filtering criterion. For example, if you want all records whose filtering data field is greater than a specific value, set the operator to “>” (greater than).

Enter a value; this is the data field for the value against which you are filtering.

Hint: The “between” operator allows you to set a pair of values between which the filtered field’s value must fall. Use a comma to separate these two values. For example, if you want all records with move-in dates between the first and last day of July, enter “7/1/2002, 7/31/2002” as the value.

Click NEXT to continue.

If necessary, select up to three fields to be associated with the data source of your form letter template, and then click NEXT. (If you select multiple sort criteria, they take effect in order.)

10.

Choose whether you want to print the letter now, or save it for later printing.

11.

Select the signature line for the letter from the signature description drop-down list, enter a short description for the letter, and then click NEXT.

12.

Review the settings you have chosen for the letter. If you need to change anything, click BACK to return to the appropriate step. If everything is correct, click FINISH.

13.

If you chose to print the letter now (on Step 6 of the wizard), the program immediately initiates the Print Form Letter Wizard. If you chose to print the letter later, the program returns to the Tenant Management screen.

14.

Step 1 of the Print Form Letter Wizard opens with the form letters generated in the batch displayed in a table. Click NEXT to continue.

15.

Review and confirm the form letters you are about to print. A "Yes" appears in the Print? column of each form letter to be printed. If you do not want a particular form letter to print, double-click on the Yes for that form letter. A "No" will then appear indicating the form letter will NOT print.

16.

Click FINISH. A Print window appears where you can set the appropriate print settings for your particular printer. You have successfully generated a batch of form letters!

Hint: If you need to cancel the form letter generation, use the CTRL + ALT + C keyboard shortcut.