When adding a Form Letter or Email to a single Patron's record, it is often easiest to merge using the capabilities of the Patron window.

1. Open the Patron's record from the Patron List window.

   Click here for more information on this process.

2. Click on the Letters Tab at the bottom of the Patron window.

   

3. Click the Add button and choose whether to add a Letter or an Email.

   This will open the Form Letter Selection window.

   

4. Enter the search parameters or simply click the Search button.

   If no search parameters are entered, Theatre Manager will return a list of all form letters.

5. Click on the letter(s) to add to the patron to select them.

   To select multiple letters, use the OPTION key (Mac) or the CTRL key (Windows).

6. Check whether the letter will be sent as a Letter or an Email with the radio buttons in the bottom left of the window (will match the choice you made when you first clicked Add), and click the Select button at the bottom right of the window.

   An email address and SMTP mail server must be entered into Company Preferences to send emails. Patrons to whom emails are being sent will need an email address entered into the Patron record.

7. The Form Letters Selection window will close and the user will be returned to the Patron window.

   The Letter or Email will be added to the Patron's Letter tab for later printing.

   For more information about printing the letter or sending the email, click here.

When adding a membership to a Patron, it is possible to also add a letter to the Patron. This can be done from the Membership Detail Window. To access this window:

Select the Membership tab.

Select the appropriate membership from the list and click Open

1. From the Membership Detail window, click the Letter tab.

   Click here to learn how to sell a membership.

2. Click the Add button and choose whether to add a Letter or an Email. The Form Letter Selection window will open.

   

3. Click on the letter to add to the Patron to select it.
4. Click the Select button at the bottom of the window.

   An email address and SMTP mail server must be entered into Company Preferences to send emails. Patrons to whom emails are being sent will need email addresses entered into their Patron records.

5. The user will now be returned to the Membership Detail window.

   The letter will now appear under the Letters Tab of the Patron window.

   Click here for more information about printing the letter or sending the email.

This method is used to merge a letter with a specific volunteer activity performed by the patron. If the patron has not performed any volunteer activities a letter cannot be merged until an activity is entered.

1. Open the Volunteer History window.

   Click here to learn how to open the window.

   

2. Under the Position tab in the top right, select an Activity from the list.

This will open the Activity History Detail window.



3. Click on the Letters tab.

   

4. Click the Add Button button.

   The Form Letter Selection window will open.

5. Enter search parameters in the From and To fields, or simply click the Search button.

   If the search parameters are left blank, a list of all letters will be displayed.

6. Click on the letter to be used.
7. Click on the Add Letter button or click on the Add Email button.

   An email address and SMTP mail server must be entered into Company Preferences to send emails. Patrons to whom emails are being sent will need email addresses entered into their Patron records.

8. The user will be returned to the Volunteer Activity Detail window.

   The letter will now appear under the Letters tab of this window. The letter will also appear under the Letters tab of the Patron window.

   To find out more information about printing this letter, click here.

As you are creating a new donation for a patron Theatre Manager gives you the option to merge the donation with a form letter. This letter could be a Thank You or Invitation to special donor only events. A variety of letters can be easily setup using Theatre Manager to create new letters. For more information on Form Letters Click here to learn how to insert donations.

Click the Open button.

Select the Receipts tab.

Click the Add button.

The Form Letter Selection window will open.

Click the Search button to generate a list of Form Letters.

Click the Select button button.

The selected letter(s) have now been merged with the receipt and will be printed when the Batch Function "Print Charitable Receipts for Donor" function is initiated.

To merge a Form Letter with a Donation

1. Insert the donation.

   Click here to learn how to insert donations.

2. Selection the Donation in the Patron Donations tab.
3. Click the Open button.
4. Click the Pledge Schedule/Contacts tab.

   

5. Click the Add button.

   This will open the Form Letter Selection Window.

   

6. Click the Search button to generate a list of Form Letters.
7. Select the Form Letter to add to the donation.

   Single click on a letter to select it.

8. Click the Add button.

   The selected letter(s) have now been merged with the donation and is ready to print. Click here to learn more about printing letters.

1. Click on the Form Letters menu, and go to the Form Letters >> Form Letters menu.
2. This will open the Form Letter list window.
3. Click on the letter to be used in the merge.

   If there are a large number of letters the search function at the base of the window may need to be used. Simply type in part of the letter name to search for and click the Search button.

4. Click on the Letter Merge button at the top of the window.

   This will open the Letter Criteria window.

    

5. Click on the New button to add criteria.

   This will open the Add/Edit Parameter window.

6. Enter the criteria that is to be used in merging the letter.

   In this example we will be adding all Patrons who have numbers between 1 and 50. For more information on criteria, click here.

   

7. Click the Add/Continue button to add additional criteria, or click the Save button to save and return to the Letter Criteria window.

   

8. Click the Done button.

   The Merge Form Letter window will now open displaying all of the results based on the criteria.

   

9. Make any changes to the letters as needed.

   Click here for more information on this window and the actions that can be performed.

10. When all actions have been completed, highlight the letters to be merged, and click the Merge button.

    To highlight all of the letters, click on any letter and then use OPTION + A (Mac) or CTRL + A (Windows).

    This will open the Merge Parameters window.

    

11. Adjust the Parameters as necessary.

    For more information on this window, click here.

12. Click the Continue button to execute the Parameters.

    If "Print Now" was selected, then the user's Print Dialog will open. If the "Print Later" option was selected, then the letters will be merged and stored for printing at the set time. Remember that at least one user must be logged in for the letters to print if an after-hours time was selected. If no user is logged in, then the letters will print the next time a user logs in, after the time set has been reached.

    For emails, if "Email Now" was selected, then the emails would be merged and immediately sent. If "Send Later" was selected, then the emails would be merged and stored to be sent at the set time. For emails to be sent a Web Sales Listener must be active. The Web Sales Listener handles the sending of all emails, especially if the emails were sent in limited batch amounts.

    

13. When the Merge is completed, the user will be returned to the Merge Letter window with a report of the merge now displayed.

    

14. The user can now close this window and continue other operations.

Theatre Manager has a powerful marketing tool for postal mailings or email blasts built right in to the software. One of the most commonly used merge features in the Letters module allows a user to merge a mail list with a form letter both created using information contained in your database. The following few pages describes and illustrates the process of merging a mail list with a letter then either printing the result or sending it via email to the intended recipients.

After completing a merge process, and setting it to print or email later, the user may discover the need to delete the batch.

1. Go to Form Letters >> Tasks >> Print Letters/Send Emails.

   This will open the Print Letters Criteria window.

   

2. Adjust the criteria as needed for the employee who created the batch.

   To edit a set of criteria, double click on it.

3. Click the Done button.

   This will open the Patron Letter window.

   

4. Select the letters from the batch and click the Delete button.

   Multiple letters can be selected by using OPTION + click (Mac) or CTRL + click (Windows).

   Click here for more information on this window.

The Merge Letter window is used to adjust the settings of a letter merge prior to the merge.

	This button will open the selected letter in a preview window so that it can be customized before sending to the patron. This window is similar to the Form Letter window in the features it supports.
	This button will remove the selected letters from the merge process. This can be used if there are patrons who should not be receiving the letter without changing the merge criteria.
	This button will print or email the selected letters immediately based on the setting in the status column.
	This button will remove any customization or unique characters in the selected recipient letter in the list. This action will only apply to those letters which are highlighted.
One per ticket	This radio button when selected populates the letters list with one letter per ticket in the patron's record. Patrons with multiple tickets will receive multiple letters.
One per patron	This radio button when selected populates the letters list with one letter per patron regardless of ticket data. Each patron will receive just one letter.
Consolidate tickets (Patron)	This radio button when selected will merge all ticket data in the patron's record into one table and populate the list with one letter per patron. Multiple household patrons may each receive a letter if tickets are in multiple individual records in the household.
Consolidate tickets (Household)	This radio button when selected will merge all ticket data in the household's records and generate one letter to the primary household patron.
Print Letters	This radio button when selected marks all letters as to be printed in the status column.
Email Letters	This radio button when selected marks all letters as to be emailed in the status column.
If no email address - Ignore Letters	This radio button becomes active if the "Email Letters" button is chosen. If there is no e-mail address attached to the patron record, then the letter will be ignored.
If no email address - Print Letter	This radio button becomes active if the "Email Letters" button is chosen. If there is no e-mail address attached to the patron record, then the letter will be printed.
Status	An icon of the current status of the letter. There is a legend at the bottom of the window with a description of each icon.
Patron #	The patron record number of the patron the letter is being sent to.
First Name	The first name of the patron.
Last Name	The last name of the patron.
Phone/Email/Website	The phone number, email, and website for the patron are displayed here if available.
Company	The name of the company associated with the patron if available.
Letter Name	The name of the letter currently being sent to the patron.
Context Menu	The context menu is opened by right-clicking on a letter in the window. This menu allows a number of actions to be performed. Click here for more information about the Context menu.
	Closes the Merge Letter window without completing the letter merge. This does not apply to any letters that have been sent using the Send/Print Immediately button.
	Opens the Merge Parameters window to allow completion of the final step of the Merge process. Click here for more information on the Merge Parameters window.

The Merge Parameters window is the final step in the Form Letter Merge process. This window is used to determine when the letters are either printed or emailed.

The Context Menu is available by right-clicking in the Merge Letter window. This menu gives the user access to additional operations that can be performed prior to the merge.

Change Action Menu

Parts of the Form Letter Preview Window

	Saves the custom changes to the merged Form Letter specific to the patron.
	Reverts to the last saved version of the letter.
	Prints the current Form Letter. Click here for more information on printing Form Letters.
	Checks the spelling of the current letter.
	Exports the letter as an RTF document to be opened in another application. Click here for more information on exporting a Form Letter.
Formatting Pallette	The fomatting pallette allows easy access to many common word processing functions. For more information on this feature, click here.
Context Menu	The Context Menu, also known as the right-click menu allows for adding new fields and making other adjustments to the letter. For more information about using this menu, click here.