Question
How do I Create a Mail Merge Letter?
Answer
To create a mail merge letter, you go to CRM > Parameters > Communications > Letters at the bottom of the screen click New Letter.
You will be presented with the following screen.
In this window you select the fields from the left that you would like to be pulled from the CRM record added into the letter. When the window is loaded in the right hand box in ‘Letter Field Choices’ there are pre-selected fields but these can be removed by double-clicking on them. From the left side you can add fields to be included.
Here you add the details of the letter. Letter Type is defined if it is an After Sales letter such as workshop, reminders, etc. and Sales will refer to marketing, vehicle interest, etc. Document Type is either Label or Letter.
Once completed click Create Letter. You will be taken back to the letter library where you click your letter and click Amend. It will ask you to download a .csv file click the dropdown arrow next to save and click Save as and save to either a file or memorable place.
Once saved it will change to now ask you to save a .doc file do the same save process for this file.
After you save these it will ask you to open these files, click the grey ‘x’ at the right of the yellow box as we will open these manually. Minimise your Pinewood DMS screen and double-click your .doc file to open it in Microsoft Word, it will come up with the following message:
Click Yes
Then click Find Data Source. It will bring up a pop-up for you to navigate to where you saved the .csv file and double-click this to come to the following:
Click OK and it will open the Microsoft Word Document. Now you need to add information to your letter (i.e. what the letter is regarding) and merge the fields you selected earlier, you do this by selecting the Mailings tab then the dropdown arrow of Insert Merge Field.
Click the field that is relevant for that part of your letter.
NB – To add the date go to the Insert tab and on the right click Date & Time in the pop-up click the date format and tick update automatically to ensure the current date populates the letter when it is used.
Once, you have completed the letter, an example is below you save the letter
Click back on to your open Pinewood DMS session and click the browse button near the top of the page then navigate to the Word document you just saved and double-click this.
It will populate the box above, then you can click the Upload button at the bottom of the page. Once this is done the letter will display a Status of Ready.
NB – It is advised you delete the .doc and .csv files from your PC as they will download when you are using them for a Mailshot. When opening the new .doc it may try to open with the existing .csv