Creating Form Letter Layouts


Form lettersstandard letters containing bits of customized informationare easy to create using FileMaker's merge fields. By creating a layout that's mostly text with a few judiciously placed merge fields, you can create a customized letter for your customers:

Dear Ms. Rose,

Spring is in the air and as a long-time customer, you'll want to take advantage of our annual spring flower sale.

All bedding plants are 20 percent off, garden tools are discounted by 15 percent, and turf builders are reduced by 30 percent. But the savings don't stop there! You'll find hundreds of items on sale.

For preferred customers like yourself, the doors open at 10 a.m. on Thursday, May 18. The sale starts for the general public at 10 a.m. on Friday, May 19.

Sincerely,

James Green

In FileMaker, which uses << and >> to mark merge fields, the letter looks like this:

Dear <<courtesy title.>> <<last name>>,

Spring is in the air and as a long-time customer, you'll want to take advantage of our annual spring flower sale.

All <<spring purchase #1>> are <<discount-spring purchase #1>> off, <<spring purchase #2>> are discounted by <<discount-spring purchase #2>>, and <<spring purchase #3.>> are reduced by <<discount-spring purchase #3>>. But the savings don't stop there! You'll find hundreds of items on sale.

For preferred customers like yourself, the doors open at 10 a.m. on Thursday, May 18. The sale starts for the general public at 10 a.m. on Friday, May 19.

Sincerely,

<<sales staff name>>

If you resist the urge to drown customers with frequent mailings, form letters with merge fields can be a powerful tool.

To create a form letter with merge fields

1.

Open the database from which the data will be drawn and switch to Layout mode ( in Windows, on the Mac).

2.

Choose Layouts > New Layout/Report ( in Windows, on the Mac). When the New Layout/Report dialog box appears (Figure 11.43), type a name into the Layout Name text box, choose Blank layout within the Select a layout type area, and click Finish.

Figure 11.43. To create a form letter, choose Blank layout when selecting a new layout.


3.

When the new layout appears, select the Type tool from the left-hand Layout status area and begin typing in your letter. When you reach the spot where you want the first merge field to appear (Figure 11.44), choose Insert > Merge Field ( in Windows, on the Mac).

Figure 11.44. Click your cursor where you want a merge field to appear, then choose Insert > Merge Field ( in Windows, on the Mac).


4.

When the Specify Field dialog box appears, double-click on the field you want to appear in the letter (Figure 11.45). A merge field appears within the form letter layout (Figure 11.46).

Figure 11.45. When the Specify Field dialog box appears, double-click on the field you want as a merge field.


Figure 11.46. Once you place a merge field in a layout, a pair of << >> mark its boundaries.


5.

Continue typing the letter, adding additional merge fields as you need them until you're done (Figure 11.47). To see what the form letter will look like, switch to Browse mode. To format the letter's fonts and other text attributes, see Formatting Fields or Objects on page 203. To set the letter's margins and prepare it for printing, see Printing on page 81.

Figure 11.47. The final form letter shows where each merge field's contents will be inserted once you switch to Browse mode.


Tip

  • Thanks to FileMaker's improved relational abilities, it's easy to create merge fields pulling from any related file or table. For example, in Figure 11.47, all the merge fields in the second paragraph come from the productsEG file instead of customersEG, the source of the first merge fields. FileMaker marks such related file merge fields with :: (a double colon) to remind you of the external source. (For details, see To create a relationship on page 132.)




FileMaker Pro 8 for Windows and Macintosh(c) Visual Quickstart Guide
FileMaker Pro 8 for Windows & Macintosh
ISBN: 032139674X
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 184
Authors: Nolan Hester

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