Creating the Primary Letter File

For Attendance and Behavior letters, if you have multiple criteria, you need to create a primary form letter file in Microsoft Word to start the merge. This file should include only the following codes:

{INCLUDETEXT {MERGEFIELD FILE_NAME }}

This command tells the system to merge a student's data with the appropriate letter file based on the filename of the form letter. INCLUDETEXT is a field code used by Word.

You do not need to complete this step for Medical, Home Access Center, or Student Success Planner letters.

To add the command to your primary letter file:

Refer to Microsoft Word's documentation for specific procedures for creating merge letters.

1. Within your primary letter document, select to make the document a mail merge document and connect the document to the appropriate data source file. In the Header Record Delimiters pop-up, select | (pipe) as the field delimiter and # (pound) as the record delimiter.
2. Follow procedures within Word to insert the INCLUDETEXT field code into your document. You can also type the field code. First press Ctrl+F9 to insert the brackets and then type text as shown below.
   {INCLUDETEXT * MERGEFORMAT}
   If the text 'Error! Filename not specified.' displays, press <Alt+F9> to toggle the field code.
3. Highlight * MERGEFORMAT.
4. Insert a merge field from the data source. Select the field for the file name from the merge file.
   After the merge, you may need to toggle field codes to display information if your document looks similar to the sample below:
   {INCLUDETEXT c:\winword\docs\disc01.doc}
   =======================
   {INCLUDETEXT c:\winword\docs\disc08.doc}
   To toggle the field codes, press <ALT/F9> to see the result of the merge codes, which will be the actual document.