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Entering a Customer Letter - Header Card

This page describes the fields on the 'Header' card of the Customer Letter record. Please follow the links below for descriptions of the other cards:
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Use this card in combination with the 'Text' card to compose the letter.

If you will send letters by email, the text in the Header field will be used as the subject of the mail, and the mail text will be constructed from the Text, Greetings and Signature fields in that order.

If you will print letters and you need the Header, Greetings, Sign and Signature fields to be printed on the letter, add the "Header", "Text", "Greetings" and "Signature" fields respectively to the Form Template.

You can use 'Paste Special' from the Sign field to obtain a list of personnel.

Form Template
Paste Special    Form Template register, System module
As is usual in Standard ERP, you can print letters from a Customer Letter record using the [Forms] button in the Navigation Centre, by clicking the Printer icon in an individual Customer Letter record or by selecting 'Print' from the File menu, again from an individual Customer Letter record. However, the selection of the Form Template (i.e. the letter template) is determined in a slightly different manner to that used by other forms in Standard ERP.

The most basic method of selecting the Form Template is simply to enter its Form Template Code in this field.

However, it may be easier to use a single Form in most circumstances and to override that default only on special occasions. To do this, follow these steps:

  1. Design a standard letter using the Form Template register in the System module. The general principles of Form design are described here, with details specific to letter design and an example here. Use the 'Properties' function on the Operations menu of the Form Template editor to assign the letter a suitable Form Code such as "LETTER". The Form Type should be "Customer Letters".

  2. Change to the CRM module and open the 'Forms' list window by clicking the [Forms] button in the Navigation Centre.

  3. Highlight 'Customer Letters' in the list:

  4. Select 'Define Form' from the Operations menu:

  5. In the subsequent 'Form Definition' window, enter the Form Template Code ("LETTER", in our example) in the Form Template field on the first row.

    As usual, you can use the 'Form Definition' window to determine that a different Form Template will be used depending on the Language or Number Series of the Customer Letter or the Access Group of the user.

  6. Once you have done this, the "LETTER" Form Template (or other Form Template from the 'Form Definition' window chosen on the basis of Language, Number Series or Access Group) will be used if the Form Template field on the 'Header' card of the Customer Letter record is blank. If you wish to use a different Form Template for a particular Customer Letter, specify that Form Template in the Form Template field. The Form Template specified in this field will be used instead of the one specified in the 'Form Definition' window.

Reply To (Email)
Paste Special    Mailboxes and Conferences
If you will be sending the Customer Letter by email using the 'Send email' Operations menu function, specify here the return address (sender's address) that is to be used. If this field is empty, the return address will be taken from the Person record quoted in the Sign field or, if that is blank, from the Email SMTP Server setting.

Language
Paste Special    Languages setting, System module
When you print letters from a Customer Letter record, the selection of the Form Template (i.e. the letter template) will be determined using one of two methods. You can enter a Form Template in the Form Template field above or, if that field is empty, you can use the 'Form Definition' window for the Customer Letter form. The second method allows letters to be printed using different Form Templates depending on the Language of the Customer Letter. Specify that Language here.

If you are using the second method (i.e. if the Form Template field above is empty), you can override the Language specified here when you print letters from the 'Forms' list window. This can be useful if, for example, you have a standard letter that is sometimes printed and sometimes faxed. In this case, enter separate rows in the 'Form Definition' window for printing and faxing. The fax row should have a dedicated Language (e.g. "FAX") in the Lang field. When you create the Customer Letter, enter the appropriate Language in this field to use the default printer (usually you can leave the Language blank in both the Customer Letter and the 'Form Definition' window). When you need to fax the letter, open the 'Specify Customer Letter' window from the 'Forms' list in the normal way, and enter the Language for the fax server. This will override the Language in the Customer Letter record.

Std. Text
Paste Special    Standard Text register, CRM module
If appropriate, use this field to select a Standard Text record. The text from the Standard Text record will appear in the Text field on the 'Text' card.

If the HTML box is ticked in the Standard Text record, the equivalent HTML box will be ticked automatically in the Customer Letter as well, if it wasn't ticked already. Any HTML Template specified in the Standard Text will also be copied to the Customer Letter.

If any files have been attached to the Standard Text record, these will be attached to the Customer Letter when you save it. If you will be sending the Customer Letter by email using the 'Send email' Operations menu function, these files will be attached to the emails. This can be useful when sending brochures, price lists, product sheets, etc.
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The Customer Letter register in Standard ERP:

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