Create Letter

Create a letter to print and send to the person from whose record you clicked the Create Letter button or to an advisor of that person.

Bequest Manager provides a list of letter templates from which to choose that give you a head start in creating the letter. Each template provides text designed to address one of a variety of donor situations where a letter might be warranted.

The Create Letter feature lets you:

Modify template text, as desired, before printing.
Modify and save an existing template for future use.
Create a new template for future use.
Insert variables that incorporate the date, addressee's name, address, and salutation, and signer's name and title automatically.

To start

1. Open the Person Information page for the person to whom you wish to write a letter. Open this same page if you wish to create a letter for one of the person's advisors.

2. To create a letter for the person: Click the Create Letter button in the upper section of the page.

To create a letter for one of the person's advisors: Click the Advisors tab and then click the Create Letter button on the row of the advisor for whom you wish to create a letter.

Create a letter or create a new letter template

3. Select a template in the Choose a Letter Template menu. The text of the letter will appear in the editing window. Alternatively, you can just enter the letter text in the editing window without retrieving a template first.

Even if no template corresponds to the letter you wish to send, you may want to select one anyway so that placeholder variables for the recipient's name and address, etc. are provided automatically.

4. Edit the letter text as desired. Use the toolbar buttons to adjust margins, change font attributes, or insert an image (such as a signature).

Copying unformatted text from another document
To copy and paste unformatted text from a Word document or text file into the letter, open the file containing the desired text and copy it to the clipboard, then switch back to the Create Letter editing window. Place the cursor where you want to insert the text or highlight the text you want to overwrite, and then click in the toolbar. Depending on your browser, you may need to follow extra prompts before the text appears in the editing window. Once it is there, fix the formatting of the inserted text as necessary.

5. When done entering and formatting text, click the Save Body as New Letter Template.

6. Enter the name of the new letter template as it should appear in the Letter Template menu.

7. Click , then click .

8. Click Print/Preview Letter, then click Open to preview the letter in a standard pdf window.

9. If the letter doesn't need any revision, print or save the letter, if desired. Close the pdf window when done.

10. Click .

11. Choose whether or not to add a contact to the person's Contact tab that indicates that the person was sent the letter on today's date.

12. Repeat steps 4 and 8 - 11, as needed, until the letter needs no further revision.

13. Click Close to return to the Person Information page.

Rename a letter template

3. Select the template in the Choose a Letter Template menu that you want to rename. The text of the letter will appear in the editing window.

4. Click the Rename This Letter Template button.

5. Enter the new name for the template, then click .

Delete a letter template

3. Select the template in the Choose a Letter Template menu that you want to delete. The text of the letter will appear in the editing window.

4. Click the Delete This Letter Template button.

5. Click Yes.

Revise an existing letter template

3. Select the template in the Choose a Letter Template menu that you want to revise. The text of the letter will appear in the editing window.

4. Edit the letter text as desired. Use the toolbar buttons to adjust margins, change font attributes, or insert an image (such as a signature).

5. Click the Save Body as Existing Letter Template.

Placeholder variables

You can insert the following placeholder variables in letter text. These variables are replaced by values stored in Bequest Manager when the letter is printed or previewed.

Variable	Contents
[@FullName]	Prefix, First Name, Last Name, and Suffix of the recipient formatted as "Prefix First Name Last NameSuffix". If the recipient is linked to a living spouse and joint mailing information is entered, this variable displays the Joint Mailing Name instead.
[@Date]	System date of your computer
[@HomeAddress]	Address Line 1 and, if filled in, Address Line 2 of the recipient's Home Address. If the recipient is linked to a living spouse and joint mailing information is entered, this variable displays the above address lines for the Address for Joint Mailings instead.
[@CSZC]	City, State, and Zip Code of the recipient's Home Address, formatted as "City, ST 12345" If the recipient is linked to a living spouse and joint mailing information is entered, this variable displays the City, State, and Zip Code for the Address for Joint Mailings instead.
[@Salutation]	First Name of the recipient. If the recipient is linked to a living spouse and joint mailing information is entered, this variable displays the Joint Salutation instead.
[@OfficerName]	Name of the officer assigned to the recipient
[@OfficerTitle]	Title of the officer assigned to the recipient

Inserting an image into a letter

1. Place the cursor where you want to insert the image.

2. Click in the toolbar to open the Image Manager.

If the name of the image file appears in the middle pane of the Image Manager, click it, then click Insert. Go to Step 5.

If the name of the image file does not appear in the middle pane of the Image Manager, you need to add the image:

Click Upload in the Image Manager toolbar.
Click Select on the right of the top-most field.
Browse to the folder that contains the image file you want to upload.
Double-click the image file.
Click Upload. The file name should now appear in the middle pane of the Image Manager.

3. The image will now appear in the letter where your cursor was placed.

4. To resize the image, click it and then drag a corner tab until the image is the size you want.