Editing the template

Introduction

The tax return cover letter created in the previous topic is now ready for amendments. This section covers some of the basic editing tools required to successfully create your own customised templates.

 

At the end of the this topic, you will be able to:

To get started, open the Tax Return Cover letter for editing:

  1. From the IRIS Main Menu, click IRIS AutoMail and click Templates from the Letter Request Browser.

  2. Click Templates from the Letter Request Browser screen.

  3. Click the User templates folder.

  4. Highlight the letter created in the previous topic based on the Tax Return Cover letter.

  5. Click Edit.

Displayed are two screens. The Tag Selection screen provides a list of all the tags (information from the IRIS database) available to insert into your template and the Microsoft Word document which shows you the content of the actual letter.

 

To start we are going make sure that field codes in Word are switched off. This is a tool that enables you to view the entire contents of the template, this will be discussed in detail in the advanced help.

 

To switch off field codes:

For Word 2003 users:

  1. Select Tools | Options and select the View tab.

  2. Deselect 'field codes' if selected.

  3. Click OK.

For Word 2007 users:

  1. Click on Office (top left-hand corner).

  2. Click on Word Options.

  3. Select Advanced.

  4. Deselect 'Show field codes instead of their values'.

  5. Click OK.

 

Template header and footer

Lets start with the basics. To view or amend the template header and footer you can use the standard editing functions provided within Microsoft Word itself.

 

To add details in the footer:

For Word 2003 users:

  1. Select View | Header and Footer

  2. Select switch between Header and Footer to view footer details.

  3. Type: Partners: Rachel Preston, Peter Clark.

  4. Click Close.

For Word 2007 users:

  1. Click Insert.

  2. Click Footer.

  3. Select Edit Footer.

  4. Type: Partners: Rachel Preston, Peter Clark.

  5. Click Close Header and Footer.

You can type what ever you wish in the footer, this is just an example. Similarly you can also add your own company logo in the header if you wish.

 

Deleting tags

The tags in the template are displayed as follows, between opening and closing brackets.

The cover letter begins with the following line:

Dear «LMCLFormalSalutation»,

 

This means that when the letter is generated after the text Dear the formal salutation corresponding to the client the letter is generated for will be displayed.

In this example we are going to delete the formal salutation tag to replace with the informal salutation. To delete a tag, simply highlight the tag and press delete on your keyboard. Highlight the tag «LMCLFormalSalutation» after the text Dear and press delete.

 

Inserting tags

To replace the formal salutation tag with the informal salutation, we first need to select the tag from the Tag Selection screen before inserting into the Word template.

 

To select tags from the Tag Selection screen:

  1. Click on AutoMail in the task bar to display the Tag Selection screen.;

  2. Expand on the particular client folder.

  3. Expand on the individual folder.

  4. Select the Informal Salutation option.

  5. Click Refresh.

To insert tags in Microsoft Word:

For Word 2003 users:

  1. Click on Microsoft Word in the task bar.

  2. Place your cursor after the text Dear.

  3. Click Merge Field in the tool bar (the Insert Merge Field is an option to the left of Insert Word Field).

  4. Highlight LMCLInformalSalutation.

  5. Click Insert.

  6. Click Close.

For Word 2007 users:

  1. Click Mailings.

  2. Click Insert Merge Field.

  3. Click on LMCLInformalSalutation.

To save your changes:

  1. Click AutoMail in the task bar.

  2. Click Save in the Tag Selection screen.

You will return to the AutoMail - letter template maintenance screen. To return to the template for editing at a later stage, highlight the template and click Edit.