Using Mail Merge to Create Confirmation Letters in Research Tracker II
(Research Tracker® II Tech Topic; March, 2001)
Research Tracker® II can save hours of clerical time by instantly creating professional looking Confirmation Letters. Research Tracker® II uses information on the main Job Data screen & the Sessions subscreen, along with Respondent information to create a file that can be used in Microsoft Word to create a variety of personalized letters, postcards, tent cards, labels, or other materials. Be sure your computer has Word 97 or a newer version installed before proceeding:
1. Create a template of your letter in Word. This does not require any special formatting, just create the letter as a normal Word document, leaving a space where each merge field will be inserted. Examples of merge fields are first name, last name, address, date of group, time of group, coop amount, job number. Save the letter and close.
2. Create the data file in Research Tracker. This is done from the Job Confirmations/Roster screen. Locate the desired Job. Choose the Confirmation Output option, then click Mail Merge Output. Click the "Include All" button to include all respondents scheduled for the job. (If your version of Research Tracker II does not have a "Include All" button, click the Include? check box beside each name on the list). Click Run. You will receive a message that your file has been created and it is located at C:\RT2\studydat.doc. Verify that there is indeed a file by that name in that location.
3. Go back to Word, open the document created in #1, click Tools, Mail Merge.
4. Click Step 1- "Create" from the Mail Merge Helper box.
5. Click Form Letter, then Active Window
6. Click Step 2 - "Get Data" from the Mail Merge Helper box
7. Click Open Data Source, then locate C:\RT2\studydat.doc in the browser box
8. At this point, you may get a message to the effect that the feature you are trying to use has not been installed. If you see this message, click No, you don't want to install it.
9. Click Edit Main Document from the message that appear
10. Position your curser in the letter where you want the first merge field to appear. For example, if your letter begins Dear_, you would position the curser to the right of the word "Dear".
11. Click the "Insert Merge Field" button in the upper left area of your toolbar. You will see a drop down box of all the available fields to use in your letter. For example, to insert the field containing first names, you would click "fname".
12. Continue to insert as many merge fields as you wish at the appropriate place in the letter. When you are finished, save the document. This will preserve both the form letter as well as the merge fields you are going to use for this letter, now and in the future.
13. Click Tools, Mail Merge.
14. Click Step 3 - "Merge".
15. Click Merge again, using the default settings.
16. Your letters should appear as a document, one letter per page. If they don't look right, close the merged document without saving it and edit the form letter. Proceed again with steps 13-15. If your letters have blanks in some of the merge fields, check the Job Data and Sessions screens in Research Tracker to make sure you have input the necessary data about the job and its sessions. You may also need to check the Job Recruitment screen to make sure each scheduled Respondent has been assigned to a Session.
17. Do not save the merged document under the same name as the set-up document. The merged document is for one-time use. We recommend you print the letters and then exit.
18. The next time you need to do letters, you will simply do #2, then #13-15.