VSys One: Volunteer Management Software

Previous Topic

Next Topic

Book Contents

Book Index

Mail Merge

The mail merge tool combines a letter template with the people who meet your criteria to form a batch of letters. These letters can then be printed, saved and/or e-mailed.

Steps in this task

  1. Start the mail merge process by clicking on Mail merge to letters and e-mails on the Letters/e-mails panel.
    Mail merge screen showing a merge for upcoming trainings letters
  2. In the Mail merge section, select a letter template for the merge. You can edit letter templates from here using the Edit template link.
  3. Use the Edit detail filtering link to sort any information you may be presenting in sub-letters, in this case "Trainings". For example, you can require that everyone getting the letter have one or more qualifying items (trainings). You can use the Sorting tab to control how these items (trainings) are sorted for each person. In this case here you'll probably want to do these in order by the Start date of the trainings. (See Sending a Quick Letter for examples of sorting.)
  4. Choose whether to send one letter to each person at an address, or if multiple people at a shared address should receive only one letter. (Addresses must be shared in their profiles.)
  5. Choose how the people receiving this letter are selected, either Using specific criteria (filters) or By adding them individually or from lists. (The latter is only available for some types of letters).
  6. If you've chosen By adding them individually or from lists, use the Person edit field to find and select people by entering a last name, date of birth, kiosk ID, e-mail or phone number. You can also use the Ellipse (three dots)  icon button to bring up the person search tool.
  7. Click the Use a list link and then Add from a list or Remove using a list to add/remove people from the mail merge recipients using existing lists.
    Mail merge settings panel showing adding recipients individually or by list
  8. If you've chosen Using specific criteria, set the filters for the people to be included. People are only included if they meet all of the criteria you specify. Note the filters available will vary depending on the type of letter being sent. Add additional filters as necessary using the Add another filter link.
  9. On the left navigation bar under Address types, configure the address filtering. Choose which address types are preferred by setting an order here. Include (any) as the last fallback address type if you want the letter to go to any valid address even if it's not selected here. Then include or exclude incomplete addresses (those missing one or more of an address line, city, state and zip/postal code), and whether people who don't have an applicable address should be excluded or included.
  10. Also on the left navigation bar under Sorting, add one or more sort options to make VSys sort the letters into a particular order, perhaps alphabetically or by zip code. Letters will first be sorted by the topmost field, then the second field, then the third, and so on. The Up arrow image and Down arrow image arrows next to each field indicate that the field will be sorted ascending (A-Z) or descending (Z-A), respectively. Not setting any sort options will result in the letters printing in an arbitrary order.
  11. Click on the Merge button.

VSys will find all of the people who meet your criteria, then combine them with your letter template. The results, if any, will then appear on screen.

Once you've gotten your settings the way you want them, if you intend to do this same or similar merge again, click Save settings and name your merge. Next time you run a mail merge, you can click on the Load settings link and re-load those settings.

To exclude people who have recently received a similar letter, you can add the filter Letter sent. In the options VSys brings up, you can set the criteria for recency, letter types, etc. in order to not repeat the same or similar letters over and over.

In This Section

Merge Results

Mailing Labels from Mail Merged Letters

Sending By E-mail

See Also

Letters, Mailing Labels and E-mails

Setup Letter Types and Templates

Sending a Quick Letter

Letter Manager

Basic Mailing Labels

Custom Mailing Labels