Letter Addressing

[lindsayl]

Hi Truman,

We have a request. Maybe you already have an answer to. We usually address our letters like this:

Date


Joe & Lindsay Lloyd
Address
Address


Dear Joe & Lindsay,


Is there anyway we can just address it to the two first names? I don't see a Tab for this, maybe you call it something else. In our old database we called it first names. We feel this is more personal.

[Bridgecity]

This is a great question.  I know you can use the {tags} to do a "dear {firstname}," kind of thing, but you are asking about a letter addressed to a family, right?  So far we've only used ascribe to mail or email to individuals, not to spouses together.  How would we go about this, Truman?

Also, on the subject of the {tags}, I'd love to have an automatic {date} tag that can be inserted into emails or letters.

Marc

[Truman]

Hi Lindsay and Marc,

In the letter template you can add in {letter_date}. Then when you go to do a letter mail merge, there is a date field in the config page. This automatically defaults to the current date. However, you can change it to whatever you wish.

Also when setting up the letter normally I do this:

Code:

{letter_date}

{addressee_full_address}

Dear {salutation_name_formatted},

The address will be properly formatted as well as the salutation name. Now when you go to generate the letters, in the config page on the bottom is an setting for "Salutation Formatting". Set that to "informal" for a more casual style, such as what you would like, Lindsay. If you use the {salutation_name_formatted} placeholder tag, Ascribe can do some pretty fancy salutation formatting based on the names of the head of household and spouse in the family. This formatting can be overridden by setting the Short Salutation Name set in their person record.

Let me know how it works for you.

Truman

[Bridgecity]

Do all these tags work the same way in the email tool?

[Truman]

The "Formatted Salutation Name" tag in the email campaign works the exact same way as it would when sending letters to individuals. Letters to households formats the salutation names differently because there is often more than one person. But for emails, it assumes its being sent to one person.

Truman

[Bridgecity]

What about the date tag?

[Truman]

There's no date tag set up for the email campaign module. I never thought of that. Can you see a need for it?

Truman

[Bridgecity]

Yea, in every bulk email we send out we manually a the top put a little block that says the date of the letter, among other things.  I know that emails automatically get date tagged in the header, but you'd be surprised how many people don't know that.  We send out three different bulk emails weekly, and having a date be the first thing people see, lets them know that they're reading the current one.  We do the date manually, but it would be one step of automation to have a tag that just generates it when the email goes out.

[Truman]

Your wish is my command!

I've added a "Date Today" tag which will add the current date when the email is sent out. Be careful though, if you create the email today but send it out tomorrow, it will have tomomrrow's date when you do send it out.

[Bridgecity]

That's actually what we want.  That way templates we create will be dated the actual day of mailing.  Thanks!

[lindsayl]

Truman,
So are you saying I need to go in and enter into the salutation field both first names of the spouses?

[Truman]

Lindsay, no. By default, Ascribe will use the first name. You could change that short saluationa name to something like "Pastor Bob" if you wanted a letter to read "Dear Pastor Bob and Linda" if there was a Pastor Bob with a wife named Linda.

Truman

[lindsayl]

I am still confused. So how do i get it to pull both spouses firstnames (without the last name or the word family) into the same letter?

[Truman]

I looked at one of your letter templates. You used {household_name}. Instead of using that, use {salutation_name_formatted}.

Try that and let me know if it works for you.

Truman

[lindsayl]

Okay here is what happens when generate it from households using the {salutation_name_formatted} after the word Dear:

Roger & Traci Gales
3101 Calle Quieto
San Clemente, CA 92672


Dear Roger, Traci & Family,

Formatted wrong and the word family is there.

&

Here is what it does when i generate it from aperson:

Roger & Traci Gales
3101 Calle Quieto
San Clemente, CA 92672

Dear Roger,

What happend to Traci's name?
What do you think is happening?

Also can we add the letter option to the single family viewing page. In case I only want to send a letter to one person.