QRG Merging and Printing Short and Long Suspension Letters Note: The example in this QRG is written around Office 2010. The mail merge functionality under Word 2010 is similar to Word 2007. Two sample letters have been provided, the Short and Long Suspension letters that can be merged with student related data exported from the Student Suspension module in ERN. All the relevant student level data required for the letters is available in the export file. Download the sample letters from the ERN Index Help and save them to a location that will be used to generate the letter to be sent home. Modify the letters with any additional information that your school requires to be included. This could include school logo s and contact details etc. Exporting the Student suspension data for long and short suspension letters Both Student Suspension Maintenance and Suspension Incident Maintenance have the ability to download the suspension data to an excel spread sheet. Note: Office 2010 was used as reference for this QRG. Note: The preference is to download all the suspension data for the year and then use filters in Excel to only print the letters for the students required. This is the approach that will be taken in this QRG.
Step 1 Download Data; From the Student Suspension Maintenance tab display all students who have been suspended. Select the Excel icon in the top left header bar to download the student suspension data. Note: The downloaded data is only for the students displayed in the list defined by the selection criteria. Step 2 Select Open; to open the file in Excel. The file is currently a CSV (Comma, Separated Values) file and needs to be saved as an Excel Workbook. In Excel select SAVE As and change the Save as Type from CSV (Comma delimited) to Excel Work Book and save it to a folder that you will use to generate the suspension letters. Accept the default name as it contains the date of the download. Step 3 Open the file in Excel and remove the rows not required Open the student suspension excel file. The first row of the spreadsheet contains the column headings. Highlight the first row and set the Filter Sort the suspension spreadsheet by Start Date (Suspension Start Date) from Newest to Oldest. Remove (delete) the records not required to generate letters in this session. Make sure that you delete each row in the spreadsheet that is not required.
Note: The spreadsheet can also be used as a record of the letters sent to parents. In the example above all the records not required have been removed leaving only two records to generate letters; one is a short suspension and the other a long suspension. Save and Close the spreadsheet. Note: We will filter for Long and Short suspension types dependent on the letter in the merge process. Step 4 Open the Short Suspension letter in Word Word will display a message requesting to connect to the last student suspension data source you used. Select No (connection to the current file will be completed at a later time within word. The Short Suspension letter will be opened with the merge fields highlighted. Step 5 Select the Excel spreadsheet to merge to produce letters. From the Word Menu select Mailings From the Mailings menu select the option Select Recipients Select Use Existing List This will allow you to open the current suspension Excel file to produce the letters. Browse to the location of the Excel file and open the file.
After selecting the file you will be prompted to confirm the spreadsheet to load. Select OK to continue. The Merge letter is now connected to the data source for producing the letters. Step 6 View the list of recipients Edit Recipient List From the Mailings menu select the option Edit Recipients List Note: Filter for Long and Short suspensions can be undertaken by:- 1) Deselecting all records and ticking the appropriate records for the letter type i.e. Short or Long. 2) Use the Filter option to filter on Type (Long or Short)
Step 7 Option 1:Deselecting all records and selecting required records individually In the example the data source has two suspension records, the first being a Long Suspension (Reason Physical Violence) and the second is a Short Suspension (Reason Aggressive Behaviour). As we are printing short suspension letters we would select the second suspension record in the file by ticking the box. To preview the letters that will be merged from the data source you can select Preview Results in the Mailings menu. To toggle the Highlight on the merged fields select the menu option Highlight Merge Fields, in this example it is turned ON.
Step 7 Option 2 Use the Filter option to filter on Type (Long or Short) Select Filter will allow filtering for short suspension only. Press OK to continue. To preview the letters that will be merged from the data source you can select Preview Results in the Mailings menu. To toggle the Highlight on the merged fields select the menu option Highlight Merge Fields, in this example it is turned ON. Step 8 Print the letters The final step is to print the short suspension letters. Note: Before you print make sure the Highlight Merge Fields is turned off.