For documents with variable information that frequently changes, what you need is a way to generate dynamic content for each recipient and transfer data directly from Full Fabric to the final doc, as that will let you push out hundreds of letters for the effort of one. The solution is using merge fields, and that's what this article is about.

(Pshhh, have you read our introductory article to Letters? If you haven't, check it out here, but if you have, proceed in peace. 🙏 🏳 )

A merge field is a tag representing a field in Full Fabric that will get replaced with the field’s content when a letter is generated for a profile.

To create letter templates in Full Fabric, you need to create a Microsoft Word documents with merge fields and then upload these as letter templates to Full Fabric. Merge fields are inserted inside the MS Word document through Word's Mail Merge feature (after which they take their name).

Merge fields allow you to create personalized documents with specific information about the particular student and their chosen product.

The first step for generating letter templates is creating a Microsoft Word document that contains mail merge fields named with the appropriate field reference. Full Fabric provides a list of field references for easy searching. To access it:

     1) Click the gear in the top-right corner and then General settings
     2) Open the Documents tab
     3) Press Download field references

You'll get a Word document that looks something like this:

The file was designed to be self-explanatory, so every tag has a description. The Description is on the left while the Name of the reference field is on the right. That said, some of the field references in the file are not meant for letters, so please just consider these four sections: GENERAL, PROFILE, PROGRAMME and CLASS.

Any profile field on your school's profile schema i.e. fields that appear in the info tab of a profile e.g. first name, can be used as merge fields. Please refer to the field references export for the field reference for your school's fields.

You can pull information related to the class/course information of a profile's journey when generating a letter. This includes standard fields as well as class/course schema fields which are particular to your school.

=programme.name

=class.name

=class.start_date

=class.end_date

=class.price

=class.__class_schema_field_name

=subject.name

=course.name

=course.start_date

=course.end_date

=course.price

=course.__course_schema_field_name

=campus.name

=campus.__campus_schema_field_x

It's also possible to substitute information for the journey fields on a profile's journey. Please ask Full Fabric support for the field references for your school's journey fields.

The format of the fields is:

=journey.__journey_schema_field_name

It's possible to add the following modifiers to merge fields for schema fields to generate information in a specific language/date format etc.

IMPORTANT: Please note that these must always be placed at the end of the merge field, even when other merge fields modifiers are used e.g. _as_long_format_in_en-gb

These modifiers can be applied to date schema fields, class/course dates, and todays date.

Examples for long format in different languages

This merge field loop prints the selected checkbox or drop down field offer as a list into the letter:

profile.__checkbox_field_name_array:each(option)

=option

profile.__checkbox_field_name_array:endEach

Please find the conditions that you must meet for your scholarship below:

profile.__scholarship_conditions_checkbox_array:each(option)

profile.__scholarship_conditions_checkbox_name_array:endEach

Please find the conditions that you must meet for your scholarship below:

These modifiers can be applied to cascading drop down fields

Please see the examples for an "Industry and job" cascading drop down field with "Industry" and "Job as sub-fields where the selection for "Industry" is "Education" and "Job is "Teacher.

These merge fields print the chosen profile payment plan as a table into the letter

=payment_plans

=payment_plans_with_discounts

This merge field loop prints the conditions of the chosen offer as a list into the letter:

offers.conditional_offer_template_name.conditions:each(condition)

=condition.label

=condition.description

offers.conditional_offer_template_name.conditions:endEach

Please find the conditions that you must meet for your offer below:

offers.conditional_offer_name.conditions:each(condition)

offers.conditional_offer_name.conditions:endEach

Please find the conditions that you must meet for your offer below:

This merge field loop prints the courses of an enrolment plan into the letter:

Whenever a letter contains bits of information that may change over time, you don't have to revise and reupload the Word document whenever an update is due. Instead, you can actually convert the "intel" into custom merge fields. Since merge fields are named after field references, what follows is that you need to create input fields in a special schema called Ask representing the changeable details you wish to divulge in the letter; and as a result, the act of generating a letter will prompt a pop-up window with those same input fields, so that you may fill them with the latest data. To display the information where in the letter you want it, just place the respective merge fields into the .docx document as you normally would.

To access the Ask schema:

     1) Tap the gear in the top-right corner and then General settings
     2) Open the Documents tab, which will land you in the Letter Templates tab
     3) Click the gear next to the desired letter template and then Schema

In the image above, two questions were created: Deadline for paying 1st tuition fee and Amount. You can see their field codes in light grey: __deadline_for_paying_the_1st_tuition_fee and __amount.

Meanwhile, getting back to the field references file, you can now make sense of the following item:

As the prefix indicates, it's related to the Ask schema. So, going by the structure that's given, you just have to replace the word condition with the field code, like so:

Then, when you add the Ask merge fields to your Word document, upload it to Full Fabric and generate a letter, you'll get a pop-up window like this:

The outcome being that the inputted values (15-11-2019 and $1000, in the example above) will replace the tags in the letter. 👍 So convenient, right?!

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PUBLISHED: June 22, 2020
LAST UPDATED: July 6, 2022 at 8:22 p.m.