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:
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​     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.

Example: «=profile.__nationality_in_de-de».

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 in the letter:

Offer conditions merge fields are composed of the following merge codes.

offers.conditional_offer_template_name.conditions:each(condition)

=condition.label

=condition.description

offers.conditional_offer_template_name.conditions:endEach

The first merge field and the last merge field are simply the opening and closing tags to print the details of the list of offer conditions that are selected.

Please note that"conditional_offer_template_name" should be replaced by the name of the Conditional Offer template which you are using.

For example, for an Offer Template named - Masters Conditional Offer

The opening and closing tags would be:

Opening tag:

offers.masters_conditional_offer.conditions:each(condition)

Closing tag:

offers.masters_conditional_offer.conditions:endEach

As for the other merge code fields included in the conditions set, the =condition.label produces the "Field title" of the condition, and the =condition.description - produces the "Field instructions" of the condition

Your merge fields will look like this:

Note: Offer templates are created under General Settings > Institution > Offer templates.

Once you generate your offer letter for a particular profile, the selected conditions will be displayed like this:

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