Brevity Mail Merge

Mail Merge documents are generated against any records in Brevity. This can be for client, employees, or any other type of record. For generating letters for clients for example we would go to the client list screen (Clients > Client). From here we would click the Mail Merge button on the toolbar to show the Mail Merge template section.

The mail merge template section displays a list of templates previously uploaded. We can also begin creating a new template by clicking the Download template link in the top left to download a word file that has all the system field name that we can use in our Mail Merge document. 

Click the Download template link to download the blank template file for the Clients table. Open the document in Word.

To view the merge field pane, you will need to show the Developer tab in Word if it is not visible. To do this, right-click anywhere within the ribbon area in Word

Then select Customize the Ribbon option:

Ensure the Developer option is selected and click Ok:

On the Developer tab, click the XML Mapping Pane button to show the XML Mapping Pane

In the XML Mapping Pane, select the brevity option from the dropdown to see the available merge fields

If you have a preexisting document you would like to add the merge fields to, you will need to copy and paste the content from your existing document to the blank template, and then add the merge fields from there. To add the merge fields to the document, place the cursor in the position you would like the merge field to be added within the document - this can include embedding within a paragraph.

Then right click on the field within the XML Pane that you would like to merge into the document, and select Insert Content Control and then Plain Text..

If you are planning on using the template for merging more than one record at a time, you will need to add all merge fields (as above) within a repeating control. To add the repeating control, first select all the text within your document by pressing CTRL+A on your keyboard to select all text within your document, then right-click on the first child under the root node in the XML Mapping Pane, then select Insert Content Control and then Repeating..

With the document text and merge fields added, we are ready to upload the template back to Brevity to be used for merging with client records. To do this click the Mail Merge button once again on the Client list screen and then click the Upload Filed link in the right pane section to upload the document you created. This should show in the list once uploaded.

• Single Selection. Just Click on the client's name to select the client. Mail Merge will be applied only to this client.

• Multiple Selection using Shift Key.  You can click on the first client (A) that you want to apply the mail merge then press and hold the shift key on your keyboard. Select the last client (B) that you want to apply the mail merge and all the clients in between client A and client B will be selected.

• Multiple Selection using Ctrl Key. Press and hold the ctrl key on your keyboard and click on the name of the clients you want to apply the mail merge. It will highlight all the clients that mail merge will be applied.

You are now ready to use the merge template for generating merge documents. To generate the documents for all records shown in the list below, click on the more menu (3 horizontal dots) for the associated template and click the Mail Merge option to immediately run and download the mail merge document.

This is what the merge document looks like once created. We could have added a page break if we wanted each letter to start on a new page: