Letterhead definition management overview
Integral to the management of communication definitions is the ability to maintain any number of 'standard' letterheads outside of the custom templates, such that any changes to a housing organisation's logo, registered address or contact options can be applied once, and then rippled through to the relevant templates at the point of compilation. So, instead of inserting from scratch the same letterhead information into each new communication template over and over again, it is more efficient to create a single standard letterhead (or more, as the need arises) in the right format and style, holding custom text and place holders (merge tags) that will be common to all communications. Thus, when an existing letterhead is employed for a new communication, it will already be pre-formatted and all the key information will be present in the header and footer sections, leaving only bespoke text and event-specific data fields to be retrieved and merged from the relevant communication definition.
Each newly-created letterhead contains three key components: a header, footer and a further content section (which is included as a visual aid only and cannot be amended). Each of these customisable elements can be constructed using the letterhead definition editor - a powerful and intuitive feature of the overall letterhead management system. The user interface has a range of familiar editing tools, grouped together by task, and all the most frequently used commands are available in a single ribbon, ensuring fast and efficient letterhead production. In addition to the main letterhead itself, the definition can also be configured to include a continuation layout, the format of which being applied to all subsequent pages of a finalised communication. Where preferred, an end user can choose instead to develop the letterhead and continuation template structure entirely in Microsoft Word.
Once a custom letterhead has been created, it can be mapped to any number of existing or newly-created communication templates through the 'Letterhead' drop-down field, accessible within the overarching communication definition. When subsequent correspondences are generated, the letterhead structure and any continuation page preferences will then be automatically incorporated into the compiled result.
Separate help articles have been created for each key aspect of letterhead definition management, including: