The Print Letters & Send Email screen provides a convenient way for administrators to send letters and forms to either a single person or multiple people at once. Formal, formatted letters can be created, saved, and reopened/edited directly within Print Letters & Send Email. The same letters and forms can be saved for future use.
Print Letters & Send Email is in the process of migrating to Communication > Templates. In order to migrate letters yourself, click Migrate Letters.
You must have permission to Migrate via Users > Profiles > Students tab in order to have access to the migration process.
Upon migrating letters, you can review which letters have been migrated and which have not in the Migrated column.
1. In the Students menu, click Print Letters & Send Email.
In order to View and/or Edit Print Letters & Send Email, you must have the profile permission via Users > Profiles > Students tab. In order to Publish Letters, Email Letters, or Edit Letters Created By Others, you must have permission to Edit.
If the only permission enabled is View All Letters, you can view all letters created by all users, but letters cannot be edited. You can still print and/or email letters via the Print/Email button as well as create your own one-time letters to be edited, printed, and/or emailed.
2. Click Print/Email a One-Time Letter to begin.
3. If searching for specific students by name or student number, type the information directly into the Student text box. Leave the text box empty to return all students in the school.
4. Utilize the Letter Text - New File section to begin entering and formatting your letter. The open word processing box is equipped with a full formatting palette; note that hovering your mouse over any tool in the formatting palette will display a short description of what that tool will do.
1. Save, Open, and Preview. Save your content in Focus, open the file later, and preview a text-type version.
2. Correct spelling and grammatical errors with the SpellCheck tool.
3. Undo and Redo any actions while creating documents.
4. Link or Unlink hyperlinks using these two tools. There are several options for creating links with Phantom JS:
a. On the Link Info tab, enter how you’d like to see the link displayed in the Display Text text box. Choose a Link Type from the pull-down; options include: URL, Link to anchor in the text, and Email. Select a Protocol, such as http:// or news://. Then enter the URL in the text box provided. Click OK when finished.
i. Select Email under Link Type to create links for letter recipients to reply with an email. You can select to write automated subject titles and/or text, as well. Different information will be required, such as E-Mail Address, Message Subject, and Message Body.
b. If using a URL, you will see a Target tab. Select this tab to set a Target, such as <frame>, <popup window>, Same Window (…self), Parent Window (…parent), etc. This determines how you want recipients to open the link.
c. If desired, you also have the ability to upload a document as a link. Select the Upload tab to Choose File. Once uploaded, you can choose to Send it to the Server to be saved there as well.
d. For additional options for either a URL, Email, or Upload, click on the Advanced tab.
5. If you have applied a format or have copied and pasted text into the body of the word processing box, you can utilize the tool shown to Remove Format.
6. Use these tools to Cut selected text, Copy selected text, Paste text from another document, or Paste from Word.
7. You can also Bold selected text, use the Italics tool, Underline text, and Strikethrough text.
8. Use the X tools for Subscript and Superscript text as shown in the image.
9. Use the following tools to Insert/Remove Numbered List, Insert/Remove Bulleted List, Decrease Indent, Increase Indent, and create a Block Quote.
10. Use the following tools to Align Left, Center, Align Right.
11. To insert an image, click on the Image icon. This will allow you to browse for an image attachment. If there is a lot of data that you’d like to sort into a table, click on the Table icon. If needed, you can Insert Horizontal Line, or Insert Special Character. The last tool shown here can be used to Insert Page Break for Printing.
a. If Table is selected, a Table Properties pop-up will display. Here you can set the number of Rows, Columns, etc.
12. To change the font/format, use the Paragraph Format pull-down. Some of the options include different headings, Address, Normal (DIV), etc.
13. To change the size of the font, use the Font Size pull-down.
14. Click on the Source button for CSS/HTML embedding.
15. Select the Text Color button for a variety of text color options or the Background Color button to change the background color of the text.
16. Use this tool to Insert a Field from Focus. Depending on what is needed, select the correct header, such as Demographic, Enrollment, etc., then select the field.
To print or email letters that include a student ID barcode, click the Insert a Field tool. Click Student Demo or the applicable Demographic tab. Select Student ID Barcode. Click OK once the field is selected.
Upon printing or emailing the letter, the barcode displays, as shown in the image below.
17. At the bottom of the word processing box, you will see a description of each entered section. Clicking on any of them will highlight the corresponding section. For example, if you click on body, all of the text entered will be selected. Or, clicking on h1, will select the heading entered.
6. Select a Schedule Effective Date, if applicable.
7. Decide how you want the letters sorted using the Sort Letters pull-down, such as By Zip Code, by period and teacher, etc.
8. Select the desired Letterhead Template. This is very important to choose correctly before printing/sending, as it will impact the display of the letter. Note: Letterhead Templates are set up by the district (Setup > Letterhead Templates).
9. Select the Student Group from the pull-down, if applicable. Groups must first be set up via Students > Student Groups.
10. Select the check box to Search All Schools if you want the search criteria entered to pull from all schools.
11. The last option is to Include Inactive Students. Selecting to Include Inactive Students will display two other options as well: Include Previous Years Inactive Students and Use Most Recent Enrollment.
12. When the students have been defined and the letter has been created, click Continue… to go on to the next page. If needed, you can Reset to clear everything on the page and start over.
1. Click Continue… on the last screen to navigate to a new Print Letters & Send Email screen where you can choose to generate letters for selected students.
2. To preview and print letters be sure the Method is set to Print Letters.
3. Select the Recipient using the radio buttons. Options include:
Student Primary: The email will be addressed to the student and sent to the student's primary email address recorded in Student Info.
Student Personal: The email will be addressed to the student and sent to the student's personal email address recorded in Student Info. See below for more information about the personal email address field.
Parents: The email/letter will be addressed to all logged custodial contacts for each selected student. If the student's custodial contacts reside at different addresses or have different recorded email addresses, the email/letter will be sent to all addresses.
One per Family: The email/letter will be addressed to the student's custodial contact and/or contact with a Sort Order priority of 1. The Linked Students section in Student Info > Addresses & Contacts is also used to determine which students are in the same family.
Student Primary & Parents: The email/letter will be sent to the student's primary email address recorded in Student Info, as well as all logged custodial contacts for the selected student. If the student's custodial contacts reside at different addresses or have different recorded email addresses, the email/letter will be sent to all addresses.
Student Personal & Parents: The email/letter will be sent to the student's personal email address recorded in Student Info, as well as all logged custodial contacts for the selected student. If the student's custodial contacts reside at different addresses or have different recorded email addresses, the email/letter will be sent to all addresses. See below for more information about the personal email address field.
The students' personal email addresses must first be enabled by the district in Student Fields. Once enabled, students' personal email addresses can be recording in Student Info. Note: The Primary email address is recorded in a separate field from the Personal Student Email field.
4. You also have the option to Add log entries for each student. If this check box is selected, the letter will be logged for each student selected under Students > Student Info > Letter Logging tab.
The Add log entries for each student check box will be selected by default when the Add student log entries by default when using Print Letters and Send Emails setting is enabled via Setup > System Preferences.
5. Select the Include student name/id on each PDF page (Print Only) check box when printing letters that are more than one page.
6. Select the students for whom you need letters by selecting the check box next to each student. As students are selected, the number of selections made will display next to the number of students pulled originally.
If you want to generate letters for all students displayed, select the check box in the header.
7. Once the students have been selected, you can either Preview the letter or Print Letters by clicking the corresponding buttons. Note: Previewing the letter here may not reflect the exact layout of the created letter.
8. Preview the letter then click Return to Focus to go back to the Print Letters & Send Email screen.
9. Click Print Letters to generate all of the selected students’ letters in a print preview screen. From this screen you have several options including, Rotate clockwise (circular arrow), Download as a PDF (down arrow), Print (printer icon), Fit to page (small inner arrows), Zoom in (plus sign), and Zoom out (minus sign). When finished, click Return to Focus to return to the Print Letters & Send Email screen.
Once the letter has been selected to be printed/generated, the letter will appear in the student’s Letter Logging information, as shown in the image.
From the Letter Log, you can view and edit the Recipient, the Date, the Subject, the Body, the Sender, the Time, and the Recipient Email. You can also download the letter as a PDF (Download File icon) or delete the file generated (Delete File icon). Hover over the (Save to Upload) fields for additional options: Scan, Upload, Take Photo, and expand.
1. Click Continue… on the last screen to navigate to a new Print Letters & Send Email screen where you can choose to generate letters for selected students.
2. To preview and send emails be sure the Method is set to Send Emails.
3. Enter an Email Subject and a CC (Carbon Copy email address) if needed. You have the option to Only CC first message and to Send a copy to myself (your email address will display here).
4. Select the Send from NoReply check box to ensure that emails are not sent from your logged email address recorded via Users > User Info and from the following email address instead: “[email protected].”
5. In addition to emailing the letter to the student or parents, you can also attach other files to send with the letter, such as an additional image. You can attach up to 5 files. To select a file, click Choose File. To delete an attachment, click remove. To add another attachment/file, click Attach another file. You will be altered to how many more files can be attached.
6. Select the Recipient from the pull-down. Options include:
Student Primary: The email will be addressed to the student and sent to the student's primary email address recorded in Student Info.
Student Personal: The email will be addressed to the student and sent to the student's personal email address recorded in Student Info. See below for more information about the personal email address field.
Parents: The email/letter will be addressed to all logged custodial contacts for each selected student. If the student's custodial contacts reside at different addresses or have different recorded email addresses, the email/letter will be sent to all addresses.
One per Family: The email/letter will be addressed to the student's custodial contact and/or contact with a Sort Order priority of 1. The Linked Students section in Student Info > Addresses & Contacts is also used to determine which students are in the same family.
Student Primary & Parents: The email/letter will be sent to the student's primary email address recorded in Student Info, as well as all logged custodial contacts for the selected student. If the student's custodial contacts reside at different addresses or have different recorded email addresses, the email/letter will be sent to all addresses.
Student Personal & Parents: The email/letter will be sent to the student's personal email address recorded in Student Info, as well as all logged custodial contacts for the selected student. If the student's custodial contacts reside at different addresses or have different recorded email addresses, the email/letter will be sent to all addresses. See below for more information about the personal email address field.
The students' personal email addresses must first be enabled by the district in Student Fields. Once enabled, students' personal email addresses can be recording in Student Info. Note: The Primary email address is recorded in a separate field from the Personal Student Email field.
7. You also have the option to Add log entries for each student. If this check box is selected, the letter will be logged for each student selected under Students > Student Info > Letter Logging tab.
From the Letter Log, you can view and edit the Recipient, the Date, the Subject, the Body, the Sender, the Time, and the Recipient Email. You can also download the letter as a PDF (Download File icon) or delete the file generated (Delete File icon). Hover over the (Save to Upload) fields for additional options: Scan, Upload, Take Photo, and expand.
8. Select the students for whom you need letters by selecting the check box next to each student. As students are selected, the number of selections made will display next to the number of students pulled originally.
If you want to generate letters for all students displayed, select the check box in the header.
9. Once the students have been selected, you can either Preview the letter or Send Emails. It is recommended to Preview before emailing to be sure all required information has been included and that the correct letterhead template has been selected.
10. Preview the email then click Return to Focus to go back to the Print Letters & Send Email screen.
11. Select Send Emails to send the letters to selected students or parents. Once the email has been sent, you will receive a message saying Your letter as been emailed to the selected Students. You will also be taken back to the main Print Letters & Send Email screen where you can conduct a new search, etc.
Shown is an example of what the email would look like.
If the student or parent does not have an email set up, you will receive an Error that no email was entered and the message was not delivered. The email for parents can be entered via Users > User Info or Students > Student Info > Addresses & Contacts and for students via Students > Student Info.
In order to create letters and emails you want to save and use multiple times or push out for schools to use, you can log the letter or email and save it directly on the Print Letters & Send Email screen.
1. To start, first you must add the letter/email body. Click on View for new entries or Edit for existing entires to add the text of the message. For more information on entering text here and using the tools available, see Word Processing Tools.
When adding/updating letters via the View and/or Edit button, changes are automatically saved upon clicking out of the Edit pop-up screen.
You can move and relocate the View and/or Edit pop-up window anywhere on the screen.
2. Enter or edit the Title in the provided text box.
3. Select the Profiles from the pull-down that you would like to have access to your letter/email.
4. Select which Schools should have access to the letter/email from the pull-down.
5. To make the letter/email available on a tab, such as the Demographic tab in Student Info, select the tab from the Attach to Tab pull-down.
a. The Print a Form/Letter pull-down displays on the selected tab, such as Student Demo tab via Students > Student Info. From the pull-down, select the form or letter to be printed.
i. From the print preview, select the applicable check boxes in the Send Letter section, such as Email Student, Email Linked Users, Email Custodial Contacts, Send to Student Log, and/or Include Student Name/ID on Each PDF Page (Print Only).
b. If you select the Course History Record option from the Attach to Tab pull-down, the letter(s) will display in a Grade Report button or pull-down on the Course History screen and/or Grades screen (Parent/Student Portals). Note: This option will display whether or not the selected schools are Post Secondary; however, when the option is selected, it will only have an affect on Post Secondary schools. See Generating the Grade Report (Attach to Tab: Course History Record) for more information.
6. Select a Default Letterhead from the pull-down. Note: Letterhead Templates are set up by the district (Setup > Letterhead Templates).
7. If you district is utilizing the Document Management add-on module and you have the applicable permission enabled, you will see the Academic Record Category pull-down displayed. Select the applicable Academic Record Category from the pull-down to determine how the letter/email is stored in the students' cumulative folder.
The Academic Record Category field displays if your district is utilizing Document Management, which is an add-on module enabled by Focus via Setup > Site Administration. Contact your district's Account Executive for more information about purchasing and enabling this feature.
If you district has already enabled Document Management, you must also have permission to Edit Academic Record Category enabled via Users > Profiles > Students tab.
For more information about Document Management, see Uploaded Files and Uploaded Files Report.
8. Click Save.
9. Then, you can utilize the Print/Email button that displays after saving. Selecting this button will navigate to the Print Letters & Send Email screen. For further instruction see the Setting the Search Criteria and Data for a One-Time Letter and/or Email section.
Course History only applies to Post Secondary Schools.
1. Select the Course History Record option from the Attach to Tab pull-down to ensure letter(s) display in a Grade Report button or pull-down on the Course History screen and/or on the Grades screen for parents and/or students.
This option will display whether or not the selected schools are Post Secondary; however, when the option is selected, it will only have an affect on Post Secondary schools.
2. To make the letter available to administrative users to set up applicable System Preferences, select the admin Profiles from the corresponding pull-down.
a. If the Grade Report should also be viewable by parents and students, select the applicable Profiles from the pull-down.
3. Select the applicable Post Secondary schools from the Schools pull-down.
4. Complete the process of creating and printing/emailing letters as described in Reoccurring Letters and Emails.
5. When Course History Record is selected from the Attach to Tab pull-down for applicable letters, the settings, Add Letter to Queue for new posted grades and Email Letter for new posted grades pull-downs are populated with select letters via Setup > System Preferences > School Preferences/Default School Preferences > Grading tab.
If you elect to have generated grade reports sent to the queue, see Letter Queue for more information.
6. You must also set the Send Posted Grade Upgrades to by selecting Custodial Contacts or Linked Users from the pull-down to determine the email address used when the grade report is emailed.
Selecting Custodial Contacts uses the Address block email entered via Students > Student Info > Addresses & Contacts.
Selecting Linked Users uses the email address linked to the User linked to the student via Students > Student Info > Addresses & Contacts > Linked Users. The user's email address can be edited via Users > User Info or by clicking the View User Info link.
Note: A Contact can be linked to the user, but the linked User's email will be used, not the Contact's.
a. Click Save.
7. In order for the grade report to display for admin, students, and/or parents, you must also set their permissions. Go to Setup > System Preferences > Default School Preferences > Grading tab and enable Use Individual Final Grades Field Permissions.
a. Click Save.
8. From the Users menu, click Profiles. Select Final Grades Fields from the Permission Type pull-down. Select the Role from the pull-down, such as Student. Then, select the applicable Profiles from the corresponding pull-down, such as Students.
See Profiles for more information.
9. Select the View check box for Grade Report.
a. Click Save.
These steps need to be repeated for the each Role and all attached Profiles to ensure the Grade Report is viewable by admin, parents, and students.
The Detailed Report is only viewable to users if the Allow User to view Grade Details permission is enabled.
The Grade Report displays when the applicable students' teachers post new grades via the Post Final Grades screen. Below is an example of what the student would see on the Grades screen when the grade report is generated.
If Protected students are listed, select student data will be HIDDEN. If you have profile permission to “View Protected Students,” you will not see any changes. If you do not have “View Protected Students” permission but have permission to “Edit Student Addresses” and “Edit Student Contacts,” you will not see any changes. If you do not have profile permission to “View Protected Students” and do not have “Edit Student Addresses” or “Edit Student Contacts,” you will not be able to select the student in order to print their information.
Use the Filter text box located at the top of each pull-down for a quick search. Begin typing the name or number of the desired field.
a. Select the Exact check box to display results that have an exact match only and hide partial matches to the entered text.
Click Check all and Clear for quick selections. In the example shown, the created letter will be generated for students in every listed Program.
Above the listed students you will see a floppy disk icon, which allows you to export the listed data (in this case, students) to an Excel spreadsheet.
Click the printer icon to print the list of students.
Click any of the headers to sort data. Click once for ascending results; click twice for descending results.
To make the list full screen, click on the expansion icon (four arrows) under the Preview and Print Letters button. Once in full screen mode, click the icon again to exit full screen.
Click Filters to further breakdown data.
a. To add more than one filter to a column, click on the green plus sign.
b. To delete an added filter, click on the red minus sign.
c. Select the gray arrow for more filtering options.
For more information, see Filters.