Print Letters & Send Email

The Print Letters & Send Email screen provides a convenient way for administrators to send letters and forms to either a single user or multiple users at once. Formal, formatted letters can be created, printed and/or emailed.

Profile Permissions

Profile permission set via Users > Profiles > Students tab determine your ability to perform various tasks throughout Print Letters & Send Email.

Print Letters & Send Email: If View and Edit are enabled, you can create, view, print, and edit letters. If your profile has View only permission, you can view and print letters but cannot create or edit letters.

Publish Letters: If enabled, you can publish letters using the Print Letters & Send Email module. If disabled, you will not be able to publish letters but can view and print letters.

Email Letters: If enabled, you can email letters using the Print Letters & Send Email module. If disabled, you will not be able to email letters but can view and print letters.

Edit Letters Created By Others: If enabled, you can edit letters even if they were created by other users.

View All Letters: If enabled, you can view all letters created by all users; this permission is especially helpful if it is the only one enabled for your profile, which would allow you to view, print, and/or email any of the letters created by other users without editing capabilities.

Creating Letters and Emails

1. In the Users menu, click Print Letters & Send Email.

Print Letters & Send Email

In order to View and/or Edit Print Letters & Send Email, you must have the profile permission via Users > Profiles > Users 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 letters to be edited, printed, and/or emailed.

To create a one-time letter or email, click Print/Email a One-Time Letter and see Setting the Search Criteria and Data for a Letter and/or Email for information about the rest of the process.

Print Letters & Send Email

2. To create a reoccurring letter or email, start by entering the Title of the letter/email.

Print Letters & Send Email

3. Select the Profiles from the pull-down that you would like to have access to your letter/email.

Print Letters & Send Email

If a profile is not selected from the Profiles pull-down, all profiles will have access to the letter/email.

Once saved, you can hover over the Title and Profiles field to see the full description if it cannot be read.

4. Select the Schools that should have access to the letter/email from the corresponding pull-down.

Print Letters & Send Email

5. Select a Default Letterhead from the pull-down.

Print Letters & Send Email

Letterhead Templates are set up by the district via Setup > Letterhead Templates.

6. If your 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 user's 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 your district has already enabled Document Management, you must also have permission to Edit Academic Record Category enabled via Users > Profiles > Users tab.

Print Letters & Send Email

7. Press the Enter key to save the letter/email information and/or click Save.

Print Letters & Send Email

8. Create the letter/email body by clicking the Edit button. For more information on entering text here and using the tools available, see Setting the Search Criteria and Data for a Letter and/or Email.

Print Letters & Send Email

When adding/updating letters via the Edit button, changes are automatically saved upon clicking out of the Edit pop-up screen.

You can move and relocate the Edit pop-up window anywhere on the screen.

Setting the Search Criteria and Data for a Letter and/or Email

1. In the Users menu, click Print Letters & Send Email.

Print Letters & Send Email

In order to View and/or Edit Print Letters & Send Email, you must have the profile permission set via Users > Profiles > Users tab. In order to Email Letters, you must have permission to Edit.

2. To Print/Email a One-Time Letter, click the corresponding button. To print an established letter/email, click the Print/Email button next to the listed letter.

Print Letters & Send Email

If wanting to designate a user, you can utilize the User search module, in addition to the More Search Options button.

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3. If searching for specific users by name or user ID, type the information directly into the User text box.

To generate letters for all users, leave the User search text box empty.

4. For a more advanced search and the ability to define a specific subset of users, click More Search Options. In the example shown, the Teacher Profile has been selected; therefore, the letter created will be sent only to users who are linked to a teacher profile.

5. Utilize the Letter Text - New File section to begin entering and formatting your letter or to edit an existing 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.

Word Processing Tools

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 Format pull-down. Some of the options include different headings, Address, Normal (DIV), etc.

13. To change the size of the font, use the 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.

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.

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7. Select the desired Letterhead Template from the pull-down. This is very important to choose correctly before printing/sending, as it will impact the display of the letter.

Letterhead Templates must first be set up by the district via Setup > Letterhead Templates.

8. Select the check box to Search All Schools if you want the search criteria entered to pull from all schools.

9. You also have the option to Include Parents in your search for whom letters will be sent by selecting the corresponding check box. Select the Include Inactive Users check box to pull inactive users as well as active users.

10. Select the Only Show Most Recent Enrollment check box for the most recent enrollment determined by start date, then end date, and finally by user_enrollment id. When this option is selected:

  • A new user with no profiles assigned (enrolled) at all will not display because there is no enrollment to show.
  • If a user has multiple profiles at one school, it will return the most recent enrollment at that school (there will be one record row for that user).
  • If a user has profiles at multiple schools, it will return the most recent enrollment at each school (there will be one record row for that user at each school).

11. When the users have been defined and the letter has been created, click Continue.

Previewing and Printing a Letter

Clicking Continue on the last screen navigates to a new Print Letters & Send Email screen where you can choose to Print Letters or Send Emails for select users.

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1. To preview and print letters select the Print Letters radio button.

2. Select the Add log entries for each user check box to log the printed letter via User Info > Letter Log.

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You can only log entries via Letter Log if the field has been enabled by the district via User Fields. When enabled, the letter will display in the selected category (tab) as shown in the image below. Note: Permissions must be set in User Fields as well as Profiles > User Fields.

The Add log entries for each user check box will be selected by default when the Add user log entries by default when using Print Letters and Send Emails setting is enabled via Setup > System Preferences.

From the Letter Log, you can view and edit the Recipient, the Date, the Subject, the Sender, the Time, and the Recipient Email. To View/Edit the letter, click the corresponding button. To Print the letter, click the corresponding button. 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.

3. Select the users for whom you need letters by selecting the check box next to each user.

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If you want to generate letters for all users displayed, select the check box in the header.

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4. Once the users have been selected, you can click Preview to view the letter or click Print Letters to print.

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Previewing the letter may not reflect the exact layout of the created letter.

5. Preview the letter then click Return to Focus to go back to the Print Letters & Send Email screen.

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6. Clicking Print Letters will generate all of the selected users’ letters in a print preview screen. Click the printer icon to print the letter. Click the download arrow to download the letter to your computer as a PDF file.

a. When finished, click Return to Focus to return to the Print Letters & Send Email screen.

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Previewing and Sending an Email

Clicking Continue on the last screen navigates to a new Print Letters & Send Email screen where you can choose to generate emails for selected users.

1. To preview and send emails select the Send Emails radio button.

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2. 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 displays here).

3. 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].”

4. In addition to emailing the letter to the users, 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.

5. Select the Add log entries for each user check box to log the emailed letter via User Info > Letter Log.

You can only log entries via Letter Log if the field has been enabled by the district via User Fields. When enabled, the letter will display in the selected category (tab) as shown in the image below. Note: Permissions must be set in User Fields as well as Profiles > User Fields.

From the Letter Log, you can view and edit the Recipient, the Date, the Subject, the Sender, the Time, and the Recipient Email. To View/Edit the letter, click the corresponding button. To Print the letter, click the corresponding button. 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.

6. Select the users for whom you need emails by selecting the check box next to each user.

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If you want to generate emails for all users displayed, select the check box in the header.

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Previewing the letter may not reflect the exact layout of the created letter.

7. Once the users have been selected, click Preview to review the email or click 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.

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8. Preview the email then click Return to Focus to go back to the Print Letters & Send Email screen.

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9. Select Send Emails to send the letters to selected users. Once the email has been sent, you will receive a message saying Your letter as been emailed to the selected Users. You will also be taken back to the main Print Letters & Send Email screen where you can conduct a new search, etc.

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If the user(s) do not have an email set up, you will receive an Error that no email was entered and the message was not delivered.

Additional Features

Click the floppy disk icon to export the listed data to an Excel spreadsheet.

Click the Printer icon to print the table of data.

You can also sort data by clicking on any of the headers. 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.