4. waffle Tasks
4.1. Add a New Form Letter
Follow the procedure below to create a new form letter from scratch.
Run waffle
Run waffle and choose whether to add a Patient, Account, or Refferal form letter.
Select a Blank Line and Name Your Letter
Press Page Down or the down arrow key to move to the first blank line in the list of letters. Press Enter and type a name for your new form letter. Choose a descriptive, unique name that indicates the content of the letter.
Fill Out the "Print Command" Field
Copy the print command from one of your other form letters. If you need help choosing a print command, contact PCC support at 1-800-722-1082.
Optionally, Press F7 and/or F8
Press [F7 -- Stock Letter] and/or [F8 -- Append Choices] to automatically enter some text into your new letter. F7 will add your practice's address and a salutation to the new letter. F8 will add some basic Partner variables to your letter. If you press either button, you can later delete the appended text if you decide you don't want to use it.
Press [F4 -- Edit Letter]
You will see an empty text box in which you can type your new letter. If you chose to automatically enter "Stock Letter" or "Append Choices" text, you will see that information and can revise it and add your own material.
In the sample letter above, notice the letter text as well as the Partner field variables. The variables are surrounded by greater than (>) and less than (<) symbols. The variable content will be replaced with real information when the letter is generated from fame, notjane or some other Partner program. Read the Variables section below to learn more.
Press [F1 -- Save & Quit] when you are finished writing your form letter. If you are working on a long, complex form letter, you may want to press F1 periodically to return to the Letter Selection screen and save your progress.
4.2. Clone an Existing Form Letter
In the sections above, you learned how to edit a form letter and how to add a new form letter from scratch. But what if you want to make a lot of changes to an existing letter and still keep the original as a back-up?
The Clone feature creates a copy of a selected letter. Cloning the "Gym Excuse Letter," for example, adds a new letter to the end of your form-letter list called the "(NEW) Gym Excuse Letter."
Follow this procedure to clone a letter:
Use the up and down arrow keys to select a form letter from your list.
Press [F2 -- Advanced Commands].
Select Clone Letter from the list of options and press Enter.
A confirmation screen will tell you that the selected letter has been cloned. Press Enter to continue.
Find the new letter at the bottom of your list of letters. The letter's name will start with the word NEW, making it easy to find.
Select the new letter and change its name to something more appropriate.
Press [F4 -- Edit Letter] to make your desired changes to the text.
Press [F1 -- Save] to save your letter.
4.3. Deleting a Form Letter
When a form letter becomes obsolete, you may wish to remove it. The Delete option on the Advanced Commands screen will mark the selected letter for deletion.
Follow this procedure to delete a letter:
Select a form letter to delete by using the up and down arrow keys.
Press [F2 -- Advanced Commands].
Select Delete Letter from the list of options and press Enter.
A confirmation screen will appear, asking if you are sure you want to delete the selected letter. Press Y or N to continue.
If you confirm that you wish to delete the letter, a second confirmation screen will appear, indicating that the selected letter has been marked for deletion. Press Enter to continue.
You will notice that the name of the selected letter has changed and now begins with a pound sign (#). The letter has been marked for deletion, and will disappear when you quit the waffle program by pressing [F1 -- Save and Quit].
If you change your mind and do not want the letter to be deleted, remove the pound sign from the letter's title before quitting waffle.
You may delete multiple letters at once; none of them will actually be removed until you press [F1 -- Save and Quit].
 | Deleting a letter does not fully erase the letter from your system. The pound sign at the beginning of the letter's name simply removes the letter from waffle and all Partner programs. If you need to retrieve an old letter that you accidentally deleted, call PCC support at 1-800-722-1082 or support@pcc.com. |
4.4. Share a Form Letter
After putting a lot of thought, time, and effort into designing a particular form letter, you may wish to share your form letter with other Partner users around the country. You could print a sample letter and fax it to your friend, but then they would have to retype the letter in waffle on their system, and any special questions or other associated files would not be transferred.
The Share feature helps you send your form letter, along with all associated files, to another person. Follow this procedure to send any Partner form letter to another Partner client:
Select a form letter to share by using the up and down arrow keys.
Press [F2 -- Advanced Commands].
Select Share Letter from the list of options and press Enter.
waffle will prepare your form letter and any associated files.
You will see a confirmation screen indicating that the files are ready to be sent. Press Enter to continue.
Fill out the "Mail-To" screen:
Mail To: Enter the e-mail address of the person to receive this message. Separate multiple addresses with commas.
Subject: Enter a subject line for this message. A default subject is created for you, but you can override this with a message of your own.
Optional Message: Write a comment or message for the recipient. You may wish to describe the form letter. This message will be the text of your e-mail message, the letter will be sent as an attachment.
After filling in the fields, press [F1 -- Send Form] to send the e-mail message with your form letter, or press F12 to abort and quit.
A confirmation screen will tell you whether or not the message was sent successfully. Press Enter to return to the list of form letters.
| Would you like to practice sharing a form letter before sending it to other people? Try sharing a letter to your own e-mail address. |
4.5. Receive and Install a Shared Form Letter
When someone shares a form letter with you, it will arrive as an attachment to an e-mail message. You will be able to read the e-mail message the sender used and see the form letter attachment. You can preview the form letter and then add it your own set of waffle letters.
 | Previewing and installing shared form letters only works in the pine e-mail program. If you use elm or a graphical e-mail program (like Thunderbird or Netscape Mail) you will have to run pine to receive the form letter attached to the message. You can learn about pine by reading Pine Internet and Network E-mail, or you can contact PCC support and they will load the shared letter into your system for you. |
Follow this procedure to preview and install the shared form letter:
Run pine from the Electronic Mail window or by typing pine at a command prompt. If this is the first time you are running pine, you may see a greeting message and should press E to exit the greeting.
Press I to visit the index of messages in your INBOX.
Press the up or down arrow keys to select the e-mail message that contains the attached form letter.
Press Enter to view that message.
The e-mail message should identify the contents of the attachment and tell you how to start pine and how to preview and install the form letter. A message entered by the sender may appear at the bottom of the e-mail.
Press the greater-than sign (>) key to list the pieces of this e-mail message, including the attachments. The form-letter attachment (File/X-FORMLETTER) should be highlighted.
Press Enter. Form letter details will appear, indicating the type of file being sent (Account Form Letter or Patient Form Letter), the letter's name and the system that sent it. A complete list of all the attached files will appear (one form letter might be made up of several smaller files).
pine will ask you if you wish to view the form letter before installing it. Press Y for "Yes" or N for "No" and then press Enter.
If you choose "Yes," your system will use the information from one of your patients, along with his/her guarantor account, to fill out the form letter and present it to you on screen. You can preview the entire letter by pressing Page Up and Page Down. When you are finished previewing the document, press Q to quit.
Finally, pine will ask you if you wish to install the form letter. Press Y for "Yes" or N for "No" and then press Enter.
If you choose Yes, the form letter and its files will be added to your system.
Form letters can not be received if any user is currently using the waffle program. The install program will check for other waffle users and tell you which user is currently using waffle.
Press Enter to return to the original e-mail message, and press Q to quit pine.
You can verify that the new letter was installed by running waffle and looking at the list of Patient or Account form letters. The new letter will begin with the word "NEW," so you should select it and give it a more appropriate name. You can edit the letter by pressing [F4 -- Edit Letter].