Mail Merge Tool: Findings Variables

You can insert both the short and long descriptions of your patients' treatment findings into your mail merge documents, and print them in either list or paragraph form.

1. Create or edit a mail merge document. See "Letter Library" for details.

2. Position your cursor where you want to place the information in your document.

3. Open variable menu - Open the Add-In menu (if needed). Select the VP menu to display a list of variable categories, most of which have subcategories.

   

4. Choose Findings category - Select the Findings category, and either the Tx Findings or Patient Etc. subcategory.

   

5. Select format - (Tx. Findings subcategory only.) The format determines whether to print the short or long description, and whether to print the descriptions in a list, or one after the other in paragraph format.

   

   Short Response - This option prints the short clinical responses. If a patient has multiple responses for the variable, a line feed (carriage return) will separate them to form a vertical list.

   Example merge code after selecting the variable, described below - {MERGEFIELD tx_findings_2_4}

   Short Response without line feed - This option also prints the short clinical responses. If a patient has multiple responses for the variable, they appear one after another, as if in a paragraph, with one space between each response.

   Example merge code after selecting the variable, described below (the letters nolf indicate "no line feed") - {MERGEFIELD tx_nolf_findings_2_4}

   Layman's Response - This option prints the full sentence layman's responses. If a patient has multiple responses for the variable, they appear one after another, as if in a paragraph, with one space between each response.

   Example merge code after selecting the variable, described below (the letter L indicates "layman's response"){MERGEFIELD L_tx_findings_2_4}

6. Select variable - Click the category and variable that you want to insert into your document. You will then see the merge code, as described in the format selection, above.

   

7. Review & edit the variable code - Once you have properly inserted a variable, it appears in the text of your document. (If you do not see the codes, press ALT+F9.) You can manually copy, paste, and edit the code to change it into another variable, but be careful - spelling counts! This feature is particularly useful for adding a series of related variables, such as treatment findings, to a letter.

   If you wish to manually edit findings variables, (which may be necessary if you have created custom headings) you will need to know the numbers assigned to your headings and categories. You can find these numbers on your Treatment Category report.

   

8. Save & Exit - Click the X in the upper right corner of the Word document window. As you exit, you have the opportunity to save the document.

More Information

Toggle Merge Code Display - When creating and editing documents with mail merge codes (such as variables and conditional statements), it is helpful and sometimes necessary to be able to see the codes. During regular daily use, however, you may wish to have them off. While different versions of Word have different ways of accessing this setting, an easy way to toggle the merge code display, regardless of your version of Word, is to press ALT+F9 on your keyboard.

• Set Up Mail Merge
  • Convert Legacy Mail Merge Documents
  • Create & Edit Documents / Letter Library
  • Create & Edit Envelopes
  • Export Mail Merge Documents
  • Import Individual Mail Merge Documents
  • Import Standard Ortho2 Mail Merge Documents
  • Install Signature Software (ePad)
  • Mail Merge Email Integration Setup
  • Merge Tools - "Ask for Information" Fields
  • Merge Tools - Conditional Statements
  • Merge Tools - "Fill In" Fields
  • Merge Tools - Findings Variables
  • Merge Tools - Patient Images
  • Merge Tools - Signatures
  • Merge Tools - Variables

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