Overview
The student letter module empowers a user to create and manage custom letters.
The Student Letters module allows unprecedented flexibility in creating just about any letter that you may need to send to students.
The student letter module is located in Student Data>Letters.
Features
Adobe Acrobat PDF Letter Head
Student letters can be "painted" on top of an existing Adobe Acrobat PDF File. This feature empowers the user to create letters on letterhead with sophisticated graphics.
True Type Fonts
The student letter module includes 3 built in fonts: Helvetica, Times-Roman and Courier. Users have the ability to load their own True Type fonts onto the Genesis Server which will be available for use in the letters module.
Query Engine
The objected oriented query engine allows users to design letters that contain data from any other module in Genesis.
Archive
The letters that are generated are stored permanently on the Genesis server. Users can retrieve and view letters generated for students from any school year.
Anatomy of a Student Letter
Student Letters are defined at the school. Student Letters are built from two components.
Query
The query selects the data that will be printed on a student letter. A query can be as simple as "all students" or as complicated as "all active students that are in Genesis High school for the school year 2006-07 that have fines". Genesis is an object oriented system, thus queries are built from Objects. Objects can be linked to form a hierarchy of data. Data can be aggregated at different levels of the hierarchy. For example, you could select all Students in a given school, then link individual fines to each student. With the linked student fine data, you could produce an average or sum of the fines for the given student.
Letter Template
The letter template is merged with the results from the query to produce the student letter. A letter template is comprised of Text, individual fields or both. The resulting letter can optionally be merged with an Adobe PDF file that may contain a letterhead.
The text portion of a template is simply just the body of the letter. Text can be used by itself if printing onto laser-forms that contain the school's letterhead. The text will be filled with macros such as ${Student.studentName} to insert the queried data onto the letter. A font and style can be applied to the text as a whole.
Fields
Fields can be used in addition to or instead of the text. Individual fields can be defined to give the user direct control of the positioning, font and alignment of each individual data field onto the student letter.
An Adobe PDF file can optionally be used for letter head. If a PDF file is loaded into the template, the resulting student letter will be merged with it.
Student Letter
When the student letter is generated, it is stored permanently into the archive.
The student letters can then be later viewed from the Student Data>Letters screen or from the Student Data>Modify Student>Letters screen. If a user has the appropriate security, the letters can be deleted.
During the generation of student letters, if a student already has that specific letter in the archive, a new letter will not overwrite the existing letter.
Basic Steps to Creating Student Letters
- Go to Student Data>Letters>Setup. Enter a Letter Code, Name, and SEQ and click "Add."
- Modify the Query to set up the data tables relevant to your letters
- Add in the "Body of the Text"
- If applicable, upload your letterhead in the PDF subtab.
- If applicable, add in Fields.
- Test your letter by clicking on the TEST subtab
- Generate your letters via Student Data>Letters>Print Letters!
Additional Articles on Creating and Generating Student Data letters:
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