Creating Your Own Merge Letters
To create your own merge letters, simply copy one of Diamond Dental Software merge letters with the Save As… choice from the MS Word Files menu. When you use Save As, you will be given the opportunity to create a duplicate of the current document with another name. Once saved, you may modify the new document in any way you wish. When a new letter is created in this manner, functionality of the letter is also duplicated. That is, the ability to embed variables from the Diamond Dental Software data file is built into the new letter. We suggest following the naming conventions set by Diamond Dental Software when you create your document. The conventions are:

• AR_XX.doc - For Accounts Receivable documents
• PT_XX.doc - For Patient Reports documents
• PTA_XX.doc - For Patient Reports with Responsible Party Only option
• REC_XX.doc - For Print Recall documents
• REF_XX.doc - For Patient to Patient Referrals

Once the document is created you need to enter the document name, description, and type into Diamond Dental Software. Starting from the Main Menu click Utilities. From the Utility Menu click MS Word Mail Merge Maintenance. Then on the MS Word Mail Merge Maintenance screen click Edit Main Document Names and Descriptions. The Add/Remove Main Documents Name screen will open. On this screen scroll down to the last document. The record below the last document is blank with an asterisk (*) on the left. This is where you will enter the new documents information. There are three areas to enter. An empty text box where you will enter the document’s name. A large empty memo area where you will enter the document’s description. A drop down box (which says Select a module) where you will select the type of document (Accounts Receivable, Patient Report, etc.). After entry, click Exit to leave the screen.

As mentioned earlier, there are five categories of Diamond Dental Software merge letters. Each of these letter categories uses a different data file. The five data files with their related categories are:

• ARmerge.doc - Accounts Receivable Report
• PTmerge.doc - Patient Report (single patient names)
• PTAmerge.doc - Patient Report (responsible party names only)
• RECmerge.doc - Recall Printing
• REFmerge.doc - Patient Referral Thank You.