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Traditionally mail merging a letter can be a cumbersome process, especially to the uninitiated. Fortunately this task has been greatly simplified in Realty DataLink.

IMPORTANT: When creating a new mail merge letter Realty DataLink will automatically select every record that is listed in your table! Therefore it is important to filter out just the records you would like to print a letter for, prior to entering the mail merge area (unless of course you want your letter to go to everyone).

To filter out a selection of records you can use the "Search" tool. For example you may wish to send a letter to everyone in your "Renters" group:

1. Open your desired table (i.e. Farm, Buyers, Past Clients, etc.)
2. Click the SEARCH button
3. From the 1st drop down menu select the GROUP CODE field
4. Now click the 3rd drop down menu and select the appropriate Group Code (i.e. "Renters", "Investors", etc.)
5. Click SEARCH

You should now only see the records for that particular group. Of course there are other ways of searching. For example if you had a "Just Listed" or a "Just Sold" on a particular street, you could do a search for that street name and thus send everyone living on that street a letter to notify them about the listing or sale.

After you have filtered out the records you want to send your letter to, you are ready to begin the merge:

1. Click the LETTERS button to open the Mail Merge window

You can now select any of the pre-existing letters from the right-hand column or create your own letter from scratch. Of course you can simply modify any of the existing letters to your own liking and then save them under a different name.

While looking at the letter you will notice a number of fields surrounded by arrow brackets ("<<" & ">>"), these represent your merge fields and is where the program will automatically insert the data for each record that a letter is printed for. It is generally not necessary to modify any of these merge fields unless you are adding new fields to your letter. For example, if you were to send a letter to vacant land owners you may wish to include the parcel number so that they will know which property you are referring to.

To insert a new merge field:

1. First position your cursor where you would like to insert the merge field
2. Click your right mouse button and go down to the "Insert" menu
3. You will now see a number of different sub menus containing different merge fields (Property Info, Buyer, Seller, etc.).
4. Choose one of the categories, i.e. "Property Info" and select from one of the available merge fields, i.e. "Parcel Number"
5. Your merge field should now be inserted in the letter

NOTE: In the merge field section labeled "Agent Info" you have the option of inserting your information, including your Agent Photo, Company Logo, or your Signature File.

Once you are satisfied with the content of your letter you can begin the merge process:

1. Click the MAIL MERGE button
2. The program will ask if you want to print all "X" amount of records, click YES to proceed.
3. The next question is whether or not you would like to add information to Notes. What this does is allow you to type in what your letter is regarding and then the program will add that notation along with the date and time to each person's Notes file that is receiving a letter. Choose YES to add a notation or NO to skip this step.
4. You will now be presented with the print window; simply choose your desired printer and click Print to start!