Microsoft Word guidelines for LGL mailings
Using Microsoft Word to create a letter template or acknowledgment template or the content for an LGL mailing gives you the freedom to customize your formatting and make your letters look the way you want. But there are some caveats involved in using Word. If you follow the guidelines below, you'll avoid the common problems that can come up, enabling you to enjoy the formatting flexibility that Word offers:
Don't |
Do |
| Use columns to divide the page | Use text boxes or tables with no border to divide the page |
| Use section breaks to divide the page | Use page breaks |
| Use “First page” header for multi-page letters |
|
| Use extra carriage returns at the bottom of your letter (these can cause your mailing to add a blank page between each letter) |
Remove all extra carriage returns at the bottom of the page |
| Use letter_content or ps_content for text that needs fancy formatting (bold, italic, bullets, numbered lists) or that needs specific margins |
Put content with custom formatting directly on the page in your Word document |
| Insert merge fields into the header or footer | Use text boxes instead |
| Place large images (over 10MB) into your file | Use Word’s image functions to compress the images |
| Put any of the [[gifts.*.list/custom_list]] merge fields in the middle of a sentence—this will cause an error |
Place such fields on their own line so that the line items in the list can display properly |
| Allow any space/s on either side of any of the [[gifts.*.list/custom_list]] merge fields—this will cause an error when you attempt to download your letters |
Remove any spaces on either side of these fields |
| Use a larger bottom margin than you need | Make the bottom margin as small as possible |
| Use MS Word merge fields (formatted like <<Name of field>>) | Use LGL Merge Fields (formatted like [[Name of field]]) |
| Use a file that has MS Word mail merge data attached to it | Remove all MS Word Mail Merge info from documents before using them as a mailing |
| Rename a .doc file with a .docx extension |
Open the document in Word and “Save as” a .docx file before using in a mailing or template |
| Assume your font will apply to a merge field that creates a table in your letter (e.g., [[gifts.2017.list]], [[gifts.2017.custom_ list]]) |
Set the "Normal" font in your MS Word document to the font you want to use, and then apply the "Normal" style to the merge field |