Preparing Certificates (Auction Tracker)

Auction Tracker can create a spreadsheet file that can be used in a mail merge in Microsoft Word, Microsoft Publisher, or any other desktop publishing software, to create customized certificates.

1. In Auction Tracker, mark all the items for which you will create certificates

Open Auction Tracker

Select the Auction Items button

Open the item for which you want to create a certificate.

You may wish to open the very first item on the list, look to see if you want to mark it as a certificate item, and select the forward arrow to move through all your items.
Check Certificate Item
Check Create Certificate

Select Apply to save

Optionally, select the forward arrow to go to the next item

Use Auction Tracker to create a spreadsheet file of all the items that need a certificate

Select Reporting > CertificateWriter > Microsoft Word

Select what you want to pull:

Catalog Items or Non-Catalog Items
Include:

All Items By Catalog Number - is good to use if you have already assigned your catalog#'s

All Items by Procurement Number - is good to use for items that have not been assigned catalog#, or to put the pieces of the items together.

Range of Catalog Number - you can choose what you print, in case you are printing as you go.

Range of Procurement Number - you can choose what you print, in case you are printing as you go.

Sort By:

Catalog Number

Procurement Number

Choose Select Fields. You will be selecting what information you want on your certificates.

CertificateWriter has two sections of information from which you choose what information you want on the certificate.

CONSTITUENT NAME FIELDS is where you select information about the donor of the item.

CERTIFICATE ITEMS is where you select information about the item itself.

There is no harm in selecting all of the checkboxes. Each check box chosen will make another column in the spreadsheet created by Auction Tracker, but when actually making your certificates in Microsoft Word you can choose which of these columns you need.

Here are some common choices that will work for most users.

Since an item may have been donated by a business or by an individual, we will include information for both.

Include the donor's name

Select Addressee -- the donor's first and last name, e.g. "Mary Smith". This will bring the names of individual people who donated items.

Select Business Name -- This will bring the name of businesses that donated items.

Note that Contact First Name and Contact Last Name will only bring the names of business contacts, relevant when a business has donated an item. They will not include the names of individual people who have donated items.

Include the donor's contact information

At this step, include donor contact information; you can remove it, as appropriate, when editing the final certificates

Select Email Address

Select Phone Number

Consider selecting Address1, Address2, City, State, Zip

For certain certificate items (e.g. a boutique spa) the bidder may need to know the address. For travel experiences, they will need the phone number and email address, to arrange the dates of travel.

Include information about the auction items

Item Name is the formal name of the item. Catalog Name can be used, optionally, for items that have a fun name, or marketing name (e.g. "Discover Paris" as the name of a travel package).

If you wish to (optionally) first look at the spreadsheet of items that Auction Tracker has created, save it as a .TXT file. Click here for instructions on how to open carat-delimited files in Excel.

If you wish to most efficiently move on to create the certificates, save it as a .DOC file.

By default, this file will get saved in \Tracker\Auct-Tr\User Documents

If you wish, save it to Desktop to find it easily.

3. Find a certificate you like, either in Microsoft Word templates, or on the internet.

Open Microsoft Word

Select New to create a new file

Use the Search for Online Templates box, to search for Certificates

Many types of certificates will appear.

Select a certificate that has the general appearance and layout that you want. The words on the certificate can be easily changed e.g. "Certificate of achievement" can be easily changed to "Certificate" by deleting the words "of achievement".

Choose a certificate you like.

4. Delete or rephrase words on the certificate template

Removing words and doing a little rephrasing on a certificate such as this

... quickly yields a certificate template such as the following:

The layout does not need to be perfect, initially. It can be improved later.

5. Use mail merge to create certificates in Microsoft Word or another desktop publishing software

Select Mailings

Work from left to right. The fields in red are essential.

Select Start Mail Merge

Select Normal Word Document

Choose Select Recipients

Select Use an Existing List

Locate the file you created in Auction Tracker in step 2, above. By default, Auction Tracker will save it to \Tracker\Auct-Tr\User Documents. If you chose to save it to Desktop, Documents, or Downloads, you may find it there.

Select the file and open it.

The following screen may pop up.

Select OK.

Optionally, select Edit Recipient List, to see the spreadsheet file you created using Auction Tracker in step 2 and have now opened in word.

Click on the certificate and choose where you wish to name of the item to go.

Select Insert Merge Field > CATALOG_NAME (or ITEM_NAME)

Repeat this process with all of the information you wish to display on the certificate.

When you are done, the certificate should look a little like the following. Note that it does NOT yet have totally correct layout e.g. "Thank you for your support" is going onto the next page; catalog number has a very large font; etc.

Select Preview Results and use the arrows to look at how each certificate will look

Note that clicking Preview Results a second time brings you back to the mail merge template.

Unfortunately, in this example, the description is going onto the next page (among other issues). So we will need to adjust the layout.

6. Adjust the layout of your certificates, as needed.

Edit the template, or edit any of the previews of the individual items. Changing the layout of either one, will change the layout for all the items.

The template:

The preview of any of the individual items:

This article cannot cover much about publishing layout. Appropriate use of Google and a lot of trial and error will help.

Depending on the template you're using, the layout may be controlled in various ways. Many Microsoft Word certificate templates are actually tables.

This particular certificate is a mixture of a table, and some drawing elements.

Selecting any of the graphical elements on the screen will show the Drawing Tools menu.

Selecting any of the text that is in a table cell shows the Table Tools menu, including the Design and Layout sections.

In this case, because most of the layout of this certificate is controlled by a table layout, it can be significantly improved thus:

Select any of the text

Select Design > Borders > View Gridlines

Hover over a gridline to select it. Drag the gridlines to make room for all the information to fit on a 1-page certificate

7. Edit individual certificates

When editing the mail merge template and previews of the template, all of the certificates will change.

Once you've created a layout that will work for 90% or more of your certificates, you may need to make a few final adjustments to individual certificates e.g. perhaps there's a certificate with a very long description, or a certificate onto which you would like to insert the donor's logo.