LetterWriter (Auction Tracker)

LetterWriter can give you a spreadsheet of information for any group of people that supports your organization, such as guests, item donors, financial sponsors, bidders, or volunteers.

You can use LetterWriter to get a spreadsheet of their contact information from Auction Tracker. You can also then use that spreadsheet as a source for email marketing software, or for an email merge or a mail merge for printed letters in Microsoft Word.

1. Export the data from Auction Tracker, using LetterWriter

Open Auction Tracker

• Go to Reporting > LetterWriter > Microsoft Word (Delimited Ascii)

"Produce Letters for" 

• Select either All Constituents, or any other category needed (Donors, Sponsors, Guests, etc).

"In The Format"

• Select Names As Entered, if you wish to list spouses with each other on the same row of the spreadsheet
• Select Names Treated Individually, if you wish to list them on separate rows of the spreadsheet

"Based On"

• Choose Individuals, Businesses, or both, as needed

"Include Constituents"

• Select constituents from a particular event, multiple events, or all events

"Sort By" 

• Choose from the following: Constituents Name, City, State, Zip/Postal Code 

• There may be other choices offered, depending on who was selected in the first step. The following options are presented for Guests

Press "Continue"

Choose "Select Fields"

• Put a checkbox next to each field of information needed. 
• Make selections in the order desired.

   ***The order of selections will determine the order of spreadsheet columns.

Example: 

Each of these fields you select here will become a column of information in the output spreadsheet.  

• Press Continue
• Under the "Save As" dialog box that appears, be mindful of the folder to which the file is being saved. 
  • The default is C:\Tracker\Auct-Tr\User Documents

To save it to Desktop or My Documents, find those options on the far left:

 If you wish to open the output up as a spreadsheet, save it as a .TXT file. If desired, you can then later use it for a mail merge or anything else. 

 If you wish to immediately do a mail merge in Microsoft Word, without first opening it as a spreadsheet, save it as a .DOC file.

Before saving, use the "Save as type" drop-down at the bottom to select "All Files"

In the File Name field enter the name of the file, with the extension .TXT, to be easily able to open it as a spreadsheet. If you do not first want to see it as a spreadsheet, and want to immediately do a Microsoft Word mail merge, save it as a .DOC file.

To have those particular selections available in the future, enter a Template Name and a Template Description then select Continue

The information has now been exported from Auction Tracker into a ^ (carat) delimited text file (essentially a spreadsheet).

2. To open this file in Excel (for Google Sheets instructions, see below)

By default, the file from Auction Tracker will save to \Tracker\Auct-Tr\User Documents

If you wish to easily find the file, save it in Desktop or another familiar folder.

A text import wizard will open. Make the following selections. 

The file sent from Auction Tracker is a spreadsheet with the ^ character between each column. You need to tell Excel that the columns are separated ("delimited") by the carat ^ character and that the columns have headers (e.g. "DONOR ID"), so that it will import the file correctly. 

Select Delimited

Select My Data Has Headers

Select Other and enter the ^ character.

The data towards the bottom of the text import wizard box should now appear in columns.

Select Finish

An alternative to the Text Import Wizard, is opening the file and then using Data > Text To Columns with the carat ^ character (press SHIFT-6) as the delimiter.

3. To open the output file in Google Sheets:

Make sure file has been named .txt

Open a blank document in Google Sheets

File > Import > Upload

In the Import File dialog box, make the following choices:

• "Import Location" -- Replace Spreadsheet if you are in a blank spreadsheet; Create New Spreadsheet if you are in an existing spreadsheet
• "Separator type" -- select Custom and enter the carat ^ character into the blank field to the right of "Custom"

Select Import Data

It will import the file and display “File Imported successfully” at the top of the dialog box

Select Open Now

4. Creating a Mail Merge in Microsoft Word

Here is a link from Microsoft word on how to create mail merges.   https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/use-mail-merge-for-bulk-email-letters-labels-and-envelopes-f488ed5b-b849-4c11-9cff-932c49474705

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  ** Auction-Tracker LetterWriter Macro List

  For reference, the following chart comprises a complete list of merge macros available for LetterWriter. Macros available for merge depends on criteria selection made before macro selection.

  Macro/Field	Definition
  Contact Job Title	Job position held by constituent
  Personal Email Address	The primary email address listed for the individual
  Alternate Email Address	Alternative email listed for a business or individual
  Individual First Name	Constituent's First Name
  Individual Last Name	Constituent's Last Name
  Individual Suffix	Suffix of the individual constituent (Sr., Jr., etc.)
  Individual Title	Title of the individual constituent (Mr., Mrs., etc.)
  Spouse First Name	Constituent's Spouse First Name
  Spouse Last Name	Constituent's Spouse Last Name
  Spouse Suffix	Constituent's Spouse Name Suffix (Sr., Jr., etc.)
  Spouse Title	Constituent's Spouse Name Title (Mr., Mrs., etc.)
  State/Province	Two letter state or province abbreviation
  Website URL	Web address listing for individual or business
  Zip Code	Zip/Postal code
  Common Fields
  Affiliation	Organization or person is associated with, professionally/personally
  Donor ID	Unique donor management application identifier
  Referred By	Individual or business who introduced constituent to organization
  Donors
  Items Donated	List of items the constituent donated in sentence form
  Item Catalog Number	Catalog number assigned to an item offered for bid
  Item Procurement Number	Pre-event warehousing id number assigned to an item offered for bid
  Item Solicitor	Individual who secures goods and services for the benefit auction
  Donation Value	Fair Market Value of item donated
  Sold For	Final bid or sale amount of the goods and services offered for bid or sold
  Solicitors
  Items Solicited	List of items the constituent solicited in sentence form
  Sponsorships Solicited	List of sponsorships the constituent solicited in sentence form
  Guests
  Amount Spent	Amount the guest spent at the auction
  Bid Number	Bid number assigned to the guest
  Entree	Meal selected by the patron
  Fund-A-Need Amount	Amount the guest donated to fund-a-need
  RSVP Level	Name of the reservation level the guest purchased
  RSVP Amount	Amount the guest paid for their reservation level
  Table Name	Name of table guest was seated at for the gala event
  Table Number	Number of the table guest was seated at for the gala event
  Sponsors
  Sponsor Date	Date on which sponsorship was received
  Sponsor Level	Name of the sponsorship level the sponsor purchased
  Sponsor Amount	Amount of funds received for event sponsorship
  Solicitor	Name of solicitor who obtained the sponsorship
  Sponsor Preferred Name	How a sponsor wishes to be addressed publicly
  Volunteers
  Committees	Committee that the volunteer belonged to working for your auction
  Positions	Position that the volunteer held working for your auction
  Resource Lists
  Resource Name	User-defined resource designation
  In-Kind Donors
  Date of Use	Date on which the donated item was used
  Donation Value	Fair Market Value of item donated
  In-Kind Item Name	List of items the constituent donated in sentence form
  Pre-Event
  Purchase Amount	Total amount for non-catalog goods and services sold to a constituent pre-event
  Fund-A-Need Amount	Total amount contributed to Fund-A-Need by a constituent pre-event