Send real letters from the Internet to anywhere in the world.
# Wednesday, 15 February 2023

We do not have template functionality, however PC2Paper allows you to copy letters you have previously sent or saved in your account. This functionality can also be used like a template, enabling you to save a letter you may have already set up with your letterhead, layout and other features common in all of your letters. Each time you send a new letter you just copy this saved letter to use as a template.

1. Create a letter

Create a letter the way you usually would except this time you are only going to place a letterhead and possibly a sender address and salutation into your letter (basically anything that is a common feature in all of your letters). In the name field give your letter a name, in this case we have named it "Standard Letter Template 1". When you are done Save your letter.

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2. Use your saved letter as a template for a new letter

Click on the "My Letters" menu option at the top of the screen and then on "Saved" letters to the left of your screen. You should now see the letter you previously saved. If you click on "copy" next to this letter you can use it as the basis of a new letter.

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posted on Wednesday, 15 February 2023 07:46:37 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Trackback
# Friday, 10 February 2023

There are plenty of tutorials on how to do a Mail Merge in Microsoft Word. However we do get asked every now and again when people are not familiar with Microsoft Words Mail Merge feature how it works.

PC2Paper accepts MS Word Mail Merge documents via our MS Word Mail Merge interface . We accept a Word document and a linked Excel spreadsheet. This tutorial will give you the basics on how to create these files to use with our system. Mail Merge allows you to personalise the same letter to multiple people which we can then accept through our website and send as letters for you.

Step 1 – Prepare your spreadsheet

First prepare your spreadsheet with the data you wish to appear in your document. Below is the basic data we need to send a letter but you can include extra fields. In our example we have included the extra field AmountOutstanding. The basic fields we need are

  • Name
  • Address1
  • Address2
  • Address3
  • Address4
  • Address5

You can name your fields how you like but do not include spaces.

You cannot hide columns and rows to exclude them from being used. If you want to exclude data it must be deleted.

You can only user a spreadsheet with one tab.

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Step 2 – Preparing your Word Document

We’ve started with a rather simple Word document template below which we will add our mail merge fields to

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Step 3 – Connect your Word document to your Excel file

In MS Word select the Mailings Ribbon/Tab and then select the “Select Recipients” button from the menu that appears select “Use an Existing List…”

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In the popup that appears select the Excel spreadsheet you created in Step 1 and select “Open”.

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In the screen that appears after, ensure “First row of data contains column headers” is ticked and then select “OK”

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Step 4 – Inserting Fields from your Excel file into your Word document

Now that we have linked to the Excel file that contains our data, we can now insert those fields into our Word document.

We are now going to insert the field containing the persons full name (note you can add other fields to personalise this the way you want) in front of the words “Dear” leave a space and place your cursor here.

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From the “Mailings” tab select the “Insert Merge Field” drop down and then select the “Name” field.

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You should now see the following in your document. (If you see a name appear that's fine)

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Step 5 Previewing our data

Now go back to the Mailings tab and select Preview Results. (note this button may already have been selected)

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The Name for the very first record/row in your Excel spreadsheet should now appear. If you use the page controls (Step 2 in the diagram above). You can now see what the other records look like in your document.

Step 5 – Putting the rest of the fields in

Press the “Preview Results” button again to turn the preview off. Now insert the rest of the fields by repeating Step 4 and selecting the other fields.

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  Over here we have inserted the AmountOutstanding field

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We can also do the same for the address fields (Note PC2Paper does not need the address in the document as we print this on the envelope, this is purely for your own use)

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You should now be able to page through and a preview your results in MS Word.

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Make sure you are happy with your preview in MS Word and save your Word document and close it.

Step 6 – Upload To PC2Paper

Once you are happy with your preview you can now upload your MS Word document and Excel spreadsheet using the PC2Paper MS Word Mail Merge interface. On how to do this please follow the tutorial found here.

Please note that not all fonts may appear when you preview your document on the PC2Paper site as we do not have all the font’s people may have on their machines.

posted on Friday, 10 February 2023 09:33:26 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Trackback
# Sunday, 04 August 2019

For peace of mind and added security PC2Paper have introduced Two Factor Authentication. Two factor authentication is more secure because when you log into your account using your username and password you will be presented with an additional step that will ask you to enter a Two Factor Authentication code which is generated automatically on your mobile phone.

To use Two Factor Authentication you will need

  • Android or an Apple iOS phone
  • Download the Google Authenticator app to your phone

To enable Two Factor Authentication on your PC2Paper account

  1. Log into your PC2Paper Account.
  2. Click on your name in the top right hand corner and select "Security & Compliance" from the drop down menu
  3. When you arrive on the Security & Compliance page select Two Factor Authentication and follow the process from this page.

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Please note: On the last step you will be presented with a QR code you will need to scan using the Google Authenticator app from your phone. It is important you complete this part of the process or you will not have a code to log into your account when you next log in. If for some reason you are unable to complete this process or your phone won't scan the QR code, please press the "Disable Two Factor Authentication" button.

Logging into the site

Log into the PC2Paper website the same way you always do. However after you have entered your username and password and clicked "Sign In" you will be presented with another page that will ask you for the Two Factor Authentication code. Please note, you do not need to enter any spaces when entering this code, you just need to enter the numbers you see on your phone screen.

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posted on Sunday, 04 August 2019 16:22:27 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)  #    Trackback
# Thursday, 11 July 2019

PC2Paper now enables you to send your invoices from Xero as a real postal letter using our Email to Letter Gateway.

Several of our users use Xero and have requested this feature on our Email To Letter Gateway. If you have any feedback on how it works or would like to suggest a feature, please let us know.

How it works

Xero has the ability to email invoices, you can use this functionality to email your invoices to our Email to Letter gateway which will send it through the postal system for you.

In order to use this feature you will need to setup a PC2paper account and enable the Email to letter Gateway on your account using the ReplyTo address you have setup on your Xero account. Please note that using the ReplyTo Address from your Xero account is important and you cannot use the generic Xero from email address.

After you have setup the Email To Letter Gateway go into Xero.

  • Select the invoice you would like to email
  • Enter the PC2Paper email to letter gateway email address as the recipient of the email
  • Place the address of the recipient of the invoice in the subject line of the email, this has to be a comma separated address for example:

    Joe Blogs, 2 Acme Lane, Some Town, County, Postcode, United Kingdom

    (Please note you must include the country name at the end)
  • Hit Send

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Note: You can use the body of the email as a separate cover page that will be sent with your letter. You can also configure the Email To Letter Gateway to ignore the cover page.

After sending your invoice you should receive a confirmation from our email to letter gateway that your letter has been accepted.

posted on Thursday, 11 July 2019 21:50:03 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)  #    Trackback
# Wednesday, 07 August 2013

One query we often get from our customers, is why can't they send a personalised mailshot. It often surprises us because this functionality has existed on PC2Paper for nearly 10 years. We suddenly realised that maybe we're just not that good at advertising the features available on our service so will be starting a series of blog articles to highlight some of them. The first being how to do a mail merge with our service.

This tutorial will show you how to send the same letter to multiple recipients, personalising each one with the recipients name and address using our mailshot letter writing interface and a spread sheet of your recipients details. You will write your letter online using our letter writing interface and can attach as many PDF's as you wish to the letter.

Before you continue with this tutorial, ensure you are logged into your PC2Paper Account in order for the links below to work.

Step 1 - Create a new Address List/Book

You can create a new Address List from the My Address Book section of the site click here to do so (will open in new window). You can also manually navigate here from the website by clicking on the "My Address book" option from with the PC2Paper Website.

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Step 2 - Upload your address list

You can do this from the My Address Book section of the site. To upload your address book click on the "Upload your address book" tab or go to the following link upload my address book (will open in new window) and follow the steps on the page.
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Step 3 - Name your mailshot

If you haven't already done so go to the mailshot writing interface, you can go to it directly by clicking here or by clicking on the write letter option from within the PC2Paper website.

Give your mailshot a name.

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Step 4 - Choose you address list

Click the "Add Address" button and select the address list/book you uploaded in step 2 above. Select the recipients, you can select multiple by selecting the first item and then holding down the shift key as you select the last item. After selecting your recipients select the "Add recipient" button and then the OK button. You can also add more addresses manually at this stage.
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Step 5 - Create your letter

In this example we are using a template to create the letter. You do not need to use a template you can create your own letter from scratch.

Step 5a

Click on the "Write letter" dialogue.
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Step 5b - Template

Choose a template by clicking on the template icon (indicated in the image below).
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Step 6 - Your Letter

After selecting a template you should see something similar to the image below. The odd looking characters that begin with <& are placeholders for the various details of your recipients. To see what the letter will look like when sent to us press the "Preview" button at the top or bottom of the write letter page. You can insert further mail merge fields using the floating Field dialogue box shown below.
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Step 7 - Preview

You should now be able to see previews of your mailshot by clicking on the Preview button located at the top or bottom of the write letter page. Using the arrows shown below you can scroll through a preview of how your letter will look to each recipient. When you are happy with your preview, close the preview click on the Send button (at the top of the page) to see how much it will cost, select postage options and send your letter to us for printing and posting.
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Step 8 - Attach PDF's (optional)

Don't forget you can also attach PDFs to your letter by clicking on the "PDF Attachments" tab.

Step 9 - Insert your signature or an image (optional)

To personalise your letter further you can also insert an uploaded image of your signature find out how.

posted on Wednesday, 07 August 2013 22:07:34 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)  #    Trackback