Syncfusion: Letter Writing

Letter templates in MediRecords are a powerful way to save time, maintain consistency, and improve communication across your practice. Instead of creating letters from scratch each time, you can build reusable templates that include standardised layouts, merge fields, and formatting tools. Whether it is a referral, a medical certificate, or day-to-day correspondence, templates make it faster and easier for clinicians to generate professional documents while reducing the risk of errors or missed details.

This article will guide you through creating and managing letter templates, from building the basic structure to adding merge fields that automatically pull in patient and provider information. You will also learn how to format, preview, and save templates so that they can be shared across your practice. By using templates, your team can spend less time on admin tasks and more time focusing on patient care, while ensuring your documentation remains clear, accurate, and professional.

NOTE: The Syncfusion Letter Writer tool is currently only available for customers who use Admissions.

Contents: 

1. Creating a Letter Template
2. Uploading a PDF Letter Template
3. Electronically Signing a PDF Letter
4. Preview and Print the Signed PDF Letter
5. Annotation Mode in PDF Letters

Creating a Letter Template

1. Navigate to More, then Resources and from here, choose Letter Templates
   
2. Select Create New Template or New PDF Template. In this article, let’s choose Create New Template.
   
3. It will open up to the generic Template Builder screen. From here you need to enter a Template Name, select a Category, Type, Sharing Status, and Description (optional).
   
4. Once you have filled out all the mandatory fields, select Save. This will save the document and keep you on the same screen. Now that the document is saved you can add Merge Fields and make use of other resources.
   
5. Before saving the document, the Merge Fields and Preview feature are unavailable as you see in the first image below.
6. Now that the document is saved, you have access to its full features. On the right side of the Template Builder, you can see several different writing options.
   
7. From here you can undertake the following tasks:

• Change the writing font and size
• Bold, underline, use italics, or strikethrough any text
• Highlight and change the colour of the text
• Change the paragraph format and add dot-points

9. By clicking on the above toolbar, you can navigate to different menus.

Using these menus you can undertake the following:

• Create and amend tables
• Insert hyperlinks
• Add and navigate bookmarks
• Insert a table of contents
• Find specific text within the document
• Create or amend headers or footers
• Change the general page setup

To Undo and Redo, navigate to this icon on the top of the letter writer

10. You can access the Merge Fields by selecting the icon found in the top left of the template builder. Remember, you need to have saved the document already before you can access the Merge Fields.

11. From here, you can look for particular Merge fields using the search bar or find them directly from the list below.

12. Once you have located a merge field you would like to use, simply click on it and then select Insert. This will enter the merge field into the document wherever your typing is up to.

13. You can keep typing and repeating this operation as many times as you desire. You may also insert multiple merge fields at once by selecting more than one before hitting Insert.

14. Once you have finished creating your document and you wish to preview the result before finishing, you can select the Preview Mode either in the top-right corner or next to the Merge Field button.

15. Once in Preview Mode, you can view the document how it would look when sent. If you have used Merge Fields you can select a Letter Sender, Patient, Recipient Contact Type, and the Recipient of Letter. Once you enter these fields and select Apply, you are then able to view the document how it would look when all the merge fields are populated.

NOTE: You cannot send the document directly from this screen, you are simply previewing how it would look. You can see in the green box below that the merge fields have changed to the particular details they represent.

16. Once you are happy with your document, you can navigate back to the Template Builder by selecting the button of the same name in the top-right of the screen.

17. The document has been auto-saving throughout the entire process; however, you can manually save it by selecting the Save button in the top-right.

18. You know autosaving works when you see this green prompt appear at the middle-top of the screen after you have made any changes.

19. You may now leave the document by either navigating to another area of MediRecords or by selecting Close in the top-right corner.

20. Once leaving the document you will see a prompt notifying you if the template has been saved successfully.

You have now created a new Letter Template that you may use going forward to save yourself time and provide consistency across your tasks.

Uploading a PDF Letter Template

You can now e-sign PDF letters directly in the New Letter Editor (Syncfusion) within the MediRecords Care App. This removes the need to download a PDF, print it, sign it manually in Adobe Acrobat, and then re-upload it into the MediRecords Care App.

PREREQUISITE: Create a PDF with embedded Syncfusion mail merge fields using Adobe Acrobat Pro

1. On the MediRecords main menu, navigate to More, then select Resources, choose Letter Templates from the tiles and click on New PDF Template.
   
2. This will take you to the Letter Templates Grid. Click on New PDF Template button.
   
3. The Letter template builder will open. Upload the PDF letter template and fill in all the required fields: Name of Template, Category, Type, Sharing level and Description (optional).
   
4. Click Save.
5. The saved PDF letter template appears in the Letter Template grid.
   

Electronically Signing a PDF Letter

1. In the Patient Record, navigate to the Dashboard or Clinical Tab. In the Clinical Tab, click on New Letter icon, or go to Correspondence, click OUT then select New Letter.
   
   
    
2. The Letter Writer will open. Fill out the details for Subject Name and Template Name. The Letter Sender will default to the current user, but you can also change it to another user.
   
   
   
    
3. Click Save. The first saving inserts data in the mail merge fields in the PDF letter and makes Signature, Text and Image available in the PDF toolbar.
   

4. Click on Signature icon. Add Signature menu item appears.



 

5. Click on Add Signature to open Create or Add a Signature window. Users can Type, Draw, Upload or Select a saved copy of a signature using the window.



 

6. Click on Save to save the signature for future. Click on Insert to insert the typed signature in the letter.



 

7. Once the Signature is inserted, select the blue box to resize and drag the signature to its location.




 

8. Click on Save to save the letter as Draft.



 

9. OR click on Finalise to save the letter with signature and in Final status.



 

10. Click on Close to close the letter editor.

Preview and Print the Signed PDF Letter

1. On Correspondence OUT grid, click on the chevron to preview the signed letter.
   
   
   
    
2. To Print the letter, tick the box next to the chevron and click on More, then select Print.
   

Annotation Mode in PDF Letters

Annotation Mode controls how you can interact with a PDF letter. Depending on whether it is ON or OFF, your options will change.

When working with PDFs, you can interact with two main elements: Annotations and Form fields.

• Annotations are extra layers added on top of a PDF.
  Examples: Signatures, Text Boxes, Images, Highlights, Drawings.
• Form fields are interactive parts of a PDF form.
  Examples: Text fields, Checkboxes, Drop-down menus.

The Annotation Mode setting determines which type of content you can work with.

Annotation Mode ON

• You are in annotation mode.
• You can add or edit annotations, such as signatures, notes, or images.
• You cannot edit the underlying form fields.

Annotation Mode OFF

• You are in form field mode.
• You can edit form fields such as text boxes, tick boxes, and drop-down menus.
• You cannot add or modify annotations.

Turning Annotation Mode ON / OFF

1. To Turn ON Annotation Mode, click on the Signature, Text, or Image icon in the PDF toolbar. In this example screenshot, Signature is selected and a signature is inserted and can be dragged and resized. If a user is on Annotation Mode On, the user will not be able to type into fields or boxes. The user will need to Turn Off Annotation Mode.
   
   
    
2. To Turn OFF Annotation Mode, click again on the last used annotation icon to exit and switch back to form field editing.
   

If you notice, the box around the signature is gone, and you are now able to type in text inside the fields and boxes.