Fireside State Add a New Form Letter

For staff using our single form letter editor, click here to read more info on creating and editing form letters.

Creating a new form letter is a three-step process:

1. Create a blank form letter.

2. Add content to the letter version of the form letter.

3. Migrate that content to the email version of the form letter.

Create a New Form Letter:

1. Navigate to Mailroom > Form Letters.

2. Click the blue plus button in the top right hand corner

3. Give the form a name. You will find this form by name in the future, so be as clear as possible, and provide enough information to differentiate it from similar form letters. Many offices have naming schemes like "116.Broad Issue.Name of Form.Pro"

4. Set the status. The status you choose will depend on the letter's state of approval and your office workflow. The status options are typically used to represent the following:

• Assigned: The form letter has been drafted in part or in full but is not ready to be reviewed by another staffer, such as the Legislative Director. Say, for example, you're a Legislative Correspondent, and you've just begun work on a standard issue response form, but you're not ready to send it to a supervisor for review. Or, you'd like to assign the task of drafting this letter to another staffer. In both cases, you might set the status to "Assigned." Outgoing mail using form letters marked "Assigned" cannot be emailed and will not be printed as when a Batch is sent out. 

• Pending Approval: The form letter has been drafted and is ready to be reviewed. You might use this setting in conjunction with the staffer assignment (which we'll see in step 6) to assign your form to a coworker for approval. Outgoing mail using form letters marked "Pending Approval" cannot be emailed and will not be printed as part of batches. 

• Approved: The form letter has been reviewed and approved and is ready for use.

• Rework: The form letter has been reviewed but needs more work before it can be approved. You might use this setting in conjunction with the staffer assignment (which we'll see in step 6) to assign your form to a coworker for reworking. Outgoing mail using form letters marked "Rework" cannot be emailed and will not be printed as part of batches. 

• Archived: The form letter is no longer in use. Form letters set as "Archived" will not be available when logging new correspondence. They are viewable from the main Form Letter Library using the status filters in the righthand sidebar.

6. Choose a staffer. You'll probably want to leave it set as yourself if you're still working on it, but you can also assign it to another staffer to draft or approve. Some offices prefer that the originator of the form letter remain the staffer assigned, while others like to move it between staffers based on the office's review process.

7. Select a template. More often than not you'll choose the default letter option, but if you use more than one kind of letterhead or address block format, you can select it here.

8. Add notes. You can add anything you like - letter author, date of origin, summary of contents - and it will be included in the form letter history.

9. Choose the visibility of the form letter. Mailroom only will make it so its only seen when assigning form letters from the inbox. When a form is Casework only, the form will only show up when working on casework. For Anywhere visibility, the form will be available for use when working on legislative responses or cases.

10. Click "Create." Your form letter has been created, and you can now edit it.