Formatting your letter text

The built in letter writer has limited formatting options in comparison to a word processor such as Microsoft Word. It is effectively a text editor which is attached to the database system. The emphasis of the letter writer is to quickly and painlessly create and send standard letters to patients or third parties, and to keep track of the letters in a database format. The latter is something you can't do with a standard word processing program.

As a trade off, formatting of letter text using underlining, bold face, italics, line centering and so on is not possible with the built-in letter writer.

Printer fonts

It is possible to modify the font and font size for printing letters by specifying these at the bottom of the letter window. You may also modify the default font name and size, which are stored in the Options form (Account format page).

Only a small number of fonts are shown in the listbox, although any font may be used by typing its name directly into the Font field. You can view the names of all your available fonts in Microsoft Word or other similar programs and then type in your preferred font. Similarly, you are not limited to the font sizes listed; any size may be entered.

Spell check

Click the Spell check button to check the spelling of the body of the letter. A standard Microsoft Office spell check dialog box will be shown. This will only work if you have Office installed on your computer.