Nuts & Bolts: Pika Form LettersMPLP Fifth Friday Webinar Series

Fifth Friday Webinar SeriesWhat?

Webinars on technology topics.

What do you want to learn more about? Let us know!

Recordings available at:

mplp.org/Taskforces/technology

When?

Any Fifth Friday at 10:00am

● January 29th - Today!● April 29th● July 29th● September 30th● (Not December 30th!)

Pika Form Letters: An Intro

Document Assembly in Pika

Form Letters

● Opening letters● Closing letters● Rejection, No-Show letters● Appointment reminder letters● Homework letters● Court reminder letters● Return signed retainer/attestation● Uncollectible/cease and desist

advice Letters● Others?

Use Cases: Client Letters

Use Cases: Letters to Others ● Pro Bono attorneys - assigning

new cases● Opposing Counsel - cover letter

for service● Court - cover letters for filing by

mail● Opposing party - cover letter for

service, other info● Submitting orders under 7-day

rule

Use Cases: Forms you need completed● Pro Bono case dispositions● Will or POA questionnaire

(heirs, executor/advocate choices, names, addresses, etc.)

● Divorce questionnaire (property, income, children, debts, etc.)

And finally...

● Efficiency

● Consistency

● Saving Time

Fields, Tags and Template Management

Fields, Tags and Template Management

The Pika Document Assembly feature utilizes a template system to "merge" database fields into end-user documents

Template System Components

● Template tags derived from database field names ● End-user template files● The form letter management interface

This template system is comprised of three components:

Template System Components - TagsPika template tags are merely phrases or words enclosed by brackets and percent symbols.

During document assembly, the system replaces a tag with its corresponding data within the rendered document.

%%[number]%%

1-16-00052

Template System Components - Tags ContinuedTemplate tags are derived from database field names; these tags allow end-users to specify and position record data within form letter templates

● All case and contact table fields (limited to primary client's record) are accessible via template tags.

● Specially correlated tags that combine commonly used fields or require data compilation from multiple tables are also available.

Template System Components - Tags ContinuedThe following tags would display the name, complete address and stated income of the client attached to the current case record:

%%[client]%%

%%[full_address]%%

$%%[income]%%

Iyama Test

123 Main St.

Anytown, US 00000

$25000.00

Understanding Merge Tags - Fields

All case and contact table fields (limited to primary client's record) are accessible via a template tag.

● Pika case number● client's full name● client's street address● client's city● client's first name● client's last name● primary attorney assigned to

case

Understanding Merge Tags - Fields Continuedcases.number

cases.client_id

contacts.address

contacts.city

contacts.first_name

contacts.last_name

cases.user_id

Pika case number

client's full name

client's street address

client's city

client's first name

client's last name

primary attorney assigned to case

Understanding Merge Tags - Fields Continued%%[number]%%

%%[client]%%

%%[address]%%

%%[city]%%

%%[first_name]%%

%%[last_name]%%

%%[counsel]%%

cases.number

cases.client_id

contacts.address

contacts.city

contacts.first_name

contacts.last_name

cases.user_id

Specially correlated tags that combine commonly used fields or require data compilation from multiple tables are also available

Understanding Merge Tags - Fields Continued● Opposing party's first and last

name● Opposing counsel's first and last

name ● First and last name of the person

receiving the generated form letter ● The recipient's name, formatted for

use in an opening salutation ("Ms. Smith", "Mr. Jones", etc.) data field tags

● Date on which the document was assembled

Understanding Merge Tags - Fields Continued%%[opposing]%%

%%[opp_counsel]%%

%%[recipient]%%

%%[recipient_salutation]%%

%%[current_date]%%

Opposing party's first and last name

Opposing counsel's first and last name

First and last name of the person receiving the generated form letter

The recipient's name, formatted for use in an opening salutation ("Ms. Smith", "Mr. Jones", etc.) data field tags

Date on which the document was assembled

Understanding Merge Tags - Fields ContinuedStock template tag list

Template System Components - Template Files

Template files contain static text, template tags and formatting as defined by end-users for specific purposes.

● Template files can be created by any word processing application which is capable of saving in the RTF file type.

Compatibility Requirements:

● Though most contemporary word processing applications offer this capability, users may encounter text formatting and tag issues using various versions of Microsoft Word, OpenOffice variants and others.

● Consistent results are attainable using Microsoft Word 2010 and Wordpad

Form Letter Management

Upon creating document assembly templates, users must transfer these files to their program’s PIka instance for testing and eventual deployment.

Pika provides the Form Letter Manager interface to facilitate this process.

Form Letter Management

The form letter management interface is accessible via the site map.

Note: users must possess "system" security level privileges to access this interface.

Form Letter Management

The form letter management interface.

Form Letter ManagementThe process of transferring user-created templates into a Pika instance entails three steps:

1. Create a folder destination for the template (optional)

2. Browse to select the desired template file.

3. Click “Add File” to complete the transfer

Users can add a description for the file if desired (optional)

Form Letter Management

The newly uploaded template will be accessible via the document assembly section on the “Documents” tab

Demonstration

Tips regarding file formats (doc, docx, rtf)1. Since all of your templates need to be in RTF format you should create an

RTF version of your letterhead that you only use for templates. Most likely you will need to use Microsoft Word to work with your letterhead.

2. After opening your RTF letterhead you should ‘save as’ the name of your template and place it in its own folder (see version control below).

3. While you may need to keep your template in Word for your letterhead to work properly, keep in mind that Word may add unhelpful formatting that can cause problems in the way your templates are rendered on Pika. See the next slide.

Tips regarding testing and version control1. If certain elements of your template aren’t being rendered properly by

Pika it may be that Word has added unwanted, hidden formatting. You can use a text editor like Wordpad to clean up this formatting by copying and pasting your text (without images) from Word into the editor and then copy and paste it back into Word from the editor. Once the Word document has been cleaned you can re-format, re-upload and test.

2. While testing new templates, it can be very helpful to version control your forms. I like to keep a separate folder for each form, both on my server and in Pika, and keep track of versions, e.g., -v1, -v2, etc. I try to use the exact same file name, plus the version number, so they stay in order.

What Next?To jump start your Pika forms project, we suggest the following steps:

1. Form a committee of stakeholders including someone with the skills & interest in creating the forms (“Pika Responsible Person”); end-users (attorneys and paralegals in your office); and a supervisor

2. Determine the forms & letters you want to create; prioritize them and determine a timeline for completion

3. End-users draft templates, superviser approve them, and Pika Responsible Person builds them

4. All stakeholders test, debug, retest, debug, etc.5. Train all end-users

Questions?

Thanks ~ see you on April 29th!Angela Tripp, Co-Managing Attorney, MPLP trippa@mplp.org

Benefo Ofosu-Benefo II, Systems Administrator, MPLP ofosu@mplp.org

Scott Ellis, Statewide Technology Coordinator, MPLP scoellis@mplp.org

http://docs.pikasoftware.com/docs/index.php/Admin_Manual_-_Document_Generation_Tags

http://docs.pikasoftware.com/docs/index.php/Document_Assembly

http://docs.pikasoftware.com/docs/index.php/Admin_Manual_-_Document_Assembly