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In the SASIxp
Attendance module, you can print a list of students who have absences
totaling to a pre-set number. For
example, you can print a list of students who have 3 or more absences. In addition, you can create a file that
can be used to mail merge individual letters for those students. The same process is used to create both
the list and the file; thus, the following steps will help you do
either or both. The process can be
run every day so it can detect and report students who have reached the
absence cut-offs since the day before. If you want to mail merge the list into a letter you’ve created in Microsoft Word (for example), there is a link to a set of instructions for doing so. |
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Printing Absence Lists and Creating
Export Files 1.
Log into SASIxp with rights to take attendance. 2.
Double-click the SASI Modules
globe. 3.
Double-click the Attendance
briefcase. 4.
Double-click the Attendance Letters
icon. 5.
In the Attendance Letters window, check
the cut-offs for letters. Set
those to correspond to the district’s policy for sending letters to parents
about absences. 6.
Set the dates 7.
Set the grade span to correspond
to your school (PK to 5, 6 to 8, 9 to 12, respectively). 8.
Choose Reset Counters the first
time you do Attendance Letters (just to clear out any extraneous
information). After the first time,
you should not – typically – re-set counters. This will be done only if you want to
print letters to go to students a second time for the same cut-offs. 9.
For high schools, you should
choose the Totaling Method you want to use. You will typically use Total by Each Section, which
includes students when the number of absences in a single section meets the
cut-off. 10. At this point, you can choose to Export – or you can choose Additional
Export Fields to include in your attendance letters. a.
The export list will automatically
include parent name and address, the student’s full name and ID number,
total absences (for elementary and middle schools), and total period absences
(for high schools). b.
Choose Additional Export Fields (for
example, Grade, Enter Date, or others) if you want to include those items
in your mail merge letters. 11. Click the Export button when you are ready to print your
list or create your mail merge file.
(If asked about creating a file or two, always choose Create.) 12. Wait while the system is Processing Student Records
(message and progress bar will appear at lower left of the SASIxp
screen). 13. Click the Yes button to print list of students receiving
letters (answering No stops the entire process). Click OK in the print window. This step will repeat itself for each cut-off list (3 or
more, 5 or more, etc.); you will be asked to confirm the list and the
printer, each time. 14. When all your lists are printed and your files exported, click
the Close button. 15. The top of each printed page will give you the Letter Number
(corresponding to your cut-off points) and the page number for that list (if
multiple pages). Creating Mail Merge
Tables and Letters 1.
When you chose to create the Export
files (in steps 11-13 above), SASIxp created three files in your …/SASIxp/Datafile
folder on the network. Those
files are named “1stxxx.ltr,” “2ndxxx.ltr,” and “3rdxxx.ltr,” where “xxx” is
your SASIxp school number.
Those files contain all the information identified in step 10
above. 2.
For each student, those pieces of
information are separated by “tab” characters. Each student record ends in a “carriage return/line feed”
(CR/LF). This makes it easy to use
these files in Microsoft Word and other word processing software for mail
merge. 3.
The following steps assume that you are
using Microsoft Word 97 or 2000 (the standard software for Greenwood
School District 50). If you are using
a different word processor, please check its mail merge functions to
determine how to use the export files. 4.
To create your mail merge letters, you
will log out of SASIxp and start Microsoft Word. 5.
Click File, then Open. On the navigation screen, set Files of
Type = All Files. 6.
Navigate to F:\Apps\NCSApps\SASIxp\Datafile. You will see, in the list of folders and
files, the three files named above. 7.
Double-click 1stxxx.ltr, where
“xxx” is your school number. 8.
When the file has opened, click File,
then Save As. On the
navigation screen, set Files of Type = Word Document. 9.
Navigate to the folder on your drive
C: that contains the actual letters into which you want to mail merge the
names on the list. (We recommend a
folder named C:\AttendanceLetters.) Click the OK or Save button, whichever is
available. 10. With the file still open in Word, click Edit on the menu
bar and choose Select All from the drop-down menu. This will highlight the text in the file. 11. Click Table on the menu bar and choose Convert Text to
Table from the drop-down menu. 12. When the Convert Text to Table window opens, be sure that Tabs
is selected in the Separate Text At section of the window. Then click OK. 13. Your list will be placed in a table with each piece of
information in distinct columns.
Click anywhere in white space on the screen to turn off the
highlighting. 14. Click File, then Save. Then click File and Close. 15. Repeat steps 5 through 14 for the other two
export files (2ndxxx.ltr and 3rdxxx.ltr). 16. Be sure you know where all three files are saved on your drive
C:. Also, be sure that the three
files are named 1stxxx.doc, 2ndxxx.doc, and 3rdxxx.doc,
respectively. 17. If you have already created your attendance letters and
merged your tables to each of those, you can now open each letter in Word,
confirm that the mail merge is still active, and print the letters. 18. If you have not yet created your attendance letters and/or
merged the tables, you can click the following link to go to instructions for
doing so: http://www.gwd50.k12.sc.us/SASI-Web/SASI-MailMerge.htm. 19. You will have to create your letters only once – if you
name your merge files properly (see step 16 immediately above). |
