Editing Custom Letter Templates

You can edit custom letter templates in the Word pane for your firm's tax correspondence.

The larger the number of paragraphs you change in a letter template, the longer the length of time the system requires saving the changes. If you change 250 or more paragraphs, the system displays a message advising the process can take more than an hour to complete.

Tip: Instead of saving changes to a large number of paragraphs in a letter template, you can save stationery settings in a return configuration set to apply to your standard and custom letters when rendered inside returns.

To edit custom letter templates, do the following:

  1. Select the tax year and return type from the available lists in the left pane of the Correspondence Manager window, and then click.
  2. If the library section is not expanded, click the Letter Template Library navigation bar in the left pane.
  3. To open a custom letter template, do one of the following:
    • Double-click a template.
    • Select a template and click on the Letters tab.
    • Right-click a template and select Edit Letter Template from the menu.
  4. Edit the text in the custom letter template in the Word pane or select and drag keywords or paragraphs from the libraries. Keywords must be inserted within free flow text content controls.

    5. To restore a standard paragraph as the default for the letter template, select and right-click the custom paragraph that was created from the standard paragraph and select Replace with Standard Paragraph from the menu.

    Note: Content controls enclose the text in a letter or paragraph and are visible in the Word pane when you select text. See Working with Content Controls for more information.

  5. Click Save on the Letters tab to save your changes.
  6. If you have edited a standard paragraph, you are prompted to click Override on the Paragraphs tab to select the return configuration sets that should use the custom paragraph in place of the default paragraph in custom letter templates for the selected tax year and return type when the letter is generated. See Overriding the Default Paragraph for more information. Click OK to display the Save Custom Letter Template window.

    Important: The paragraph in standard letter templates will not be updated; however, letters rendered inside the return from the standard letter template generate the custom paragraph and not the standard paragraph.

  7. If you want to set the template to generate or render in tax returns for selected return configuration sets, do the following:
    1. Right-click your new custom letter template in the library and select Enable Letter Template from the menu.
    2. Select return configuration sets for the letter template. You can also select Enable from the column header to select all return configuration sets.
    3. Click Save.

Important: The paragraph in standard letter templates will not be updated; however, letters rendered inside the return from the standard letter template generate the custom paragraph and not the standard paragraph.