The Letter Template Manager (Muni Tools > Letter Template Manager) is where every letter
template for your municipality is created, edited, and cloned. This page walks through each
field in the editor and explains exactly what it controls — several fields look similar but
drive very different behavior, so read the notes below before assuming a field does what its
name suggests.
The list shows every template for your municipality: Format, Title, Parent type,
Print style, and row actions (view/edit, clone). Use Load templates to refresh
the list and New template to start a blank one.
A plain label for staff picking a template from a list — free text, no special behavior.
One of Code Enforcement Case, Property/Parcel, or Permit file. This is not just a
label — it's a filter. When staff start a new letter from a case, a property, or a permit
file, the template picker on Step 1 of the letter flow only offers templates whose Parent
object type matches that parent. A template scoped to Permit file will never appear in the
list when someone is drafting a letter from a CE case, and vice versa. Choose this
deliberately: it's the mechanism that keeps, say, rental-registry notices from cluttering the
template list when someone's writing a violation notice on a case.
An informational label only (e.g. "Notice," "Placard," "Reminder" — whatever labels your
municipality finds useful for browsing the list). The letter subsystem does not branch any
logic on this field. It has no effect on layout, orientation, margins, or which mail-merge
fields are available — it exists purely so staff scanning the template list can tell templates
apart at a glance. If you're looking for the field that actually controls how a letter is laid
out and printed, that's Print style, below.
This is the field that actually drives layout. Print style controls:
<<RECIPIENT_NAME_AND_ADDRESS>> mail-merge field so it sits correctly inside a windowedPick -- None -- for a template with no special print styling. See
Managing print styles for how to create and
edit the print styles themselves, including the global vs. municipality-specific styles.
The image that prints at the top of the letter (letterhead, seal, etc.). This selector only
lists image files already uploaded to your municipality — you don't upload a file directly
from the template editor. To add a new header image option, go to the municipality session box
muni tools > important muni documents and files, upload the image there, then come
back to the template editor and it will appear in this selector. Choose -- No header image
-- for a template that shouldn't print one.
This field is for rental-registry / permit-file (occupancy period) process context — it is
not how CE case violations get onto a letter. It's a multi-select of your municipality's
enforceable ordinance elements (filterable, ctrl/cmd+click to multi-select), and it exists to
associate a template with the ordinances it's typically used for — for example, tagging a
rental-registry template with the registry-related ordinance sections so that association is
recorded at the template level.
Two important distinctions:
<<VIOLATIONS>>. For CE case letters, use the<<VIOLATIONS>> mail-merge field (see theCodeViolation records attached to the parent<<VIOLATIONS>> only populates when the letter's parent is a CE case; it's ignoredThis field only shows in view mode when at least one element has been selected; each shows the
ordinance's header text and its element ID.
The letter body itself, edited with the same rich-text (Quill) editor used in the letter flow.
Use mail-merge fields — shown in-app as "template insertion points" — for anything that
should be filled in automatically per letter (recipient name/address, dates, violations,
photos, and more). See the full
mail-merge token reference for every
available field and which parent types each applies to. Sysadmin accounts additionally get a
raw-HTML toggle for advanced formatting not reachable through the rich-text toolbar.
Click Generate preview (in view mode) to see how the template renders with dummy/sample
values substituted into every mail-merge field — this is a preview only, not tied to any
real case, property, or recipient. The rendered result appears in the Template preview
panel below the editor panel. Until you generate one, that panel just reads "Select a template
and click 'Generate preview' to see a preview."
Deactivates the template so it no longer appears when staff are choosing a template for a new
letter. Existing letters already generated from it are unaffected.
Use clone on any template row to start a new template pre-filled from an existing one —
the fastest way to make a variant (a "second notice" version of an existing template, for
example) without retyping the whole body. The clone is a fully independent template: editing
it afterward has no effect on the original, and all the fields above (parent object type,
format, print style, header image, default code elements) are copied over as a starting point
and can be changed freely.
See also: Mail-merge token reference,
Managing print styles.
Back to: Letters & Emailing — Admin Guide