How to Transfer your Existing Form Letters into Prevail

The How-to will cover how to transfer existing form letters into your Prevail document folder.

Prevail 9 is compatible with Microsoft Word 2007/2010/2013/2016/Office 365 (Microsoft Office 32-bit only) and Corel Word Prefect Suites X3-X6 (fully service packed). Before you can start merging documents, one of these word processors must be installed on the machine that is running Prevail.

\uD83D\uDCD8 Instructions

1. Open your existing form letter in Microsoft Word or WordPerfect.

2. Save the document in this location: X:\PREVAIL_SERVER\docs\(Law Type for Document)

   1. 'X'= the drive on which your Prevail server is installed

   2. (Law Type for Document)= choose a law type folder such as Social Security or Generic

      1. Note: If you use Microsoft Word, you will need to select Word 97-2003 Document (.doc format) as the “save as” type. Do not leave the document in .docx format.

3. Close this Word/ Word Perfect document and return to Prevail.

4. Click Administration > Document Designer.

5. Locate the new document by browsing all documents OR using the ‘Search’ field and entering any part of the document name.

6. Once located, double-click on the desired document to open it.

7. Complete the following document property fields.

   1. Category

      1. How the document will be categorized in the Document Designer window and in the merge window when generating a merge document.

   2. Settings: History Category 

      1. How the document will be categorized on the History tab when merged in a matter.

   3. Settings: Header/ Footer Codes

      1. Select whether the document will have merge fields in the header only, footer only, both, or neither.

         • Note: By default, the program assumes that the document does not have field codes in the header or footer.   

   4. Settings: Detail

      1. Enter a description of the document

   5. Ledger Cost: Timekeeper/Cost Category/ override Category/Cost 

      1. For prevail to automatically create a cost entry on the Ledger when the document is merged, select the user whose name should be associated with that cost entry and how it should be categorized.

         • Warning: If you check the ‘Override Category’ box, then the cost amount you enter for this template will override any default cost you have set up for the selected cost Category in the Databank.

   6. Ledger Time: Timekeeper/time Category/Override Category/Hours/Calculate

      1. If you check the “Override Category” box, then the “Hours” you enter for this template will override any default hours you have set up for the selected Time Category in the Databank.

         • Note: If you do not want the amount field on the Ledger to calculate, leave the calculate box unchecked.

   7. Task Tab

      1. For Prevail to automatically schedule a task hen this document is merged, enter the following

         • Task Subject

         • Task Type

         • Task Start: # of days after merge that the task should start.

         • Task Due: # of days after the merge that the task is due.

         • Task Assigned: Name/ type of user to whom the task should be assigned.

8. Insert merge fields into document using these steps:

   1. Position curser where you want to insert merge field

   2. Click on the appropriate merge field on the left side of the Document Designer window.

   3. Double-Click on the appropriate field in the column on the right side of the Document Designer window to insert this into your document template.

9. IMPORTANT: Click ‘Save’ at the top of the Document Designer window.

   1. Caution: Do not use the ‘Save’ or ‘Save As’ in your word processing program, this will delete everything inside of the Document Designer.

10. Close the Document Designer Window

11. how to create matters in prevail