Letter writing from website printed out and sent by regular mail (not email) seeking a module

domineaux's picture

Currently working on a christian site.

Not sure if there is a module or workaround for this.

A module that will allow users to work with the database of specified users (roles,groups,etc) and create printable formatted letters on the website.

Once the letters are printed the user hand addresses envelopes and mails, via snailmail letters to the recipent/s of the letter.

A second sheet is printed out with the names and addresses for facilitating the hand addressing of envelopes. It could of course be just a print out of labels, but labels would take even more away form the personalization needed.

This type of module would be for users to send snailmail letters to other site members, and other mailing lists.

The major purpose is to facilitate the letter writing process.

This way missionaries, elderly, sick, shut-ins, handicapped, hospitalized, and people without computers can receive regular mail letters.

The purpose is to facilitate letter writing to people that are extremely grateful for good news.

The letters printed from a printer are excellent, because larger type fonts can be used and the letters are easier for people with visual issues to see.

It would also be nice to have some kind of incentive mechanism in the letter writer module that would be posted on the site.

This way more people could be encouraged and rewarded for their letter writing.

It is not a corny way of doing things, visit a local nursing home or other long-term care facility and you will get the idea very quickly.

Letter writing is a very worthy ministry.

Even though the letters are printed it is still a very personal thing when someone receives a letter by regular mail.

There maybe something like this or a variation of it. I've not found one.

I don't get alot of original ideas, so I wouldn't doubt there isn't something available now. I just haven't found it.

I found a letters module. I think it is email, but there is specific mention of zipcodes. That indicates there me some facility for actually snailmailing letters. I'm going to give it a try for sure.

I realize it is very easy to create letters in Word, etc., but I'm thinking more in terms of fairly un-computer literate people that can use the computer. They are competent to make postings on a website, but really need to be facilitated to do something like I've mentioned. Also, the mailing database could be maintained on the webserver for ease of use, most important to remove the burden of maintaining the mailing list from users.

There are many people that can use the website very well, but basically aren't competent enough to efficiently do letter writing as I've described.

The way I envision this is to have a database listings of people in nursing homes,etc.that would added to and maintained by site member users.

These member users would create their database lists/choices of persons to create mail letters to from the databases.

The database might have permissions configured and specific to member users. This way one large database could be used for all mail recipients, and each member user could specify access limitations when the user member adds someone to the database.

Site member users would basically have a click on list they would use to send letters periodically(their criteria).

If you read this and know of a module/s that I can use to make this happen I'd appreciate hearing from you.

I should mention this is a current project, so I could probably use a standalone PHP application and link to it.

Mulitiple logins don't bother me, sometimes we just have to roll with the punches.

Drupal module/s would be best of course.

Thanks

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CiviCRM can prep letters

twowheeler - Wed, 2009-08-12 02:47

CiviCRM can prep letters, or at least will be able to in the forthcoming version 3.0 which is scheduled to be released sometime in the next couple of months. The test code is available to play with on the sandbox site at http://sandbox.civicrm.org.
The user selects a set of contacts, selects "Create Printable PDF Letters", and then writes the letter in a WYSIWYG editor. The PDF is downloaded in your browser. There are still some kinks to work out in the code but it looks promising. It would take some work with permissions and groups I suppose to meet your other requirements, but maybe it is worth considering.


Humm, this might require a

JaredAM - Wed, 2009-09-09 11:39

Humm, this might require a custom module, but I would think you could do it with a CCK + Print module + a WYSIWYG. The custom module would then loop through names and create one long pdf file which could then be printed.


i have been making requests

domineaux's picture
domineaux - Thu, 2009-11-19 16:24

i have been making requests on the Drupal Letters Module Open Issues. I made a post yesterday in fact. If some of you interested joined and shared your interest with the developer he might be incentivized to work the project.

If you read the documents you'll find it could work very well with a few changes.