Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Irony of all ironies. To all angry letter writers.

I was off the board for a few days, so I apologize if this has already been pointed out or was pointed out long ago.

In researching an answer to a question, I was working on how to locate patients with a query and then send a group email to them. After pulling up a few test patients by writing the word "dolphins" (just chose it) in ID Field 3 in demographics, I selected all and created a group email. It is very slick. When I closed the email window, it asked if I wanted to save the email to the patient's imported items. I did. So, I went to check if it were there and, not only was it there, it opened in Word!

So, just for fun I opened the search window, selected a patient using her ID and chose to send a letter. It also saved it to her imported items, and it also saved it in Word! Granted the actual letter isn't formatted perfectly, but at least you can make changes. It's certainly not perfect and, while it is only a few steps more than the normal letter writer, it is still enough steps to make it not worthwhile doing especially given the formatting.

But, it makes me wonder if this can be done since v6, why have we not had this option in the actual letter writer?

OK, I tried the same thing. It opened in Outlook, but then again saved as a word document in the import items. Probably because this was all externally handled by outlook, which probably saves by default to word.

Interesting that although adobe reader opens in the default window, word opens in it's own screen.

At least it holds out hope that the letter writer will be improved in the near future (or not that near )

When something opens, it generally looks for the default editor. You have often seen the infamous Open With. If you go to any .xml file and open it, it will be gibberish, but if you choose open with text, it will be readable and editable.

If a document is to open in Word by default and you remove Word from your computer, it will likely open in WordPad.

Maybe it is a licensing issue, but I doubt it. If you look at VIPER, when you choose to print the vaccinations, what does it open with? Word. Formatted beautifully and editable and able to save anywhere any other Word document can be saved.

I suspect that Jon's reasoning for saving to an HTML file was it was the only way it would automatically save to Imported Items, where you would have to manually save to II if in Word. This is where those who want a better letter writer would need to understand they may need to workaround and save it to a separate folder even if that means in a blank folder within AC. I think saving to a specific folder that correlates with that patient would still require that you make a link, which may be able to be done using the Imported Items tool in the admin section.

The last thought is that VIPER automatically formats Word perfectly where my guess is based on my experiment, the letter writer could save in Word but not formatted correctly, and having to reformat would be a huge waste of time. Doing it the way I did it and ending up with an inside address in all CAPs with the name set up Last Name, First name would not be acceptable.

Finally, if it were changed to this format of printing to Word, the excuse that everyone does not have Word certainly falls on my deaf ears and, of course, Open Office is available for free and yet another example of how it would print to the likely highest editor available. If not, that is easy to change in Microsoft in two places.

Although if you do not have Word, it would default, as you said, to WordPad or NotePad. Then again, my default "office" program is Open Office (actually LibreOffice.)

There is always that thread that you think will get tons of interest (you know, everyone talking about opening in Word for the past eight years), but it just fades slowly into the sunset. Oh well, I guess this will bump it for one more run.

Now, this is very interesting...

Are we saying lots of talk about AC's ?Letter Writer? improvements? But little is being done about it. Hmmmmm...... I'm listening. Educate me more, please.

Bert, I think the reason this has not attracted much attention is that it is, at best, an interesting quirk in the program, but isn't very useful. Or to quote a learned man,

I could do this: type a letter in the letter writer. Hit "select all" and "copy" into a blank Word document. Import that Word document into AC. This would probably be fewer steps as compared to your technique. It would yield an equally poorly formatted, fairly useless document (albeit in Word). No offense to your discovery.

Lawrence, what I have heard is that the letter writer will become a target for improvement after practice management is released.

Jon,

You missed the whole point of my post. What I was trying to convey was after almost eight years of asking for a letter to open in Word and it doesn't happen, AC somehow sneaks in an email that opens in Word.

That was the message that only Wendell and Larry got.

Soooo....no more complaining of the letter writer all you ACers out there.

Hey, I got it too!

I guess I am just a little too concrete for this.

I don't care if it opens in Word, Excel, or Quicken if it is useless. I hearby maintain my right to complain.

Well, Microsoft will be on Office 2016 by that time.

When you go to type a letter in AC, it opens the letter writer, a very generic writer that saves to html. They cannot be modified, but even worse, when you go to reprint, you get extranious (sp) despite turning off headers and footers and such.

One rationale for this is that you have created a non-modifiable document, but the end result is very generic, and does not look professional.

We have repeatedly asked for the ability to open Word or a real word processor, seemingly to no avail.

Along comes email. Once saved, it is in Word format, not html or such.

WELLLLLLL, if they can do that for email, why not the letter writer. There have been a lot of people complaining about letter writer, but this post seems to have fallen on deaf ears.

Can I throw a few idea out here?


Perhaps Amazing Charts can do what our government can't - ask AC users for a one time extra voluntary payment specifically directed towards the improvement they would most like to see. I for one would love a Word-compatible letter writer (I'm a neurologist and write lots of letters to other docs). I for one would be willing to pay extra for that component to be added. Perhaps Jon can provide for posting a rough estimate of the manpower costs to provide and implement such improvements as:

- MS word compatible letter writer

- Allergies section that is not over-documented

- fields that expand as you type in them (with one scrollbar to view the entire chart -

- an interventions field - either added to the main view or as an Item-Type in Imported Items

etc. etc . . .

I wonder if Bert could again supppy the documentation of the most user-wanted changes, and If Jon could provide an estimate their cost, and if we could run an ? Amazing-Charts-A-thon? where users could donate specifically to the improvements they would want to see implemented in an attmept to reach the financial goal of paying for the improvment. (I believe AC is very reasonably priced, and users might be willing to pitch in, particularly as the changes benefit the users in both convenience and quite possibly efficiency/bottom-line)

Idea #2. : Instead of asking for a one time donation or perhaps parallel to, perhaps Jon may be willing to let some of the users actually do the heavy-lifting and write in some of the improvement into the program themselves? I have the sense a number of users are programming-savvy and might be willing to write the actual code for some of the desired improvements, which could then be submitted to the AC programming staff for review and tweaking. (I'd volunteer, but I don' know how to write code)

Anyway . . .just an idea -


Bruce Morgenstern (Neurology)
Denver, CO

Bert, you definitely got the interest going now.

I see that this thread has been busy yesterday afternoon.

@Dr. Jon (JBS) ? Thank you for the information. Have you heard anything more on AC?s Practice Management approximate release date?

@Dr. Wendell ? Thank you for explaining the functionality of AC?s Letter Writer.

I'll post something more later on.

This is the development poll.

Sorry, guys, but I am still underwhelmed. It is sort of a "read only" version of letters. It seems pretty useless to me. If the letter writer opened the same way in Word, would it really matter much?

Agree Jon. I've never thought opening the letter writer in Word was my solution. Word can be a little slow and RAM intensive at times. I was just thinking of something simple like WordPad that I can edit if needed. Plus, there are people who actually don't have Word or Microsoft Office.

Jon, you are starting to sound like me with the Brother MFP. Finally, I just had to say, "If they like them, they like them." The letter writer (in general to be fair), was 5th out of 81 on the poll. Again, not "letter writer should be in Word," but it needs to be better. I am missing the "read only" meaning.

There are so many more things you can do with Word. I think many of us wouldn't care if it didn't save to HTML.

WordPad? I can't even find that. (OK, on accessories -- but there is a reason it is called accessories). Travis, forgive me, but I can't use RAM as an excuse. And, I certainly don't feel sorry for anyone who doesn't have an Office Suite on their PC whether it is Microsoft Office or Open Office. (Free)

To say that we shouldn't use Word, because some people don't have it, would be akin to saying that the program doesn't need to print because some people don't have printers.

The whole idea is that it will open in whatever editor you have. If not Word, then it likely would open in WordPad.

The letter writer is embarrassing. There are users that have left AC over the letter writer. Why should we have PDF. We can just convert a word document to HTML or Notepad.

Hi All,

Word is pretty universal - and while I may not enjoy enriching Bill Gates, it *IS* an industry standard, and *does* indeed accomlish its primary goal - quite well (and requires just a one time investment if you don't already have it, most do)

For us non-primary care specialists our outgoing consultation letters are our work product - they are vital to our practice.

That letters are printed in HTML, largly unalterable, in a fixed font, without the ability to customize the page layout, margins, etc is a major shortcomming of this progam - enough to have me discourage other specialists from considering it.

Amazing Charts may have started small, and cheap, and at a time when quirks were permissible. But times are now different - there are government encouragements to go electronic, and a potentially greater market - Amazing Charts should seize the opportunity to graduate from small, quirky and cheap, to Inexpensive and Elegant

(I recently started a thread on the idea of a voluntary program where users could make a single voluntary contribution to AC specifically toallow it to underwrite the improvement(s) of their choice.


( see: http://amazingcharts.com/ub/ubbthreads.php/topics/33934/An_Idea_to_accelerate_requeste#Post33934 )

Bruce Morgenstern, Neurology
Denver CO

WordPad is actually a decent alternative. You can make a pretty decent letter in it. It is essentially an stripped down version of Microsoft Word. And everyone has it. It's better in Windows 7 than XP, but that may be an excuse to move up in the world.

One issue is the ability to "lock" the letter. For medical legal reasons, it is a good idea to do this.

Could it be saved as a template, automatically in WordPad if that were the new default? (Apparently it is not an option directly, but Open Office xml is an option (and I do not have OO on my laptop) but it might have to ability to be added.)

I, for one, still prefer LibreOffice (Open Office's better incarnation) but WordPad may be an easier universal solution.

WordPad is actually a decent alternative. You can make a pretty decent letter in it. It is essentially an stripped down version of Microsoft Word. And everyone has it. It's better in Windows 7 than XP, but that may be an excuse to move up in the world.

One issue is the ability to "lock" the letter. For medical legal reasons, it is a good idea to do this.

Could it be saved as a template, automatically in WordPad if that were the new default? (Apparently it is not an option directly, but Open Office xml is an option (and I do not have OO on my laptop) but it might have to ability to be added.)

I, for one, still prefer LibreOffice (Open Office's better incarnation) but WordPad may be an easier universal solution.

Sure, one could use WordPad. Whatever default they chose.

Here is an example. Amazing Charts saves all of its vaccine information to the database. When you go to print it, it opens in the program's editor. You can't change it or do anything to it.

Now look at VIPER. It enters information into AC. When you choose print, it opens in Word in a beautifully formatted vaccine record which can be changed, saved or whatever.

The biggest issue with its opening in Word, Open Office, or WordPad or even Notepad, is it would have to be saved to the chart. That would be the step that would need to be fixed.

Yes! This is what I have been trying to say. We all have access to those programs; the issue is how the the letter writer integrates with them. I want to open the letter writer, be able to compose a nicely formatted letter on my own letterhead, attach and send the associated note, and have it saved to the patient's chart without jumping through hoops.

The Letter Writer could be developed using WordPad as its standard. It would be a good standard to start with because AC runs on Windows PCs. Windows comes with WordPad, like with Notepad. A person would be able save a WordPad document and open it in Word.