If you are still writing grades on a progress report form, read on.   PGGP's Letter Editor allows you to create reports that say exactly what you want them to say. With the click of a button you can add grades, assignments, behavior reports and names to letters. Letters can be easily made gender specific...no more writing his/her in letters. You can save as many letters as you like.   Of course the Student Standards Report can be included in the letter in PGGP 5.

Pictures are from the Macintosh OS X, Macintosh System 9 and Windows versions of PGGP.

When you want to work on a letter, go to the Reports menu and choose letter.
You will be taken to the get file.

If you don’t have any letters you have written, you can open the Letter With Summary.

When the letter opens, it will be placed in the as the Language Number One letter.

The Letter Dialog will be displayed. Notice you can select letters written in other languages. _PGGP Does Not Translate_ You must either write the letters or get a friend to translate.  To save paper during letter testing, click the preview button near the bottom. To edit the letter or write a new letter, click on the Editor button.

 
The letter will be displayed in the editor.

At this point you can either choose to edit what is here, or create a letter from scratch. To create a brand new letter, choose New from the File Menu. You can also use Save As to save different versions of letters.  The buttons to the right of the editor add the merge fields. If you click the Grades button <<Grades>> will be automatically added to the letter, where ever the cursor is currently located.

This is pretty powerful. You can now print letters, gender specific. If you put a student name (<<FirstName>>) in Bold, the name will be in bold. Treat the <<FirstName>> as if it was an actual name. For example it can be made bold, or possessive. Note the <<him>> and <<his>> near the bottom. These will turn into him and her or his and her.

 It is not necessary to make your letter perfect the first try. You can click done (which will automatically save the letter once it has been named) and test the letter.

When done editing click Done and you will be back at the letter dialog.

Back at the Main Letter Dialog you can click on Select Assignments, and choose a "run" of say the past 2 weeks by using the calendar at "Start Date" and "End Date". Of course, you can select just one subject and also choose to print only selected items, such as INC and ABS. The text of the letter can explain this. Make the explanation generic...saying perhaps "two weeks", rather than giving dates. It will keep you from having to continually change the letter. Click OK when you are done selecting the items to

Once you are ready for a look at your new creation, click on Print. Because the Preview button is clicked, you will see your letter displayed on the screen. Here is part of a letter for Randy. (Click Here if you would like to download a pdf of the letter. It is not a big file.)

When you are happy with the way the letter is turning out, try a paper copy by clicking To Printer and Select Student and try one on paper.

If you would like to print letters for the whole class, set up the letter for Print All. To do this, click Print by Sort. Then click the up button/arrow to the right of the Print Letters for Student with Grades Below C-. Keep clicking until it says Print All Letters. Otherwise, you can print one letter at a time, or sort according to grades. You can even use Sort Above to send honors letters "Honor Letters", inviting parents of kids getting A's and B's to the awards assembly.

So, you see PGGP has an infinite number of reports. Your imagination is the only limit.

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