IBIS Technology

The formatting and data included in the final Itinerary are based on a number of word templates along with your stated preferences. When you open each individual template you can see the available data fields by clicking on Insert Merge Field, this will produce a drop-down list of all the fields. The location of this button will vary depending on your version of Microsoft Word. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Set the template directory
• Create a new itinerary template folder
• Customising your itinerary templates
• Mail merge fields
• How data is merged to a Word doc

Set the template directory

The folder containing the Itinerary word templates must be called 'IBIS word templates' - IBIS will not pick up any other folder. The location of the itinerary templates needs to be configured in the Global Settings. Go to System, Global Settings and then to tab 3 (Other).

Find the Templates Directory field and either accept the default of the templates directory within your IBIS folder or choose the location of your own 'IBIS word templates' folder.  If you have your templates on your local computer, only a user at that computer will be able to use them, if they are on a shared drive, all users with access to that shared drive will be able to use them.

Create a new itinerary template folder

1. From the Itinerary planner screen go to Tools then New itinerary templates. (You must be viewing an active itinerary before you can do this). 
2. The Create new itinerary folder popup will appear. If you want to copy an existing template and use that as a basis for your new one, tick the box and choose it from the drop-down list. 

   If your existing templates are not showing in the drop down list, you may need to set your templates directory in the Global settings under the Company tab. 

   
   

3.  Type in your new template name and remember that it MUST include the word 'Itinerary', then click OK. Note that if a template also has the word 'IBIS' in it, it cannot be edited, this is useful if you have created a template that you don't want anybody to edit.

Customising your itinerary templates

When you first start using Itinerary planner, IBIS will provide you with a set of templates that you can use to build your itinerary.

The formatting of the itinerary can be modified by you, but you must ensure that all formatting of fonts, colours, heading and paragraph styles are consistent throughout ALL your Word templates docs. If you are not consistent, the Word doc merge function is not going to turn out how you expect. If you need assistance, IBIS can help with your design, but configuration fees will apply. 

Follow these steps to edit your itinerary templates:

1. Ensure you close down any running copies of Microsoft Word. 
2. Open the Itinerary planner screen with an existing itinerary loaded.
3. Click Functions then Edit itinerary templates to bring up a list of all the existing Itineraries and the option 'New itinerary templates'.
   
   

   Itinerary template	Description
   Itinerary header	The Itinerary Header is at the top of your Itinerary and is based on the formatting and data field in Itinerary header.doc. A logo or cover page can be inserted into this, if required, along with any information about your company that you want to include. The data fields mainly refer to customer contact details and overall details of the itinerary. For example, inserting the Merge Fields LongName, Email, StartDate and PaxCount would generate the customer’s name, email address and the number of pax on the itinerary.
   Day header	This template is based on Day header.doc and is inserted once for each day in the itinerary. The data fields simply refer to the entered notes and times. For example, inserting the Merge Fields CustNoteTxt and NoteDateTime will generate the text entered into the Customer Note screen and the Date/Time field.
   Travel note	The Travel note formatting and data fields are contained in Travel. The structure is very similar to the Day Header and gives you the option to format information in a different way. For example, include region notes in the Day Header and notes about driving routes in the Travel notes within a different format.
   Accommodation notes	The document Accommodation.doc contains formatting and data fields for the Accommodation notes. The Merge fields include, contact name and address for the accommodation provider, product description, voucher fields, prices, times and booking number to name a few.
   Accommodation extra nights	The Accommodation extra days.doc document is a very similar structure to the Accommodation Notes template. The concept is that you may want to have slightly different information about the accommodation provider, but not duplicate information such as the address and contact details.
   Activity notes	Activity notes are formatted from the Activity.doc template and are generated for each booking that is of type Activity. The Merge fields are comprehensive as in the Accommodation Notes and contain all of the information pertaining to the booking that you would like to see in an Itinerary.

Mail merge fields

The merge fields available to you on a template depends on the item that the document is describing. There are three different sets of merge field data – Itinerary header information, customer information & booking information.

Customer note fields

All of the following fields are obtained from the customer note screen:

Reservations fields

All of the following fields are obtained from the information associated with a reservation:

How data is merged to a Word doc

IBIS uses the Mail Merge function to insert the data from your itinerary into your Word doc. For example, before merging, the Day Header template for your Printed Itinerary will look similar to the document below. It will contain fields that represent items in the database. For example, the <<Note_caption>> is the caption in the day header note, the <<Note>> is the actual text that is entered into the Note Insert.

After merging, IBIS will create your Itinerary by grabbing the information from the Database that it needs to replace each merge field. You can see below that the <<Note_caption>> has been replaced by the caption ‘Welcome to Queenstown’ and the piece of text has replaced the <<Note>> as described above.