The Letter construction kit integrated in MZ-WinTranslator V18 allows you to create correct business or private letters in a foreign language. This workshop will introduce you to the user interface and the general usage of the Construction kit.

Running the Construction kit

• Click "Start", "Programs", "MZ-WinTranslator V18" to run the Translator.
• Choose "Extras", "Letter construction kit". The main window disappears and a new window appears instead:

The main window of the Letter construction kit consists of three areas. The left area shows a tree structure similar to the display of drives and folders in the Windows Explorer. The lower area currently shows "[Empty]" only. You will see sentences and enter search terms there later. The big area in the upper right corner displays the letter.

Setting the language direction

We should check at first if the correct language direction is active.

• To do so, click "Options", "Language direction...".

• "English => German (Engldeut.wt8)" should be selected in the appearing window. This means that you construct a letter in English while you need to have it in German. "Engldeut.wt8" tells you that the English-German dictionary of the Translator will be loaded in the background to enable you to search for vocables.
• Click "OK".

The category view

The category view on the left side is mostly like the display of drives in the Windows Explorer. But there is a difference: If you open a subcategory, all categories on the same level will be temporarily hidden. Please refer to the following illustration:

How to start a letter

• Now open the category Business letters, Salutation. To do so, click the small [+] in front of the text "Business letters". More categories appear.
• Now click on Salutation. The lower area will now display the contents of the category "Salutation": "Dear Sir or Madam,", "Dear Mr. <<...>>,", etc.

Inserting sentences by double-click

• Now double-click on "Dear Sir or Madam,". The big area in the upper right corner shows you that the previously empty letter consists if the sentence "Dear Sir or Madam," now.
• Now open the category "Introduction".
• Then insert the sentence "Thank you for your letter dated <<Date>>." into the letter by double-clicking it.

As you can see, the two sentences of the letter do not directly follow each other. Moreover, the program automatically added a space after the salutation to structure the letter. It is possible to edit the spaces manually; we will come back to this later.

In addition, the next sentence after the salutation automatically begins with a small initial letter("thank" instead of "Thank").

Filling out variables

The word "Date" appears blue and underlined in the letter view. This notifies you that it is a variable.

• Click the word "Date" with the left mouse button. A text box will appear in the upper area prompting you: "Please enter a date [MM/DD/YYYY]:".

"MM/DD/YYYY" stands for the expected date format. A date such as "Monday, January 1st, 2006" are possible as well, but the program will not be able to convert it automatically.

• Enter "11/20/2005".
• Click "OK".

• Then click the "German" tab on top of the letter view.
• Note the blue text in the German version of the letter: "20.11.2005".

The date has automatically been converted into the German date format which states the day in front of the month.

Search function ("Contains")

• Now click the "Search" tab in the lower area.
• Activate the "Contains" option.
• Click the "Options" button and then "Entire word".
• Click "Options" again and then "Link search terms with And".

• Now type the following text into the "Search:" text box:
  
  inform following
• Then click "Search now".

• You will get several matches which contain both the word "inform" and "following" as an entire word.

If you want to find sentences containing "inform following" as a single phrase, deactivate the "Link search terms with And" option.

The "Entire word" and "Upper/lower case" should be well-known from other programs.

Inserting a search result into the letter

• Double-click the third search result ("Unfortunately we have to inform you of the following:") to insert the sentence into the letter.

Search function ("Begins with")

• Now activate the "Begins with" option.
• Type
  
  Yours f
  
  into the text box.

As you can see, the search is processed immediately after typing, without the need to click "Search now" first. You might as well insert a search result into the letter by double-clicking it.

Changing the sentence order

• Now click somewhere into the sentence "Unfortunately we have to inform you of the following:" in the letter view using the left mouse button. The entire sentence will be selected automatically.

• Then click the (Up) icon in the toolbar.

• The sentences "Unfortunately we have to inform you of the following:" and "Thank you for your letter dated 11/20/2005" switch their places.

Note that the program automatically corrected the upper/lower cases at the beginnings of the sentences.

Undo function

• Now click the (Undo) icon to make the movement undone.

The Undo feature will also work even if you quit the program in the meantime. If you would have ended your work after moving the sentences, you would have been still able to make the movement action undone on the next day.

Structuring the letter / Spaces between sentences

• Now click behind the sentence "thank you for your letter dated 11/20/2005.".

• Press the Enter key on your keyboard twice. This will generate a new paragraph.

Spaces can be removed by pressing "Del" or "Backspace" on your keyboard.

Subsequently adding a sentence

• Now activate the "Contents" tab in the lower area.
• Search for the sentence "We herewith confirm receipt of your letter dated <<Date>>." and insert it into the letter. Use the scroll bar on the right side of the list box to see hidden sentences.

The sentence will be inserted at the cursor position (between the existing sentences).

Deleting a sentence

• Now click the sentence "thank you for your letter dated 11/20/2005.".

• Then press the "Del" key on your keyboard.

The sentence will be removed.

Restarting the program

Now quit the Letter construction kit by clicking the "X" in the upper right corner of the window title bar. Then run the Translator again (refer to the beginning of this workshop) and open the Letter construction kit.

The program will automatically restore the letter and the recently opened category. This means that you may simply close the program without having to save everything first.

The second workshop will show you several other useful features of the Construction kit. To second workshop

To workshop overview