With the addition of the new merge to Google Docs capability in Heap CRM, I thought it would be good to cover both the creation of a template and a typical use.

Ok, so the obvious use of this feature it to create a whole bunch of letters or something all at once. The less obvious use is to create templates for common correspondence. For instance, here is my standard letter to new partners:

So, on a lead page, I’m going to select export to Google Docs:

I’m going to select the template and give it a name:

And then merge the document:

Now, once I click on the link, this is my final result:

Using exactly the same variables as those available to the e-mail templates, you can now do a mail merge against any Google Document in Heap CRM. So, when it comes time to create 300 letters it now isn’t any more difficult than 300 e-mails. Let’s walk through it.

Add some variables to an existing letter in Google Docs:

Now let’s select it with Heap:

And that’s it:

With Torch’s affiliates program you earn credits towards your bill just by linking to the Torch website. Here’s how it works: You place a link on your website, in an email, wherever. When someone signs up using the link you’ll receive half of the first months revenue.

You can check your earnings, get links and images by going to the settings tab and clicking on the affiliates program button.

We’ve also added a feature to Heap CRM’s affiliates program:

Now you can see the number of people who are currently in free trails that you have referred and may turn into revenue if they decide to continue service past the free 31 days.

As partners, you have received a once a month bundle containing all of the updates for the previous month. But some of you (or some of your customers) don’t work on a monthly cycle. That’s why we are launching the partner portal.

Heap Enterprise/OnSite and Torch Enterprise/OnSite are automatically built from the production version each night. So, what you download is completely up to date with the hosted version; you no longer have to wait until the beginning of the next month. Or, you can do updates less often and not have to worry about the progressive changes.

Additionally, you can now download partner-only documents directly from the portal.

Heap CRM and Torch Project Management both got a new feature in the calendars today. As you know, you can unlock an event, then move it by dragging. Now if you do that same action:

And hold down the shift key during the drop, you will copy the event instead of moving it:

You can also copy the event to another month (still using the shift key on the drop):

Or another calendar (still using the shift key on the drop):