For various reasons, including sending your patient database an email updating them on new features of your practice such as online scheduling, you may want to export a list of patient email addresses in a CSV format. 


The common way to do this is through Letter Writing. First, we need to prepare a Word Template with the desired merge fields. 


Prepare the Microsoft Word Merge Document

  1. Go to Letter Writing module. 
  2. Optionally, to make later steps easier, select only Person Info from the list of Include Fields
  3. Click on New Template and then select New Blank Template from the expanded option list.
  4. Locate the folder you want to save the template. Recommended: create a new folder called Data Output or Data Exports and save there; this will reduce the change anyone will attempt to "print" this merge document unintentionally.
  5. Give the file a name, such as EmailExport and ensure the Save as type setting is set to Microsoft Word Templates. (If you have to change the type, verify the file is still being saved in the Nextech server folders and not a different directory as this can sometimes change when the Save as type value changes.) Click Save and wait for Nextech to open the document in Microsoft Word; this may appear behind Nextech or in your taskbar as a flashing Microsoft Word logo. 
  6. Once you have Microsoft Word open, click on the logo for Insert Field (do NOT click on words).
  7. Select all the relevant fields you need for your email list. Recommended fields include: Person_ID, Person_Prefix, Person_First_Name, Person_Middle_Initial, Person_Last_Name, Person_Email. If you need to sort and group by location, include Person_Location.
  8. Nextech does not require any formatting here as it will merge this into a CSV document that can later be opened in Excel.
  9. Save and close the document once you have included all desired merge fields and return to Nextech's Letter Writing Module.


Prepare the Letter Writing Email Filter 

  1. If you do not already have one, create an email filter to ignore all patients without an email address. Under Person Based Merging, based on "Patients and Prospects", click New.
  2. Name the filter something simple, but descriptive. For this example, we named it: Patient Emails, Validated (Not Private). Enter the values as suggested below:
    1. Filter on Field: Email   |  Operator: Is NOT Blank
      1. This requires an email address
    2. OPTIONAL: Filter on Field: Email   |  Operator: Contains   |  "." (period without quotes)
    3. OPTIONAL: Filter on Field: Email   |  Operator: Contains   |  "@" (@ without quotes)
      1. Settings 2 and 3 require that the email contains an "@" symbol and a period (such as in .com, .net, etc) ensuring that values such as None or Declined are ignored reducing the number of rejected email addresses.
    4. Filter on Field: Privacy Email   |  Operator: Is Equal To (=)   |  False
      1. This ensures that if a patient has requested their email address not be used and the staff mark it as Private, that it is excluded. 
    5. Additionally, depending size of your database, you may want to filter the list further by using "Last Appointment Date" "is greater than or equal to" "Today-365" to limit it only patients who have an appointment within the last year and future, though this will exclude patients who have no appointment such as unscheduled new patients.


Merge Email List to CSV

  1. Under Merge to Group, verify the dropdown option is set to {Current Filter}
  2. For Additional Options, it is recommended to have the following fields checked: Exclude inactive patients from the output, Don't exclude patients marked "Exclude from mailings", Do not attach to patients' History tabs, Export CSV text listing file instead of creating Word documents.
  3. Select the "Other" button and locate the template you created in the first section (our example was called EmailExports).
  4. Nextech will now open a Notepad file containing all the desired data separated by commas. Click File -> Save As.
  5. Give the file a name that will be recognized later when it is needed. For our example, we named the file "SampleEmailExport.csv"
    1. Change the Save as type value to "ALL FILES".
    2. The ending of the file MUST be ".csv" (including the period)
    3. Ensure the file is saved in a folder you can access on your computer. IF you are on Nextech Cloud, be sure to save to our local machine and not the Cloud Server (Under This PC, find a drive similar to "C on YOUR_PC_Name" and then select the desired folder.)
  6. Nextech will create extra data columns in the file. To remove them (and ease confusion), open in Microsoft Excel and the remove the following columns: Person_Internal_ID, Record_RowNumber, Personal_Email_Internal, and ReservationID




Needed: Permission to create Merge Templates, Permission to Create/Edit Letter Filters, Windows machine running the NxTsAddin for the local user.