new user questions

[lesplan]

Hello there

I am a new user in Victoria, B.C. Canada.

We are a small group of teachers that produce a monthly current events teaching unit for Canadian schools. About half our our customers receive the newsletter by mail, and the other 50% download it from our website. We have been using Emerge (Galleon Software) to notify teachers when a new pdf file is available for download, but this company is still not offering an OS X version (and I’m tired of waiting.) .

I have downloaded the Pro version of Max Bulk Mailer, but I have a few questions and concerns before I transfer all of our contacts over.

The first issue concerns a ‘find and replace’ function. When I imported contact info, if the field contained a comma then quotation marks appear at the beginning and end of the field. For example:

Box 10, 123 Main Street

becomes

“Box 10, 123 Main Street”

How do I get rid of the quotation marks?

The second question concerns the small size and awkward feel of the contact info box. Whenever you click on a contact, a box appears, but it is very hard and sluggish to edit the info in this small box. Emerge had a much larger and much more responsive box.

Another concern is the inability to modify the first three fields/tags (i.e. firstname, last name, company). These three fixed fields do not fit in with the data that we use (i.e teacher, school, etc.) and I don’t understand why I can’t modify them or get rid of them altogether?

The next question concerns the loss of info when copying a record. When I copy a record of from one file and paste it into the same file, (or from one file to another file that is set up exactly the same way as the first file) some of the data disappears - i.e. one the tag lines vanishes, and all of the data ‘moves up one tag’ and the last tag info box is blank. I don’t really understand why this is happening???

Also, in Emerge, there are three different preferences (Direct/Mail server; Direct, and Mail Server only). The purpose of these is to try another setting if the email does not go throughout the first time. Is there a similar system in Max Bulk Mailer?

Can anyone help me out?

Thanks in advance for your time.

Eric Wieczorek

[stanbusk]

Which version are you using?

[lesplan]

The about box tells me its vers. # 4.4

[stanbusk]

I don't understand well the Quotation mark problem. Where do you get them, on list? In which column are you importing that info? Commas are forbidden in 'Firstname' and 'Lastname' columns because they are used for the message 'To' header. Commas are forbidden there.

What contact info box are you using, the one you get double-clicking an entry icon?

About other data, you have 20 custom fields labeled Opt1 thru Opt20 you can rename and use the way you need.

I don't understand well either you pasting problem, how do you paste data? Direct on file?

And about last question, MaxBulk only sends thru a SMTP server, never directly, the reason is explained here

[lesplan]

Hi Stan

And thanks for taking the time to respond.

(#1) re the Quotation mark problem. It is vital to us to send out our emails with the the full contact info in each email - so we need the tags. I have set these up in a file so that the teacher’s name, the school, the address, etc. appears at the top of each email (i.e .who the email is for.) The reason for this is that some small schools only have one email account, and the secretary needs to know that the email is for Mr. Jacob Jones. And sometimes a group of teachers will share one email account.

When I exported one of our data bases (tab text file) and imported the info into MBM, the quotation marks showed up in the address tag wherever there was a comma in the info - i.e. Address:(tag) = “Box 10, 123 Main Street” - and anywhere else there was a comma.

I just want the info in the tag to read:

Box 10, 123 Main Street

the way it is in the original file. How do I get rid of these???

(#2) re the contact info box. I have a record/entry and I click on the recipient. A box appears that has all of the tags and contact info, but this box is very small (and hard to read) and it seems to respond very sluggishly when I want to edit some of the info.

(#3) re the pasting problem: I copy a recipient and paste it into the same file (or another identical file) and the data in the first custom field disappears - and all of the other fields move up one (and the last one is blank). Where does this data disappear to and why does this happen?

It is very important to me to be able to copy and paste between files. We offer a number of products and we have a number of active files for each product. Teachers often switch between products and we need to be able to copy a record accurately from one file and past it into another.

I hope this helps explain things. If you want I can send you some ‘screen shot’ pictures as attachment to better explain.

Thanks in advance for your time.

Eric W.

[stanbusk]

The problem with the quotes is that they likely already exist in your original file. Have you checked that? You can send a sample to support@maxprog.com if you want me to check it.

I still don't understand #2 and #3.

About #2, is it the dialog you get when you double-clicking an entry icon? It uses standard one-line edit fields.

About #3, what do you mean with copying and pasting between files? Is it using the Finder? I say that because MaxBulk doesn't let you copy and paste full entries from one list to another.

And yes, screenshots would be much better, send them to support@maxprog.com