Recipients - MaxBulk Mailer v7 User Guide

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The Recipients panel is the area where you can create and edit your recipient lists. You can either enter new addresses manually, or import them from a file or another application like FileMaker Pro or Excel.

The list is made of columns, labeled by default Firstname, Surname, Company and Email Address followed by 20 optional columns (Pro only). On the very first column starting from the left, a check box lets you activate or deactivate each entry individually. In addition, that column also displays the recipient number and an icon indicating its delivery status.

Adding, deactivating and deleting records
You can add a new recipient by clicking on the '+' button. First field will be made editable allowing you to type the text directly. You can move back and forth between fields/columns by pressing the tab or the shift-tab keys. To remove recipients from a list, select them and click on the '-' button. Note that deleting recipients that have unsubscribed from your newsletter is almost never a good strategy for maintaining your lists because you may add them again later accidentally. MaxBulk Mailer lets you deactivate unsubscribed recipients by highlighting one or several recipients and selecting the list contextual menu 'Subscribe' or 'Unsubscribe'. Unsubscribed recipients are deactivated but remain on your list thus you can't add them again accidently. You can re-subscribe them at anytime though. If a recipient is present in several lists you can also add it to the blacklist. You can add addresses to the Blacklist simply by highlighting them and selecting the 'Add to Blacklist' menu from both the list contextual menu (right-clicking on the list) and from the 'Recipients' main menu. The Blacklist is somehow like a global un-subscription mechanism.

Editing a record
You can edit a recipient in a separate window by double-clicking on a its icon or directly in the list by double-clicking a cell. With the separate editor window you can navigate back and forth through all the records using the 'Previous' and 'Next' buttons. Press the Command or Control keys at the same time to increment or decrement by 10 and Shift + Command or Control for even bigger steps (list count / 25). In addition, you can use your mouse wheel to navigate back and forth through the list and edit several entries at once, as you already do with songs in iTunes. That allows you to set the common data of a group of recipients or to clear columns. Just highlight several entries from your list and select 'Edit' from the list contextual menu. You will get displayed a new multiple edit window very similar to the one in iTunes, actually it works mostly the same way. Only checked fields/columns will be finally updated throughout the selection. A field get checked as soon as you modify it.

Temporal record deactivation
In order to get control over each recipient for a particular delivery, MaxBulk Mailer lets you enable or disable each recipient individually. By default all recipients are checked/activated. Uncheck the recipients you don't want to send your message to by highlighting one or several recipients and clicking on any of the check boxes on the left. This feature is intended to be used for specific deliveries. To deactivate a recipient as a result of an un-subcription request, use the 'Unsubscribe' feature instead.

Selecting or changing recipient statuses
You can change each recipient status by using the tool menu located above the list, the 'Recipients | Mark' menu or the list contextual menu. For example a recipient can be marked as 'Sent' or as 'Unsent'. You may also select recipients depending on their status ('Select Sent', 'Select Unsent', 'Select Failed'...) and remove them from the list or export them to a file.


List management
All the list management is done by using the list manager pull-down menu right above the list field and the 'Save' button on the right. After adding recipients for the first time you may save the new list by clicking on that 'Save' button or by selecting the 'Save current list as...' menu from the list manager pull-down menu. You can add recipients to any existing list by selecting it first. Just remember to click on the 'Save' button when you are done. Each time you want to send a message to a list, just select it from the list manager pull-down menu. You can have as many lists as you need and all of them will be available through this same pull-down menu. You can delete a list by selecting it and choosing the 'Remove Current List' menu from the list manager pull-down menu. Note that deleted lists are moved to the '~/Library/Application Support/Maxprog/MaxBulk Mailer/Trash' folder thus they can be recovered in case or an accidental deletion.

Merging lists
You have the possibility to temporally merge two or more lists together by selecting the 'Multiple Lists' menu from the list manager pull-down menu. This option offers by far the best way to send a message to several lists at once as it takes care of possible duplicates for you. It lets you create clean new lists as the combination of others. All you need is at least two lists. After selecting the 'Multiple Lists' menu from the list manager pull-down menu you can start with the merging by checking the lists you want to merge from the top list. You can see the merging on the recipient list right below. If you uncheck a list, all recipients from that list are also removed from the merging. If you highlight one or several lists their recipients will be highlighted as well. Once you are done you can simply perform a delivery or save the new list.

Remote List Management
You can let people both subscribe to or unsubscribe from your mailing lists at any time by using the Mailing List manager. The Mailing List Manager (MLM for short) is a double opt-in list subscription PHP script you might install on your site for maintaining your lists online. Your clients and contacts can then subscribe to or unsubscribe from any of your lists at any time through a link on your message or through a web page on your site. It supports a full set of commands you can use either directly with your web browser to maintain your lists or by placing them on your web pages or on your outgoing messages. Unlike other products and depending on your possibilities and knowledge, MLM is prepared to work with either a mySQL database or simple raw text files. MLM has no limitations, you can create as many lists as you wish with as many subscribers as you need. MLM works with MaxBulk Mailer through the 'Remote Lists' menu allowing you to use your remote lists directly as if they were local, without needing to go through the tedious import/export steps. You just need to edit the script settings, upload it to your site, open MaxBulk Mailer preferences and enter the script URL and the administrator password. You can then access your lists from the 'Remote Lists' menu on the Lists manager pull-down menu. You can get more information on MLM here: List Manager

Global Blacklist
The Global Blacklist prevents you from sending messages to given addresses whichever the list you have selected. You just need to add the addresses once to the blacklist to get them automatically blacklisted everywhere else. The Blacklist is accessible from the List manager pull-down menu like a regular list. You can add new addresses to the blacklist as you do with a regular list or by using the 'Add to Blacklist' menu from both the list contextual menu (right-clicking on the list) and from the 'Recipients' main menu. Blacklisted addresses appear in red with a different icon so you can easily tell them apart. To remove an address from the Blacklist you just have to go to the Blacklist, select the address(es), click on the delete button '-' and then on the 'Save' button. As with unsubscribed addresses, blacklisted recipients are automatically discarded by MaxBulk Mailer when sending messages. If you add an address that is currently Blacklisted, it will automatically appear in red with its specific icon so you can find out instantly about its status.

Quick Selector (Pro Only)
Click on the disclosure triangle on the left of the Lists selector pull-down menu to expand the Quick Selector panel. The Quick Selector lets you select, unselect, activate or deactivate entries matching a given rule. For example you may activate recipients from a given state or select recipients from a given domain.

Sorting
As with any other application, you can sort any column by pressing on its header. Besides, you can sort email addresses by domain pressing the ALT or the Command key while clicking on the email column header or you can sort recipients by status pressing the ALT or the Command key while clicking on the Delivery column header.

MaxBulk Mailer supports several types of imports taking care of bad emails and duplicates for you. Note that duplicate checking can be deactivated from the preferences. A report is displayed right after the import when errors or duplicates have been detected.

Importing from a Text file

You can import recipients from other applications quite easily. The very first step is to save or export your list in a format MaxBulk Mailer understand. That includes Tab-delimited or Comma-delimited text among others. Once your file has been created you just need to click on the Import button, select the 'From a Text File' menu and open the file. You will then enter the import screen. After selecting the field delimiter from the field delimiters pull-down menu you will be able to preview records and navigate back and forth through the file by clicking on the left and right arrow buttons. Note that what you see on screen is what you will get after importing the recipients thus it is important to set the encoding properly.

Maxbulk Mailer assists you during the importation process by giving you the possibility to import the fields you really need in the order you want. In fact, the fields on your file are likely organized differently and won't correspond with the field order required by Maxbulk Mailer by default. You can alter that order by highlighting any field and by using the up and down arrows on the right hand side of the screen until it matches the correct field and repeat the operation as many times as needed. You can again preview the result in real time and check whether each field will be transfered into the right places. Once all the fields have been aligned and are properly checked, click the 'Import' button.

Note that the email field is mandatory and must contain an email address. If no email address is detected, the entry will be discarded. MaxBulk Mailer lets you save your current import settings for later use. Just use the 'Import Presets' pull-down menu to create, load or remove your presets.

Drag'n'drop

You can add recipients directly by dragging and dropping a file to the recipient list. You have to make sure the file is a Tab-delimited plain text file and the fields it contains are organized in the right order, namely, the First name, the Surname, the Company, the Email address followed by the optional fields if any (Pro version only):

FirstName1<tab>Surname1<tab>Company1<tab>Email1<tab>Opt1<tab>....Opt20<Return>
FirstName2<tab>Surname2<tab>Company2<tab>Email2<tab>Opt1<tab>....Opt20<Return>
FirstName3<tab>Surname3<tab>Company3<tab>Email3<tab>Opt1<tab>....Opt20<Return>

If you don't follow that format a parser will be activated and will extract the email addresses from the text.

Pasting from the clipboard

You can also import recipients from the clipboard. Just copy your the text from any aplication and then select the 'Edit | Paste Special' menu. The format to follow is the same as above. You can for example copy an Excel sheet columns and paste them to the recipient list. First column should be Firstname, then Surname, Company followed by email address.

From Plain Text

This option lets you import recipients by copying and pasting any kind of text. MaxBulk Mailer will extract the email addresses from the text using the built-in parser. You don't have to follow any specific format. It can be a bunch of email addresses separated by commas such as:

[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],
[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],
[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],
[email protected]

From Apple Mail, Microsoft Entourage, Eudora and PowerMail

You can extract email addresses from messages stored in a given folder or mailbox inside Apple Mail, Microsoft Entourage, Eudora and PowerMail. Just select the corresponding menu from the Import button or the 'File | Import Recipients' menu. Note that the folder has to be a root folder, a folder inside another folder.

Look at the FAQ for more information about importing addresses from Entourage Address Book.

From Mac OS X Address Book and Now Contact

You can import recipients from the Mac OS X Address Book and Now Contact. Note that MaxBulk Mailer also supports VCARD imports so you can easily add recipients from Mac OS X Address Book to MaxBulk simply dragging and dropping one or many entries at the same time (note that you may have to drag the entries to your desktop first and then from your desktop to MaxBulk Mailer). In addition you can use the 'Import from the Address Book' menu to import by group and with extended fields choosing to limit the number of email addresses per entry and the possibility to overwrite the current list with the new values.

From a remote Database (Pro only)

You can import records from a remote mySQL or postgreSQL database. In both cases you need to provide the host name, the port if different from the default one (mySQL:3303, postgreSQL:5432), your account ID and your password, the database name, the number of columns your query is supposed to return, and the query itself. You have to line-up the expected cursor columns with MaxBulk's in order for the data to get inserted in the right places. Feel free to select an encoding if the response is not ASCII and activate or not the duplicate checking.

Note that a remote server can be configured to only accept requests from a script running on this same server. Contact your provider if you can't manage to get access from MaxBulk Mailer.

From a Web page

You can import email addresses from a web page. You just need to drag and drop the URL of the page from your browser to the recipient list or select the 'File | Import Recipients | From a Web page' menu. The page is then downloaded, processed in the background and all the email addresses added to your list. You can drag and drop or select as many URLs as you wish to get them processed and results added to the same list.

Batch processes:

• To remove several addresses from a list at once create a plain text file named 'DELETE', add all the addresses to remove to it, save it and drop it onto the list to process inside MaxBulk Mailer.

• To unsubscribe several addresses from a list at once create a plain text file named 'UNSUBSCRIBE', add all the addresses to unsubscribe to it, save it and drop it onto the list to process inside MaxBulk Mailer.

• To keep addresses from a list create a plain text file named 'KEEP', add all the addresses to keep, save it and drop it onto the list to process inside MaxBulk Mailer. All other e-mails will be removed.

• To deactivate addresses from a list create a plain text file named 'DEACTIVATE', add all the addresses to deactivate, save it and drop it onto the list to process inside MaxBulk Mailer.

Exporting a list:

To export a list select the 'File | Export Recipients' menu. You can select the columns you want to export by dragging them from one list to the other and set their order. You can also set the separator between Tab, Comma, Colon and Semicolon, the text encoding and the type of recipients depending on their statuses. As a result you can fully tailor the output file depending on your needs.

Cc and Bcc (Pro only)

Cc stands for 'Carbon Copy'. It allows you to send a copy of each message to one or several addresses. Bcc stands for 'Blind Carbon Copy', it is the same as Cc but the addresses remain hidden to the recipients. A copy of each message means that for a delivery of 2,500 recipients and the Cc or the Bcc set to yourself you would receive 2,500 copies. In case of messages personalized with tags you would receive them as the real recipient will. This feature is embedded with the Quick Selector so click on the disclosure triangle on the left of the Lists selector pull-down menu to get it displayed. The Cc and the Bcc fields both support tags.

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