This file is best viewed in SimpleText. It contains an exact copy of the help available from within Email Merge, however in this format it can be viewed separately, or printed.
Introduction
Email Merge is a program for creating mailings of individualised eMail messages. It takes a database of information, and an eMail message, and merges the two to create customised eMail messages.
The potential uses are endless, and include invoicing, sales, debt recovery, student grading, and even personal messages.
Messages are sent through Claris Emailer, Qualcomm Eudora, or Microsoft Outlook Express, so one of these must be installed on your computer. Versions of all are available freely from the Internet.
Email Merge contains four major panes, accessible from the buttons in the top left of the window. These are : "Import Data" to import data into the database, "Edit Data" to edit, view, or add to the database, "Edit Message" to edit the eMail message to send out, and "Preview / Merge" to preview the result of a merge and perform the merge.
Email Merge contains popup help, which is active when the eye (bottom left) is highlighted. This describes the purpose and function of whatever is at the current mouse position. At any time, this help screen can be brought up by clicking the help bar at the bottom of the window.
Thank you for reading about Email Merge.
Payment
Email Merge is freely distributed as trial software. If you wish to use it on anything but a trial basis, you are obliged to purchase a license. Until registered, the number of records in the database is restricted to 20.
The current single-CPU license price of Email Merge is $30, and $25 each for two or more licenses. A site license covering a single organisation for an area of up to 100 miles in radius costs $250. For information about other licensing arrangements, please contact Sig Software.
Payment is carried out either with the enclosed Register Email Merge program, using a page on the World Wide Web, or via telephone. Payment may be made by cash, cheque, VISA, MasterCard, American Express or First Virtual.
To purchase a registration on the World Wide Web :
• Click on Purchase via Web in the about dialog box or go to http://order.kagi.com/?BX
• Wait for the Web browser to load up the page.
• Enter name, address and eMail details (required) into the fields provided.
• Follow the rest of the instructions on the Web page.
To purchase a registration using the register program :
• Click on Purchase via Software in the about dialog box or run the enclosed Register Email Merge application.
• Enter name, address and eMail details (required) into the fields provided.
• Specify how many single-CPU or site licenses of Email Merge are required.
• Enter payment details in the area provided.
• Save, copy or print out the information, and forward to Kagi (as detailed below) for processing.
If you are sending the purchase via eMail :
• Click Copy to copy the order, and paste into an eMail message.
• Send to sales@kagi.com.
If you are sending the purchase via mail :
• Click Print to print the order, or Save to save to a file for printing later.
• Send to Kagi, 1442-A Walnut Street #392-BX, Berkeley, California, 94709-1405, USA.
If you are sending the purchase via fax :
• Click Print to print the order, or Save to save to a file for printing later.
• Fax to (US) 510 652-6589.
To purchase a registration via telephone :
• Call (US) 510 658-5244, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
• Follow the instructions on the telephone, describing which product you wish to purchase.
• Clearly state your name, address, and eMail address (required).
• Telephone orders have a handling charge of $5.
Registrations may take up to a week to process, once they have been received by Kagi. Once payment has been processed, a user name and code number will be sent via eMail. Multiple-license registrations will include the number of licenses purchased. The name and code received must be entered exactly as shown into the “Enter Registration…” dialog box. Email Merge will be registered, and the “Register Email Merge” program may be discarded.
If there are any problems, contact Sig Software at sig@sigsoftware.com. Thank you.
The Database
The Email Merge database consists of a number of records and fields. Each record represents an entity, for example an individual, company, or transaction. Each field represents a fact about an entity, such as name, eMail address, date or price.
When performing an eMail merge, one message is sent out for each record. Within the subject, recipients, or text of the eMail, there can be placeholders for fields, which are replaced by the contents of the respective fields of the record being used for that message.
Databases can be imported from text files (easily created from within FileMaker Pro, Microsoft Excel, and any other program which stores tabular information), or created from scratch within Email Merge.
Importing Data
Data imported into Email Merge must be in tab-delimited text form. This is a standard format across all programs capable of storing tabular information. Importing is available by clicking the "Import Data" button.
Firstly, you must extract the data from the program containing it. If you wish to use the clipboard, simply copy the table you wish to import. This method will work with spreadsheets such as Microsoft Excel, and tables in word processors such as Microsoft Word and WordPerfect.
If you wish to use a text file, export the database from the program currently holding it. This is achieved in FileMaker Pro by choosing "Export Records…" from the "Import/Export" submenu of the "File" menu, and in Microsoft Excel by choosing "Save As…" from the "File" menu, and specifying a format of "Text (tab delimited)".
You can set how Email Merge interprets the first row of the imported data. If this row specifies field names, click the "Header" button. If it represents the first database record, click the "Record" button.
Before importing data, you may sample it, by clicking the "Sample" button and specifying the clipboard or a text file. Browse through the import sample by clicking the left and right arrows. Field names can also be changed at this early stage by clicking on the left-hand column.
To perform the import, click "Import". If you have sampled the clipboard or a file, that will automatically be used, otherwise specify the clipboard or a text file. If the database is not empty, confirm you wish to replace all previous records. The import will now take place.
Editing Data
The data within the database can be edited in various ways. Editing is available by clicking "Edit Data" in the top left of the window.
Browse through the records in the database by clicking the left and right arrows. The number of the current record is shown below them.
Create a new record by clicking the "New" button. Create a copy of the currently shown record by clicking the "Clone" button. Remove the currently shown record by clicking the "Delete" button. To remove all records in the database, click "Clear" - but make sure you mean it!
Change the name of a field by clicking the field name on the left. Change the contents of a field of the current record by clicking the line containing the field contents.
Add a new field by clicking on a blank line below the field names. Fields cannot be removed from the database (there is no need to).
To sort the records in the database based on a field, click the "Sort" button. You will be asked to specify a field for sorting, and how the data in the field should be interpreted - if you are unsure, click "Textual".
To search for duplicate records, click "Duplicates". You will be asked to specify one or more fields; Email Merge will search for records containing exactly the same data in all of the specified fields. You must also choose whether Email Merge should include the first record found in a set of duplicates (i.e. if 3 records match, should all 3 or only the last 2 be included). Once searching is complete, you will be asked whether you wish to delete the duplicate records, or move them to the end of the database for further analysis.
Editing the Message
The Email message can be edited by clicking "Edit Message" in the top left of the window. The message contains several areas - some of these are made visible by clicking the tabs at the top :
• Subject : The title of the message to be sent out.
• Attachments : A list of files to be included with the message.
• To : A recipient to whom the message is directly sent.
• Cc : A recipient to whom a copy of the message is sent.
• Bcc : A recipient to whom a copy is sent, unknown to other recipients.
• Message : This main area contains the text of the message itself.
At any position in any of these areas, a field placeholder can be inserted of the format «field_name» where field_name is the name of the field in the database. When performing the eMail merge, these placeholders will be replaced by the contents of the specified field for each record.
A placeholder can be automatically inserted at the current cursor position by using the "Insert Field" popup menu. There are also four built-in merge parameters which include the number of the message, and the date and time when the merge was performed.
The merging is very versatile - for example, if all recipients had a common section of their eMail address, e.g. @sig.com, the database need only contain the part of their address which differs, and the recipient would be set to «id»@sig.com.
Recipients can also be named by putting the name in brackets after the eMail address. For example, sig@sigsoftware.com (Sig Software)
Attachments need an encoding type, which specifies the method with which they should be enclosed. Some types will only be usable in either Eudora or Emailer, and a warning will be issued if you try to merge to a program which cannot accept the attachment type specified. To select a file for attachment, click "Add Attachment..."
Previewing Merge
Once the database and message are set up, the results of the eMail merge operation can be previewed by clicking the "Preview / Merge" button in the top left of the window.
For each record in the database, one message will be generated. Browse through the messages by clicking the left and right arrows. The number of the record being used for the current message is shown below them.
Some things to check for are :
• Messages have at least one recipient under "To:", "Cc:" or "Bcc:".
• All «field_name» placeholders are being correctly replaced.
• The wrapping of the text in the message looks reasonable.
To perform an automatic verification of recipients and attachments for all messages, click the "Verify All" button. This will check for badly-formed addresses and attachment files that do not exist.
When the previewed results of the eMail merge are satisfactory, the merge itself can be performed.
Performing Merge
The eMail merge can be previewed by clicking the "Preview / Merge" button in the top left of the window. Once the previewed results are satisfactory, the merge itself can be performed.
To send the currently shown message, click "Send One". A prompt will appear if you have a choice of which eMail program to use, and the message will be sent in that program.
To send a message for each record in the database, click "Send All". Ensure that you are sure you wish to do this! The messages will then be sent, and a progress report will appear in the bottom of the window.
Note : Email Merge communicates with your eMail software by creating the messages, and placing them in a queue for sending. The messages will not travel to their destination until they are sent from within the eMail program. In Emailer, choose "Connect" from the "Mail" menu. In Eudora, choose "Send Queued Messages" from the "File" menu. In Outlook Express, click the "Send & Receive" button. If you have programs set to send messages immediately, this may not apply.
If a message does not have at least one recipient, in one of the "To:", "Cc:" or "Bcc:" fields, it will not be sent.
Features & Tips
Some features of Email Merge worth knowing :
• The current merge configuration, containing the database and all message fields can (and should) be saved as a file by using the "Save" and "Save As..." items in the "File" menu. These can be restored later by choosing "Open..." from the "File" menu or opening them from within the Finder. Choose "New" from the "File" menu to empty the database, and clear out all message fields.
• The database can be exported as a tab-delimited text file by choosing "Export..." from the "File" menu.
Some other hints about using Email Merge :
• It is strongly suggested to hide the eMail program (Emailer, Eudora or Outlook) while performing a merge – this will speed things up a lot.
• In tests, Claris Emailer has proved to be significantly faster than Eudora for receiving the results of an eMail merge. Outlook Express lies somewhere inbetween.
• To use calculated values in the database, create calculation fields (in databases such as FileMaker Pro) or cells (in spreadsheets such as Microsoft Excel), and include these in the data to import.
Any distribution of Email Merge must include this file. No responsibility about Email Merge's functionality or integrity is implied. This document and Email Merge are copyright of the author. Other trademarks are copyright of their respective owners.
