Postage $aver is a shareware product designed to prepare your mail to qualify for third-class presort bulk mail postage rates. Unlike other programs that simply sort your mail to meet minimum requirements, Postage $aver:
• provides complete packaging, sacking, and labeling instructions for each mailing,
• exceeds post office sorting requirements by creating packages and sacks for "sectional center facilities" (SCFs), so your mail (in theory) will reach its destination more quickly,
• computes piece counts and postage totals according to rate classification (necessary for the mailing statement that must accompany each bulk mailing when deposited at the post office),
• determines entry discounts and shows you which central sorting facilities your mail must be sent from to earn these discounts,
• provides sequence numbers to let you automatically sort your data base in "sack and package" order, and,
• provides "endorsement lines" for use on your address labels.
It's really a neat program, and we'll give you full support for a year for only $35!!
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REQUIREMENTS:
Postage $aver runs using Filemaker Pro, version 2.0 or later. Since any Filemaker Pro file can be used on either a Macintosh or on a Windows machine, this Postage $aver file will work on either one.
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DON'T CHANGE ITS NAME!
Postage $aver is composed of a group of Filemaker Pro files that "call" each other in order to perform their complex sorting and labeling tasks. Each file knows the name and relative location of other files it needs. If you change the names of any of these files, the package will not work properly.
Mac users: Sorry about the strange file names, but to avoid needing to produce two versions, Windows file name requirements were followed. Please resist the temptation to change "Post$ave.FM" into something more readable -- the program won't work if you change the name.
Windows users: You should put the P$aver directory into your c:\fmpro directory. When you open the P$aver directory from Filemaker Pro, you will only see the Post$ave.FM file. The others are invisible to the Filemaker Pro "Open" screen. This is for your protection. There is no need for you to access the other files independently of the main program (Post$ave.FM). Postage $aver knows how and where to find these files even though you can't see them.
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HOW MUCH SPACE??
These files take up around 650 KB when empty, but, like all Filemaker Pro files, they grow significantly when in use. The overall size of the package depends entirely on how many addresses there are in the files you are sorting. Postage $aver empties and closes files as it finishes using them, to keep disk requirements as small as possible.
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HOW TO START??
Open the P$aver folder (or directory) and double-click on Post$ave.FM. We strongly recommend that you select the HELP button when you reach the program's main menu. The HELP file contains important information that will make the operation of Postage $aver much easier to understand.
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HOW MUCH TIME??
This, of course, depends on the speed of your machine. Filemaker Pro is not a particularly fast data base, so some sorts may take quite a while. The major factors that determine the speed of the sort are the number of different five-digit zip codes in the data base and the geographical compactness of the area where your mail is going. For example, if most of your mail is going to zip codes within a single major city, your data base will be sorted much faster than if you are sending one piece of mail to each post office in the state. However, since FIlemaker Pro's scripting language requires that each step in the sort be performed at least once, even if it is unnecessary for your particular data base, there is a minimum sort time that applies even if you are only "sorting" a single piece of mail. So, do NOT judge the program's typical sorting time by testing on a small sample of addresses, since a larger sample will run in far less than a proportionally longer amount of time.
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HOW WILL I KNOW WHEN IT'S DONE??
The "product" of Postage $aver is a printed report detailing how to sort your particular data base and how to fill out the postal form. After you have told the program what files to load, it will proceed to sort the data. When it has sorted all pieces and prepared all labels, you will see the print dialog that you usually see when you want to print something from Filemaker Pro. As always, you can either preview the report or print it. (It is likely that the printed version will look better than the preview, but all information will be the same either way.) When you are finished printing, the program will return to its main screen.
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WHAT IF THE PRINTER MESSES UP, OR IF I'VE SELECTED THE WRONG PRINTER??
Postage $aver saves the report for your most recent sort until you sort another data base. You can always cancel your print job and choose "REPRINT LAST REPORT" from the main menu.
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WHERE CAN I GET HELP??
This version of Postage $aver has a very informative (though brief) help file. We suggest you read it before you try to sort your first data file, as it makes the operation of the program much easier to understand.
