Copyright: ® 1994 Rimrock Software.


Contents
RIME™ E-mailer

Table of Contents

•	Introduction to RIME

•	How to Use RIME

•	RIME's Menu Commands

•	Mail-merge Variables

•	Internet E-mail Etiquette

•	RIME Registration and Upgrades

•	Program Credits:  - Click on icon above


Credits
Program Credits

RIME™ - Rimrock Internet Mail-merge E-mailer

Version 1.40

Copyright © 1996 Rimrock Software

All rights reserved.

Rimrock Software

P.O. Box 2406

Hayden, ID  83835-2406

Phone: 208-772-9347

E-mail: rimrock@rimrocksoftware.com

URL: http://www.rimrocksoftware.com

Compuserve: 71211,70

RIME was written using Borland Delphi. The program's E-mail component was written by StarTech. The bust of Mercury was drawn by Bob Banger.

Borland International - http://www.borland.com

Bob Banger - rebanger@eznet.com

StarTech - http://www.neosoft.com/~startech/delphi/delphi.htm


Introduction
RIME Introduction

RIME is an Internet E-mail program that is capable of sending the same e-mail message to multiple locations using a bulk address list. RIME can merge specific information for each address into the message before sending it. You can send personalized messages to your customers, to your relatives or to your user group with minimal effort.

RIME is easy to use. You load an address list, load a text file and enter a subject. Then select the people you want to send the text to and click on the 'Send Mail' button. Presto, instant personalized E-mail!

 For instance, suppose the bulk address list had the following lines in it:

michaelb@rand.nidlink.com,Mr.,Michael,Burton

johnsmith@whoknows.org,Mr.,John,Smith

Also suppose that the text to be sent looks like this:

Dear %1 %3,

This is a test of RIME's mail merge capability, %2.

When RIME sends this message to michaelb@rand.nidlink.com, it will look like this:

Dear Mr. Burton,

This is a test of RIME's mail merge capability, Michael.

When RIME sends this message to johnsmith@whoknows.org, it will look like this:

Dear Mr. Smith,

This is a test of RIME's mail merge capability, John.

Argument zero (%0) is always the e-mail address of the recipient. The other arguments can be anything you want. You can supply up to 9 arguments (%1 through %9).


 How to Use RIME

There are four steps involved in using RIME to send e-mail:

1.	Load a Bulk Address (.BAD) file into RIME.

2.	Load a text file into RIME, or create one using the built-in text editor. The text file should not contain any illegal characters.

3.	Supply a subject for the message to be sent.

4.	Select one or more addresses in the Bulk Address file as message destinations. Use the shift and control keys in combination with your mouse to select multiple addresses, or use the Mark All button to select all addresses.

When you have completed these four steps, the 'Send Mail' button is enabled, allowing you to send the message to the selected addresses.

(You must, of course, also have a valid connection to the Internet in place when you click on the 'Send Mail' button.)

When you click the 'Send Mail' button, RIME will display the Send Mail dialog

  Note: You must also have filled out at least four of the fields in  the Options | Program Information dialog before the Send Mail button  will work. The fields are first name, last name, e-mail address and  SMTP server. See the Program Information Dialog help  for more information.


Menu Commands
RIME Menu Commands

Point to the item you want help on and click the mouse button.


 Mail-merge Variables

RIME's mail-merge variables allow you to customize each message you send, so the recipient assumes it is a personal message. There are 15 variables you can place in your text; 10 of them are extracted from the bulk address list, and the remaining 5 are extracted from the personal information you entered into RIME.

Bulk Address Variables

Each bulk address field is separated by a delimiter. The default delimiter is a comma (,). Obviously, each field cannot have a delimiter in it. The fields are numbered 0-9.

•	%0 Always contains the receiver's e-mail address.

•	%1 thru %9 Contains any information you want.

Personal Information Variables

•	%first Your first name.

•	%last Your last name.

•	%email Your e-mail address.

•	%http Your Web page address.

•	%misc Any text string you care to define.


E-mail Etiquette
Internet E-mail Etiquette

Do not use RIME to send unsolicited or junk mail to people you are not acquainted with. Do not use RIME to send multiple copies of the same message to the same person (spamming). Rimrock Software will not be responsible for the consequences of such actions.

The following information was extracted from RFC 1855, Netiquette Guidelines. The entire document is available at:

     http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/htbin/rfc/rfc1855.html

Please pay special attention to items in red type.

2.1 User Guidelines

2.1.1 For mail:

Unless you have your own Internet access through an Internet provider, be sure to check with your employer about ownership of electronic mail. Laws about the ownership of electronic mail vary from place to place.

Unless you are using an encryption device (hardware or software), you should assume that mail on the Internet is not secure.  Never put in a mail message anything you would not put on a postcard.

Respect the copyright on material that you reproduce.  Almost every country has copyright laws.

If you are forwarding or re-posting a message you've received, do not change the wording.  If the message was a personal message to you and you are re-posting to a group, you should ask permission first.  You may shorten the message and quote only relevant parts, but be sure you give proper attribution.

Never send chain letters via electronic mail.  Chain letters are forbidden on the Internet.  Your network privileges will be revoked.  Notify your local system administrator if your ever receive one.

A good rule of thumb:  Be conservative in what you send and liberal in what you receive.  You should not send heated messages (we call these "flames") even if you are provoked.  On the other hand, you shouldn't be surprised if you get flamed and it's prudent not to respond to flames.

In general, it's a good idea to at least check all your mail subjects before responding to a message.  Sometimes a person who asks you for help (or clarification) will send another message which effectively says "Never Mind".  Also make sure that any message you respond to was directed to you.  You might be cc:ed rather than the primary recipient.

Make things easy for the recipient.  Many mailers strip header information which includes your return address.  In order to ensure that people know who you are, be sure to include a line or two at the end of your message with contact information.  You can create this file ahead of time and add it to the end of your messages.  (Some mailers do this automatically.)  In Internet parlance, this is known as a ".sig" or "signature" file.  Your .sig file takes the place of your business card.  (And you can have more than one to apply in different circumstances.)

Be careful when addressing mail.  There are addresses which may go to a group but the address looks like it is just one person.  Know to whom you are sending.

Watch cc's when replying.  Don't continue to include people if the messages have become a 2-way conversation.

In general, most people who use the Internet don't have time to answer general questions about the Internet and its workings. Don't send unsolicited mail asking for information to people whose names you might have seen in RFCs or on mailing lists.

Remember that people with whom you communicate are located across the globe.  If you send a message to which you want an immediate response, the person receiving it might be at home asleep when it arrives.  Give them a chance to wake up, come to work, and login before assuming the mail didn't arrive or that they don't care.

Verify all addresses before initiating long or personal discourse. It's also a good practice to include the word "Long" in the subject header so the recipient knows the message will take time to read and respond to. Over 100 lines is considered "long".

Know whom to contact for help.  Usually you will have resources close at hand.  Check locally for people who can help you with software and system problems.  Also, know whom to go to if you receive anything questionable or illegal.  Most sites also have "Postmaster" aliased to a knowledgeable user, so you can send mail to this address to get help with mail.

Remember that the recipient is a human being whose culture, language, and humor have different points of reference from your own.  Remember that date formats, measurements, and idioms may not travel well.   Be especially careful with sarcasm.

Use mixed case.  UPPER CASE LOOKS AS IF YOU'RE SHOUTING.

Use symbols for emphasis.  That *is* what I meant.  Use underscores for underlining. _War and Peace_ is my favorite book.

Use smileys to indicate tone of voice, but use them sparingly. :-) is an example of a smiley (Look sideways).  Don't assume that the inclusion of a smiley will make the recipient happy with what you say or wipe out an otherwise insulting comment.

Wait overnight to send emotional responses to messages.  If you have really strong feelings about a subject, indicate it via FLAME ON/OFF enclosures.  For example:

FLAME ON:  This type of argument is not worth the bandwidth it takes to send it.  It's illogical and poorly reasoned.  The rest of the world agrees with me.

FLAME OFF

Do not include control characters or non-ASCII attachments in messages unless they are MIME attachments or unless your mailer encodes these.  If you send encoded messages make sure the recipient can decode them.

Be brief without being overly terse.  When replying to a message, include enough original material to be understood but no more. It is extremely bad form to simply reply to a message by including all the previous message: edit out all the irrelevant material.

Limit line length to fewer than 65 characters and end a line with a carriage return.

Mail should have a subject heading which reflects the content of the message.

If you include a signature keep it short.  Rule of thumb is no longer than 4 lines.  Remember that many people pay for connectivity by the minute, and the longer your message is, the more they pay.

Just as mail (today) may not be private, mail (and news) are (today) subject to forgery and spoofing of various degrees of detectability. Apply common sense "reality checks" before assuming a message is valid.

If you think the importance of a message justifies it, immediately reply briefly to an e-mail message to let the sender know you got it, even if you will send a longer reply later.

"Reasonable" expectations for conduct via e-mail depend on your relationship to a person and the context of the communication. Norms learned in a particular e-mail environment may not apply in general to your e-mail communication with people across the Internet.  Be careful with slang or local acronyms.

The cost of delivering an e-mail message is, on the average, paid about equally by the sender and the recipient (or their organizations). This is unlike other media such as physical mail, telephone, TV, or radio.  Sending someone mail may also cost them in other specific ways like network bandwidth, disk space or CPU usage.  This is a fundamental economic reason why  unsolicited e-mail advertising is unwelcome (and is forbidden in many contexts).

Know how large a message you are sending.  Including large files such as Postscript files or programs may make your message so large that it cannot be delivered or at least consumes excessive resources.  A good rule of thumb would be not to send a file larger than 50 Kilobytes.  Consider file transfer as an alternative, or cutting the file into smaller chunks and sending each as a separate message.

Don't send large amounts of unsolicited information to people.

If your mail system allows you to forward mail, beware the dreaded forwarding loop.  Be sure you haven't set up forwarding on several hosts so that a message sent to you gets into an endless loop from one computer to the next to the next.


 RIME Registration and Upgrades

The evaluation configuration of RIME has some limitations. This was done to allow you to evaluate all of RIME's features and still encourage you to register the program. Specific differences between the evaluation configuration and the registered configuration are:

Evaluation Configuration

•	Registration reminder screen with 10 second delay and audio reminder

•	Limited to transmitting to five recipient addresses

•	Registration reminder placed on all printed messages

•	Registration reminder placed on transmitted messages

•	Test RIME menu item in Options menu

•	RIME order form menu item in Help menu

•	Registration ID menu item in Help menu

Registered Configuration

•	Registration reminder screen and audio reminder removed

•	Transmit to 32,700 recipient addresses

•	No registration reminder on printed messages

•	No registration reminder on transmitted messages

•	Test RIME menu item removed

•	Order form menu item removed

•	Registration ID menu item removed

Registration is $25. You can fill out a registration form in RIME by selecting the Help | RIME Registration Form menu item, or use the order form built into this help file. If you are paying with a credit card, you have the option of sending the registration form via encrypted E-mail directly to Rimrock Software. A registration ID will be E-mailed back to you, usually within 24 hours (unless we are at a software conference or it's a holiday).

If you chose to send the form via normal mail, we will snail-mail the registration ID back to you.

In any case, once you have registered RIME, you are entitled to free upgrades from our Web site, until the next major revision is created. Any time you download an upgrade, you do not need to re-enter the registration ID - it will automatically be recognized.


Bulk Address File
The Bulk Address File

The Bulk Address File contains the E-mail addresses and other information of the people who will be receiving your E-mail messages. Each line of the file contains information about one person, and the line is broken up into pieces called fields.

Each bulk address field is separated by a delimiter. The default delimiter is a comma (,), but it can be any character, as long as that character doesn't occur inside any of the fields. The fields are numbered %0 through %9. The person's E-mail address is always field zero (%0). We've numbered each field of the example below to show how they are referenced in your text:

           %0               %1     %2     %3

  michaelb@rand.nidlink.com,Mr.,Michael,Burton

  johnsmith@whoknows.org,Mr.,John,Smith

Note that this example only has four fields in it, separated by the default comma delimiter. You could just as easily have ten fields, separated by colons (like a UNIX password file).


 Program Information Required fields

Point to the item you want help on and click the mouse button.

The Program Information Dialog allows you to enter information that is necessary for RIME to accomplish its E-mail function. This information need only be entered once. RIME will remember it and use it each time you use the program.


 Program Information Optional fields

Point to the item you want help on and click the mouse button.


Program Information Configuration fields
The Program Information Configuration fields

Point to the item you want help on and click the mouse button.


First Name edit box (def.)
Enter your first name here. This is a required field that is used in the E-mail header and can be used (as %first) anywhere in the E-mail text file.


Last Name edit box (def.)
Enter your last name here. This is a required field that is used in the E-mail header and can be used (as %last) anywhere in the E-Mail text file.


E-mail Address edit box (def.)
Enter your Internet E-mail address here. This is a required field that is used as the 'from' address of the E-mail message and can be used (as %email) anywhere in the E-mail text file.


Web Page edit box (def.)
If you have one, enter your Web page URL here. This is an optional field which can be used (as %http) anywhere in the E-mail text file.


Miscellaneous Text edit box (def.)
Enter any miscellaneous text you would like in this field. This is an optional field which can be used (as %misc) anywhere in the E-mail text file.


SMTP Server edit box (def.)
Enter the name of your mail server here. This is a required field that tells RIME what server to use to send the E-mail from.


SMTP Port edit box (def.)
Enter the mail port number here. The default is 25, which can be used in 99% of all cases. A valid number must be present in this field.


Address File Field Delimiter edit box (def.)
Enter the character that you will use to separate fields in your Bulk Address Files. The default is a comma.


OK dialog button (def.)
Click on this button when you have finished filling out the information in this dialog.


Cancel dialog button (def.)
Click on this button if you decide not to make any changes to the information in this dialog.


Help dialog button (def.)
Click on this button to view this online help.


Address List Box Style radio buttons (def.)
You have a choice as to how you want the addresses in the Bulk Address list box displayed. Choose the one you are most comfortable with. Your choice will be saved and used the next time you use RIME.


Order Form Dialog
The Order Form Dialog

The RIME Order Form Dialog is used when you want to register RIME and remove the shareware constraints from the program.

Point to the item you want help on and click the mouse button.


Order Form First Name edit box (def.)
Enter your first name here. If you have filled in the information in the Program Information dialog, this field will already contain your first name.


Order Form Last Name edit box (def.)
Enter your last name here. If you have filled in the information in the Program Information dialog, this field will already contain your last name.


Order Form Company edit box (def.)
Enter your company name here.


Order Form Address 1 edit box (def.)
Enter the first line of your postal address here.


Order Form Address 2 edit box (def.)
Enter the second line of your postal address here.


Order Form City edit box (def.)
Enter your city name here.


Order Form State/Province edit box (def.)
Enter the name of your state or province here.


Order Form Zip/Country edit box (def.)
Enter your zipcode or country code here.


Order Form Country edit box (def.)
Enter the name of your country here. If you live in the U.S., this is optional.


Order Form Phone edit box (def.)
You may optionally enter your phone number here. Please include area and/or country codes.


Order Form FAX edit box (def.)
You may optionally enter your Fax phone number here. Please include area and/or country codes.


Order Form E-Mail Address edit box (def.)
Enter your E-mail address here. If you have filled in the information in the Program Information dialog, this field will already contain your E-mail Address.


Order Form Web URL edit box (def.)
You may optionally enter your Web URL here. If you have filled in the information in the Program Information dialog, this field may already contain your Web URL.


Order Form Payment radio buttons (def.)
Chose a payment method with these buttons. If you chose payment by VISA or Mastercard, you can either print the order form or send it directly to Rimrock Software by encrypted E-mail.


Order Form Card Account edit box (def.)
If you chose payment by credit card, enter the card number here.


Order Form Expiration Date edit box (def.)
If you chose payment by credit card, enter the card's expiration date here.


Order Form Improvements memo field (def.)
You may enter any suggestions you have for improving RIME in this memo field.


Order Form Comments memo field (def.)
You may enter any general comments or bugs in this memo field.


Order Form Send Form button (def.)
This button is enabled if you choose payment by credit card. When this button is clicked, RIME will encrypt your order information and send it as an E-mail message to Rimrock Software.


Order Form Print Form button (def.)
When this button is clicked, RIME will print an order form containing the information from this dialog.


Order Form Done button (def.)
Click on this button when you have finished with the RIME Order Form. Note: be sure to print or send the form before using this button.


Order Form Help button (def.)
Click on this button to view this online help.


File Menu
The File Menu

Point to the item you want help on and click the mouse button.


Edit Menu
The Edit Menu

Point to the item you want help on and click the mouse button.


Search Menu
The Search Menu

Point to the item you want help on and click the mouse button.


Mail Menu
The Mail Menu

Point to the item you want help on and click the mouse button.


Options Menu
The Options Menu

Point to the item you want help on and click the mouse button.


Help Menu
The Help Menu

Point to the item you want help on and click the mouse button.


New menu item (def.)
Clear the bulk address list, the text area and the subject box so new information may be entered in these areas.


Open Address File menu item (def.)
Read a bulk address file into the address list. An open file dialog is displayed to allow you to pick a .BAD file.


Open Text File menu item (def.)
Read a text file into the text area. An open file dialog is displayed to allow you to pick a text file.


Save Text File menu item (def.)
Save the text area to a file. A save file dialog box is displayed to allow you to specify a file name to save to.


Save Address File menu item (def.)
Save the address list to a file. A save file dialog box is displayed to allow you to specify a file name to save to.


Print menu item (def.)
Allows you to print the text file, merged with the last selected  address from the bulk address list.


Printer Setup menu item (def.)
Allows you to change the printer you are using, or its configuration.


Exit menu item (def.)
Leave RIME and return to Windows. If the text file was modified, you will be prompted to save it.


Cut menu item (def.)
Cut the selected text from the text area onto the clipboard.


Copy menu item (def.)
Copy the selected text from the text area onto the clipboard.


Paste menu item (def.)
Paste the clipboard to the current cursor position in the text area.


Delete Address menu item (def.)
Delete the highlighted items from the Address List.


Add Address menu item (def.)
Add new address lines to the Address List.


Find Address item (def.)
Allows you to search for text in the Address box.


Find Next Address item (def.)
Find the next text occurence in the Address box.


Send Mail item (def.)
Send the message to the selected addresses.


Attach File item (def.)
Attach a file to the message when it is sent to each address. The attached file can be of any type.


Text RIME menu item (def.)
Shows you how to set RIME up for message transmissions.


Contents menu item (def.)
Invokes the RIME help file and positions at the table of Contents.


Topic Search menu item (def.)
Allows you to search for a specific help topic.


How to Use Help menu item (def.)
Shows you how to use a Windows help file.


Enter Registration ID menu item (def.)
Allows you to enter your registration ID, which reconfigures the program from the evaluation version to the registered version.


About RIME menu item (def.)
Displays a dialog containing program information.


Registration Form
RIME Registration Form

RIME Order Form

[X] Please send me a Registration ID for the RIME Internet Mail-merge E-mailer. I have enclosed the $25 registration fee (check/cash or credit card). I understand that using the Registration ID will disable all the evaluation limitations of the program.

Please register RIME v1.40 to:

Name:    ___________________________________________

Company: ___________________________________________

Addr1:   ___________________________________________

Addr2:   ___________________________________________

City:    _________________ State/Prov: _____________

Zip/Postal code: ___________________________________

Country: ___________________________________________

Phone:   ___________________________________________

FAX:     ___________________________________________

E-mail:  ___________________________________________

URL:     ___________________________________________

Payment Type:

Check [ ]  Cash [ ] Credit card [ ]

Card type: VISA [ ] Mastercard [ ]

Expiration date: ___________________________________

Cardholder Signature: ______________________________

Send completed for with payment to:

  Rimrock Software

  P.O. Box 2406

  Hayden, ID  83835-2406

  USA

=========================================================

Please send your registration by check drawn on a U.S. bank and made payable to Rimrock Software.

Your registration ID will be sent to you via E-mail or first class mail as soon as possible following receipt of your registration payment.

If you have any questions or comments about RIME, you may reach us by telephone at 208-772-9347, or by E-mail at rimrock@rimrocksoftware.com


Illegal Characters (def.)
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) can only handle the regular ASCII character set. Any characters with values above 127 are considered illegal. If there are any such characters in a RIME text file, the file will be encoded so that the characters are no longer illegal.


Send Mail Dialog
The Send Mail Dialog

Point to the item you want help on and click the mouse button.


Sending indicator (def.)
Displays how many addresses you will be sending this e-mail message to.


Sent indicator (def.)
Displays how many addresses you have already sent the e-mail message to.


Sending dialogs (def.)
Displays status of the current message you are sending, including anyerror messages. This status is optionally captured in RIME.LOG.


Capture to RIME.LOG checkbox (def.)
If checked, the sending dialogs will be captured in RIME.LOG.)


E-mail Priority radio buttons (def.)
Establishes the priority of the messages you will be sending. Some mail readers (such as Eudora) can use this priority to inform their users of the importance of the message.


Send E-mail button (def.)
Starts the e-mail transmission process.


Stop sending E-mail button (def.)
Stops the e-mail transmission process, after the current message is sent.


Done sending E-mail button (def.)
Closes the Send Mail dialog and returns to the RIME window.