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Welcome to MAIL CALL. (c) Richard Dower 1990,1991 All rights reserved. MAIL CALL is a shareware program. If you use it, please REGISTER. Shareware is not free software. If you use and like the program, then I ask that you register (purchase) the program. Keep in mind that the purchase of a program from a public domain distributor or payment to an online service (such as GENIE) does NOT constitute registration of the program since I do NOT receive any money from that payment. Shareware is NOT public domain software, and continued use of a program carries with it the OBLIGATION to purchase the program. The free distribution method is intended only as a means of obtaining a copy to evaluate before purchasing. Unregistered copies are approved for evaluation purposes for 30 days only. Any use beyond that period without registration constitutes a violation of my copyright. I recommend that you use the sample files supplied with MAIL CALL and play around. By going through all the menus and using F1 to display the context sensitive help you will quickly see MAIL CALL's potential. The program is menu and function key driven and very easy to use. The editing keys are standard programs and usually obvious. Esc backs out of all operations or menus, F1 gives Help, F2 saves, and F10 displays the current record in the current design format. Most of this documentation is available while you are in MAIL CALL by pressing F1 at various places in the program. Selecting Help from the main menu will allow you to browse through the features from one place. Single Registration: $ 20.00 Send to: Richard Dower 13943 West 113th St Lenexa, Ks. 66215-4832 Table of Contents Features ............................ 1 Installation ........................ 2 Btrieve ............................. 4 Quick Start ......................... 5 Quick Start for Custom Labels ....... 7 Open / Creat ........................ 8 Add ................................. 9 Keys ................................ 10 Find ................................ 10 Print Labels ........................ 11 Print Phone Books ................... 11 Label Design ........................ 12 Output Field Selection .............. 12 Export .............................. 13 Partial Export ...................... 14 Import .............................. 15 Importing MAIL CALL Files ........... 16 Import of dBASE Files ............... 16 Custom Labels ....................... 17 ZIP+4 Service ....................... 18 Preparing Files for Postal Service .. 19 - 1 - Features Menus and function key interface with context sensitive help. Four retrieval and output indexes. Last name Company Zip code User Defined Key Search by Last Name, Company, Zip Code, or User Defined Key. Searching is not case sensitive i.e. you can look up Dower with DOWER, or dower, or dOwEr. Print by Last Name, Company, Zip Code, or User Defined Key. If you user the User Defined Key for the Postal Carrier Route, printing in Zip Code order will also print by Carrier Route. Partial print by selected Company, Zip Code or User Defined Key. Print all labels which match a particular index field. For example, all the labels for zip code 66215 or for company "XYZ Widgets" or for User Defined Key field "1203". Print multiple copies of a single label. Print from a specific record forward in the file. Multiple label designs. From 1 to 3 labels across. From 1 to 18 lines per label. Label width from 2.5 inches to 5 inches. Two formats of Rotary Cards 2"x4" and 3"x5" Print a Postal barcode on each label. Choice of which fields show up on the label. Advertising Line can be printed on the top of all labels. Sample label is displayed by pressing F10 at any time so you may see exactly what you output will look like. Custom Labels Print disk labels, video cassette labels, recipe cards, etc. Different print codes possible for each line of the label. Make individual lines double strike, expanded, underline, italics, compressed, emphasized, or a custom print style. Easy selection of print codes. Print phone books by Last Name or Company. Import and Export facilities. Merge MAIL CALL databases, import from other databases. You can import and export entire records or selected fields. Import directly from dBASE type files VERY easily. Easily input fields from previous record into new record with F3. - 2 - Installation MAIL CALL was stored in a compressed format using either LHARC or PKZIP. If the extension is LZH, it was compressed with LHARC. If the extension is ZIP, it was compressed with PKZIP. Unarchive the program with one of the following commands. LHARC E MAILCAnn (if it has an LZH extension) PKUNZIP MAILCAnn (if it has a ZIP extension) Where nnn is the version number. If the version number is 1.2 the command is: LHARC E MAILCA12 or PKUNZIP MAILCA12 Required files to run MAIL CALL: BTRIEVE.EXE - used by MAIL CALL to access files MAILCALL.EXE - the main program MC.BAT - batch file that loads BTRIEVE and MAIL CALL. Optional files MAILCALL.HLP - required if you want online context sensitive help MAILCALL.ERR - contains all MAIL CALL error messages SAMPLE.MC - sample MAIL CALL database TEST.MC - another sample MAIL CALL database SAMPLE.SDF - sample of a file to import SAMPLE.MCC - sample custom label TEST.MCC - another sample custom label TESTBIG.MCC - large sample custom label TEST.MCT - sample custom label in tiny type HINTS.DOC - additional tips on using MAIL CALL LCODES.PRN - created if you change and save the default print codes under the Custom Labels menu. NOTE: MAIL CALL will create a file, MAILCALL.POS, after you have run it the first time. MAIL CALL uses this file to restore you to the exact place you were when you exited last. Copy, or extract, all the above files to any directory in your path or to a separate MAIL CALL directory. To run MAIL CALL, simply type MC. MC.BAT sets up BTRIEVE and then runs MAIL CALL. If you try to run MAIL CALL without loading BTRIEVE first, you will get an error message and the program will abort. You can also start MAIL CALL by entering MC followed by the first part of a name you wish to find. MC DO This way of starting MAIL CALL will reopen the last database used and position you at the record with the last name with the closest match to the name entered after MC. If there is more than one record that matches the name, they will be displayed (with their phone numbers) in a list. You can use this to quickly find phone numbers without having to cursor through the close matches. - 3 - If you are not on a network the easiest way to set up MAIL CALL is to simply install it in a directory somewhere in your path. Or, place it in a directory of its own and add that directory name to your path in AUTOEXEC.BAT. For example, if you place all of MAIL CALL's files in a directory called C:\MAILCALL, simply add that directory name to your path. In your AUTOEXEC.BAT file should be a line that reads PATH= After this should be all the directories that you want searched for programs. If it currently reads: PATH=C:\;C:\DOS;D:\BRIEF;C:\NORTON To add MAILCALL, edit that line so it looks like this: PATH=C:\;C:\DOS;D:\BRIEF;C:\NORTON;C:\MAILCALL NOTE: If you want your MAIL CALL files to reside in a directory off of the path, then place BTRIEVE.EXE and MAILCALL.EXE somewhere in the path and put the other files in the directory of your choice. Next, set an environment variable called MAILPRIV in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file that shows MAIL CALL where the files are. For example, if you want your MAIL CALL file in a directory called LABEL on the C: drive, place a line in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file that reads: SET MAILPRIV=C:\LABEL\ MAILPRIV is where all your private files will reside. If you set another environment variable, MAILPUBL, you can have public files located there. The public files are designed to be shared by many users and can't be added to or edited. This is especially good on a network where a company phone listing can be in the public area and private lists are kept in private directories. SET MAILPUBL=Z:\PUBLIC\ Then, place MAILCALL.EXE and BTRIEVE.EXE somewhere in the path. If you don't understand what a path is, refer to a book on MS-DOS or the MS-DOS reference manual to see how to set up your path. This feature allows you to set up MAIL CALL on a network but keep each of the users' files in separate directories. Their MAILPRIV environment variable will tell MAIL CALL where to find their individual files. As a safety feature, all the files in the MAILPRIV directory are considered PUBLIC file and, therefore, can't be modified. To modify those files, simply set the MAILPRIV environment variable to that same directory and you can then modify the files. This allows you to give editing rights to a few selected people or, simply set the LABEL_ME variable on the fly to temporarily have access to the files. - 4 - Btrieve MAIL CALL uses Btrieve as its database manager. Btrieve is the copyrighted property of SoftCraft Inc. and is distributed with MAIL CALL under the terms of my licence agreement. Btrieve is loaded into memory before MAIL CALL, and is cleared from memory whenever MAIL CALL is exited. Btrieve has the following advantages: ***** Warning, technical information follows. ***** ***** You don't need to know any of this. ***** 1. All indexes are included within the database file so each mailing list file is self-contained. 2. There is no restriction to file size. Therefore, you may have have as many records as you wish in one file. 3. An I/O cache buffer speeds file access by keeping the most recently accessed records in memory. 4. Pre-imaging protects individual insert, delete and update operations from system failure. If a file becomes inconsistent, Btrieve automatically restores the file to its state just prior to the incomplete request. 5. Uses expanded memory if present and the Expanded Memory Manager is loaded. Btrieve uses the expanded memory for the cache buffers. 6. Look up records regardless of how the index field was capitalized. You can find "Dower" by looking for "DOWER", "dower", "doWER", or "Dower". 7. NULL keys are allowed. When a NULL key is entered for an indexed field, that record is skipped whenever that particular index is active. NULL keys eliminate the overhead time of updating the index each time a blank key is entered and avoids searching through meaningless reconds in an index when you are searching for a non-blank value. - 5 - Quick Start After installing MAIL CALL, start the program by typing MC. The first thing you will see is an introduction screen with some brief explanations of how to use the program. You will only see this screen the first time you run MAIL CALL because each time you run the program it goes back to the place you were when you left!! The first time you run the program, you haven't established a file or record to return to yet. If there are MAIL CALL databases available, you will shown a list of them with their description. Select a database to use by moving the light bar over the desired file and pressing Enter. To create a new database press Esc. See the section on OPEN and CREATE for further explanation. If there are no databases available, you will be prompted to create one. By selecting SAMPLE from the list, you can play with MAIL CALL and learn most of the features quickly. Below are some of the things you might want to try. 1. Find the record with last name Dower. Notice that you don't have to know whether it was in upper or lower case. MAIL CALL finds records regardless of how many, or which letters were capitalized. It also finds by closest match if there is no exact match. Looking for DOW will still get you to the Dower record. Looking for DOWERS will take you one record past Dower. Use the Home key to go to the first record. Count the records. There are 18 records in the Last Name index. 2. Now Find the company IBM. Notice that the Company field is now hilighted instead of the Last Name field. This makes it obvious which is the active index. The file now appears to be in alphabetical order by Company. If you select Print at this point, the records will be printed in Company order. If there were records added that did not have any information entered in the Company field, they will not appear when skipping through the file or be printed out. This feature allows you to keep certain records from printing when printing by selected indexes. You may put data in the Company or User Defined Key index on selected records and then print while the one of these indexes is active. Only those records with data in the index will print! Use the Home key to go to the first record. Count the records. There are 13 records in the Company index. 3. Find for User Defined Key SALES. Use the Home key to go to the first record. Count the records. There are 14 records in the User Defined Key index. - 6 - Whenever you leave the program, MAIL CALL remembers which file and which record you were on. The next time you use MAIL CALL, you will be placed exactly where you were when in the program last. If you look up a phone number and the person is not available, when you next use MAIL CALL you will be place right back at that record. You don't need to write the number down or load the file again and search for the person. This allows you to quickly resume an interrupted sessions with the least amount of work. You can also call MAIL CALL followed by a name to retrieve. This way of calling MAIL CALL is especially suited for finding phone numbers quickly. Example: MC DOWER This will start MAIL CALL and try to find the records that start with "DOWER" in the last file you were in. If there were only one match you will have been positioned on that record. If there is more than one match, you will be shown a list of the matching names with their phone numbers. Simply select the name you want off the list and you will be positioned on that record. This feature allows you to quickly find phone numbers without having to browse through the database. By entering MC DO, the first 10 records (or less) that start with DO will be displayed with their phone numbers. You don't even need to go any farther if all you wanted was a phone number! I leave MAIL CALL in the database where most of my frequently called numbers are located. Whenever I need a phone number, I enter MC followed by the first few letters of the last name of the person I want. Quit MAIL CALL after opening SAMPLE. Restart MAIL CALL with the following command: MC DO You will be shown the two records that match i.e. DOWER and DOWNING. Move the light bar over the record you want and press Enter. - 7 - Quick Start for Custom Labels Now, select Custom off the main menu. You will be shown a blank label format that you may use to print custom labels. Edit allows you to enter anything you want on the label. Esc exits the editing session. Add Codes allows you to define different print codes for each line of the label. This makes it easy to print video cassette labels, disk labels, 3x5 cards, etc. You can have the top line double wide, underlined, and bold with all the other lines in normal print. If you select Tiny Type off the menu, you will get twice as many lines available on the label and half again as many characters per line. This is because Tiny Type puts the printer into compressed, subscript mode with 12 lines per inch. The normal print setup is 6 lines per inch. This option is perfect for disk labels, and video tape labels. Selecting Tiny Type again changes back to normal mode. It is easy to identify which mode you are in; Normal mode has a separate window for print codes, Tiny Type doesn't. When you Save and Load custom labels, they are saved and restored exactly as you input them. The custom print codes, lines and label width are all saved and restored with the label, not just the text. If you are in Tiny Type mode, the label is stored that way. To retrieve (Load) a label saved under Tiny Type, you must be in Tiny Type mode when you select Load off the menu. Likewise, to restore a normal custom label, you must me in the normal mode when you select Load off the menu. This is because the Tiny Type labels and the other custom labels are saved under different file names. - 8 - Open Use Up Arrow, Down Arrow to select the file you wish to use. If there are more than one page worth of files, use PgUp and PgDn to move between pages. When the desired file is highlighted, press Enter to open that file for use. You can move quickly to a filename on the list by typing the first letter of the name. MAIL CALL will go to the next file down whose first letter matches the one you pressed. All the MAIL CALL databases displayed during the OPEN operation are located in either your PRIVATE directory or the PUBLIC directory. Refer to the documentation for setting these up. If you haven't set PUBLIC or PRIVATE directories, you will open and create files in the directory where you installed MAIL CALL. Press Esc if you wish to create a new file. All newly created databases will be written to the PRIVATE directory, if it is defined, or the directory where MAIL CALL was installed. You may change the comment describing the currently highlighted file under the Design selection on the Main Menu. This comment allows you to give a full description of the contents of each file instead of relying on the eight character file name. Create If there are no databases available when MAIL CALL is loaded or you press ESC when all the available files are displayed, you will be asked to create a new MAIL CALL database. The program will then take you through the following steps. 1. Enter from 1 to 8 characters for the name. Do not add an extension. 2. Finally, you will be placed in the ADD mode. You need to add at least one record or MAIL CALL will delete the newly created file. Refer to ADD for a full explanation on the features of ADDing. Optionally, when on the VERY first record to add, if you press Esc, you will be prompted to import a file. You may IMPORT a previously exported a MAIL CALL file, a dBASE type file, or a text file. In this way, you don't need to add a dummy record before importing a file. Refer to the section on Importing for more information on how to import files. - 9 - Add When you enter ADD mode, you may move back and forth between fields by using Enter, Tab, or the Up and Down arrow keys. The only required field is the Last Name field. All other fields are optional. After you have filled in a record, F2 will save the record. You will be presented another blank form to fill in. Press Esc to quit ADDing records and return to the main menu screen. As you add records, most fields that you entered in the previous record may be entered in the current record by pressing F3. This feature can greatly speed data input. If you are ready to add a new record, position yourself at the record that has the most fields in common with the record you wish to add. Then you can quickly fill in most of the fields by pressing F3. Example: Enter "U S Postal Service" for the Company field on one record, then save that record. When you are in the Company field of the next record to add, pressing F3 will fill that field with "U S Postal Service". The ZIP Code index is actually extended to include the User Defined Key. This feature allows you to use the User Defined Key for Postal Carrier Route information. Then, when you print by ZIP Code, it will print by Carrier Route within each ZIP Code. Also, if you select the User Defined Key for output on the Label it will print on the top line. This is the place that the Postal Carrier Route must be printed for mass mailings for the U S Postal Service. The U S Postal Service can add the ZIP + 4 portion of the ZIP Code to your mailing lists and, as an option, add the Carrier Route information. On large mailings, you can apply for a postage discount for using the Carrier Route information on your labels. This can amount to considerable savings on postage. Read the section on Preparing Mailing Lists for the U S Postal Service to see how to have ZIP+4 and Carrier Route information added by the Postal Service. - 10 - Keys for use anywhere in MAIL CALL F1 at any time within the program for HELP. F2 on input screens to Save the current data. F9 any time to select the fields to output on your labels. F10 any time after a file has been opened to display a sample label. Esc abandon current operation. Keys for use on the main menu screen: Up Arrow Previous record Down Arrow Next record PgUp Forward 10 records PgDn Back 10 records End End of file Home Beginning of file Keys for editing a record Home Beginning of line End End of line Ins Insert/Overwrite toggle Ctrl+End Delete to end of field Tab Up Arrow Previous field Shift Tab Down Arrow Next field Esc Quit without saving F2 Save F3 insert field from previous record Find You may locate a record by Last Name, Company/Department, Zip Code, or User Defined Key. If an exact match is not found, you will be placed at the closest next match. Whenever you search by one of the above fields, the file ordering is changed to that index. If you Search by Company, after the search, the file will be in order alphabetically by company name. If you then Find by User Defined Key, the file will be in order by the User Defined Key field. The active index is displayed at the lower left of the screen. This is also the ordering used when printing, so make sure you have the correct index active before you start printing. Search does not care how the index field was capitalized or how you enter the item to search for. You can therefore store a name as "Smith" and find it by searching for "SMITH" or "smith". - 11 - Print Labels If you choose to print the entire database, the labels will be ordered by the currently selected index order. If the current index order is by Company/Department, the labels will be ordered alphabetically by Company/Department. If the index is User Defined Key, the labels will be printed in order by User Defined Key. You may start printing with the currently displayed record. This allows for easy re-starts if there is a printer problem. Simply Search for the record where the problem occured and start printing again. You may print all the records for one User Defined Key, one Company, or one ZIP Code. These options require an exact match to be included in the printing. The Company/Department field is matched on the first 15 characters only, not the full 30 characters in the field. If you print by ZIP Code, the labels will be printed in User Defined Key within each ZIP Code. If you use the User Defined Key field for the Postal Carrier Route, the ZIP Code order printing will also be ordered by Carrier Route. For example, to print all of MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SERVICES, you would enter MANAGEMENT INFO at the Department prompt. If you entered only MANAGEMENT, nothing would print. This feature is most often used for printing a specific ZIP code or User Defined Key. Print Phone Books You have the option of printing a phone book in Last Name order or in Company/Department order. The Last Name phone book prints the last name first, followed by the first name, notes, and finally the Phone #1 field. If there is a second phone number, it is printed below the first. The Company/Department phone book has the Company/Department field first, followed by the last name, first name, and phone number. If the Company name repeats, it is only listed once with all the names of the people in that Company/Department listed below. Again, if there is more than one phone number for any one person, it is listed below the first one. In either type phone book, you are prompted for two heading lines and a Common Phone Prefix. You may enter anything you wish for the headings. The Common Phone Prefix is optional. If you enter the prefix, whenever that prefix is found in one of the phone numbers, it is not printed. The book shows just the 4 digits of the number that are unique. This is especially good for books for one company where almost all the numbers have the same 3 digit prefix. - 12 - Label Design The label format (width, labels across, lines/label, and Advertising Line) and the file description are under the Design option. F9 at any time completes the design process by allowing you to select output fields. If you choose a label width that is too narrow for some fields, those fields will be truncated to fit on the label. If you choose 6 fields to print but select a 5 line label, only the top 5 fields chosen will be printed. If you select 3 fields to print and choose a 5 line label, the bottom two lines will be left blank. The Advertising Line is an option that allows you to print a line at the top of every label you print. This will only print if you select the Ad Line as one of the output fields. You may, therefore, enter a line you wish to use occasionally and save it with the file. Then, when you need it, simply select the Ad Line from the output fields selection and it will print on the top line of you labels. When you are done with that batch of labels, you simply deselect that field from the output fields. The next set of labels won't have the line printed. Some printers require both a carriage return and line feed after each line of printing. The Print Line Terminator selection allows you to put in what you need for your printer. Most printers simply need the carriage return. To see whether you need the line feed also, select Test off the Print menu. If the each line of the label prints further and further to the right instead of returning to the left margin, you need to have a line feed with your carriage return. If you want a barcode printed on your label, you can have it as the very top line or below and to the right of the bottom line. As of early 1991, the Postal Service doesn't have its wide are barcode readers available over most of the country. When they are, you can print the barcode at the top of each label without having to worry about placing the label in an exact position on the label. Selecting the barcode to be placed at the bottom of the label requires the label to be exactly positioned by Postal Service standards to be readable by their barcode scanners. Selecting where you want the barcode printed has no effect if you don't select the barcode as one of the output fields. F2 saves the design so that the next time the file is opened, these values will automatically take effect. If you leave the Design screen by pressing Esc the changes to the design will be in effect only for the current session. Each file can have a different label design. Output Field Selection Press F9 at any time to select the output fields. To select/deselect a field for printing, use the space bar. Use F10 to display a sample label. The sample will show you exactly how the label will be printed. In this way you can tell which fields may be truncated and if all the fields will fit on the format you have selected. Enter ends the selection process. If you select User Defined Key, it will always appear as the top line of the label unless you have selected the barcode to be printed on the top. If you select Ad Line, it will appear as the top line unless User Defined Key or top barcode are selected also. - 13 - Export The exported files are stored in SDF format. That is, one record per line, with all the fields written in a continuous stream. The field sizes and field order follow. This is only needed if you are exporting all the fields. If you are exporting a file to me read into another MAIL CALL file or to be processed by the Postal Service for ZIP+4 lookup, you don't need to know anything about the file structure. This is only if you are importing into another software product, such as dBASE. Field Name Length Offset ------------------------------ LAST NAME 16 1 USER DEFINE KEY 7 17 FIRST NAME 11 24 COMPANY 31 35 SECONDARY ADDRESS 26 66 DELIVERY ADDRESS 26 92 CITY 21 118 STATE 3 139 ZIP CODE 11 148 PHONE #2 15 153 EXTENSION 5 168 PHONE #1 15 173 NOTES 41 188 Each line should be 228 characters long with a carriage return, line feed at the end. Short fields will be padded with spaces to fill out the Length. EXAMPLE: This is how the first part of an exported file should look if you were to TYPE it to the screen or look at it with a text editor. The heading shows the name of each field. The last field, NOTES, is out to the right at the very end of the line. Each line is 228 characters long. <------16------><--7--><---11----><---------31------------------><- LAST NAME KEY FIRST COMPANY AD ------------------------------------------------------------------- Dower 1204 Richard Midwest Solutions 13 Smith 402 C. 10 Williams 1237 John IBM 12 Jones 1501 Robert Digital Equipment Corporation 12 - 14 - Partial Export You can export selected fields. When you export, you are prompted to use all the fields or only the currently selected output fields. If you export just the currently selected output fields, the export file will only contain those fields, not all the fields. This is the recommended way to export for import into other software products, such as dBASE. The field orders and lengths follow: Output Field Includes Length --------------------------------------------------- Name LAST NAME+FIRST NAME 27 (16 + 11) Company 31 Secondary Address 26 Delivery Address 26 City,State,ZIP CITY+STATE+ZIP 35 (21 + 3 + 11) City,State CITY+STATE 24 (21 + 3) ZIP CODE 11 Phone 1 PHONE 1 + EXTEN 20 (15+5) Phone 2 15 Notes 41 USER DEFINED KEY 7 EXAMPLE: To export only Last Name, First Name, and Company, press F9 and select only Name and Company from the Field Selection. The file should look like this: <------16------><---11----><---------31------------------> Dower Richard Midwest Solutions Smith C. Williams John IBM Jones Robert Digital Equipment Corporation Penney Bud Hallmark Cards <------16------><---11----><---------31------------------> - 15 - Import You may import previously exported MAIL CALL files, ASCII files, or dBASE files. File Type Extension Source ----------------------------------------------------------------- MAIL CALL SDF Exported from MAIL CALL ASCII TXT Text editor, Other programs dBASE DBF dBASE, FoxBase, DBXL, etc. You will be shown a list of all the files that match the type you select. The MAIL CALL file will be checked for correct record lengths. For the ASCII type, you will need to enter the length of each field and the offset of the field in each line of the file. In this manner, you can skip information that is of no use to you. The field lengths don't need to match the field lengths in the MAIL CALL file. MAIL CALL will check the file to be sure all the lines are of the same length. EXAMPLE: DELIVERY LAST FIRST ADDRESS PHONE 1 <---- 15 ---><--9 ---> <---- 13 ----><--- 13 ----> DOWER RICHARD ##### *&^*%$ 13943 W 113 (913)339-9348 Penney Bud garbage 12 School St Jones Robert ********-22222 (816)555-1212 1 2 3 4 5 6 123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456 On the import file structure form for the example above, you would fill in only LAST, FIRST, DELIVERY ADDRESS, and PHONE 1. Length Offset --------------- LAST 15 1 FIRST 9 16 DELIVERY ADDRESS 13 40 PHONE 1 13 54 *** NOTE *** If you export a MAIL CALL file to be processed by the Postal Service for ZIP+4 addon, when the file is returned, it may not have the SDF extension that you had when you sent it. Often the files end in ZIP. If this is the case, rename the file back to SDF, or copy the new file with the ZIP extension over the old file with the SDF extension. Example: C>COPY A:MYFILE.ZIP C:MYFILE.SDF Refer to the section on step by step procedures for having the Postal Service process your files. - 16 - Importing MAIL CALL Files To import a previously exported MAIL CALL file, simply select the file type as MAIL CALL and select the exported file off the displayed list. By exporting one MAIL CALL file and importing into another, you can easily merge two MAIL CALL files. Also, if you have a MAIL CALL file that is in all capital letters, you can export it and then import it into a new MAIL CALL file. Select Normalize as the import option and the Name, Company/Department, Addresses, and City fields will have the first letter in each word capitalized and the rest in lower case. Since MAIL CALL allows you to print your labels in all upper case, you can store your records in the more readable format of mixed upper and lower case. Importing dBASE Files Importing from a dBASE type file is extremely easy and automated for you. The program allows you to match any dBASE field with any field in MAIL CALL without having to keep track of field locations, offsets, or size. You will have two windows. One lists all the MAIL CALL fields, the other all the dBASE type fields. Simply position the cursor on the MAIL CALL field you wish to fill. Next, press F3 to move to the list of the fields in the currently selected dBASE file. Move the cursor to the field you wish imported and press Enter. The field length and offset will be filled in for you. Simply move back and forth between the MAIL CALL form and the dBASE field list and select all the fields you need. Experiment a few times and you will see how easy it is. - 17 - Custom Labels Custom labels allow you to print labels with any text on any line. It also allows for custom print codes on each individual line. This is great for video tape labels, disk labels, 3 x 5 cards, etc. The size of the custom label is initially determined by the label design settings under Design on the Main Menu. You can change these settings from the Custom Label menu if you want. You can make several different size free form labels and not effect the size of the labels you normally print from the main database. You may add up to 8 different printer codes to each line of your custom label. The first line may be compressed, the second double strike, the third expanded, italics, underline, emphasized, the fourth subscript, etc. Simply enter the number of the code you wish to use for that line. The print codes are preset to the most common Epson print codes. To modify the print codes select, Codes from the menu. Now you can customize or change the codes displayed. You will need to consult your printer manual. The custom codes allow you to combine several codes or add things such as tiny line spacing. To input a code, use [ for Escape and ^ for Control. These are the most common ways that printers accept their codes. This will be clear once you look at your printer manual and see that most codes are preceeded with Escape. When you Save a Custom Label, all the print codes as well as the lines/label and label width are retained with the saved label. You can save several templates or commonly used labels for reuse latter. When you Retrieve a Custom Label, its original print codes, lines/label, and width are also restored. Once retrieved, you may edit it and print out different versions without effecting the originally saved format. You may also save the edited version under another name. This allows you to quickly build several templates for video tapes, recipe cards, disk labels, meeting badges, etc. Tiny Type Under Custom Labels, you can select Tiny Type. This option sets the print style to compressed, subscript and changes from 6 lines per inch to 12 lines per inch. This allows twice as many lines on a label and also allows for half again as many characters on a line. Selecting Tiny Type off the menu a second time will switch back to normal mode. When you are in Tiny Type mode, you aren't allowed to enter any other print codes for that label (the code window isn't even available). On a 5 line label that is 3 inches wide, you could enter 10 lines of information and have 45 characters on each line instead of the normal 30. This is especially valuable for making disk labels or VCR tape labels. If you save a label while Tiny Type is in effect, it will be saved in Tiny Type format. If you select Load off the menu while in Tiny Type, only the labels saved under Tiny Type will be displayed. Likewise, selecting Load off the menu while in normal mode, will only show you the labels that were saved under normal mode, not the Tiny Type labels. - 18 - ZIP+4 Service The U S Postal Service offers a free service that will add ZIP+4 information to a mailing list. The service will also standardize the address and add the Postal Carrier Route information if desired. These changes to a mailing list can lead to considerable savings in postage if the required discounts are applied for at the Post Office. To take advantage of this service, you must submit a file in a standard format and also supply the locations of the fields within the file. The Postal Coding selection on the Print menu will print a sheet with all the required information. Simply export the file, which will give it a SDF extension, and copy it to a floppy disk. Submit the disk with the information sheet to the Post Office. When you get the processed disk back, copy it back over the old file with the SDF extension and import it into a new file name. Refer to the sections on Import and Export for more information. - 19 - Preparing Files for Postal Service Processing for ZIP+4 addon, Carrier Route, and address standardization. For the following example let us assume we are using a MAIL CALL file called MYFILE and the Private directory has been set to C:\LABEL\. 1. Select Export off the Utility Menu. 2. Select Entire File. 3. Select All Fields. 4. Name the file the same as the file name on the screen. For our example we would give it the name MYFILE. The file will be given the extension SDF and will be in the Private directory. This is the directory you declare with the environment variable MAILPRIV or if you didn't set up Private and Public directories, it will be in the directory that you installed MAIL CALL in. 5. From the Print Menu, select Postal Coding. This will print out all the information the Postal Service needs to process your file. Be sure to have full sized paper in your printer. 6. Copy the exported file to a floppy disk. COPY C:\LABEL\MYFILE.SDF A: 7. Call you local post office to find out where you can get the disk processed. In most large cities you can either carry the disk in or mail it to the large area postal facility for processing. When you take in your disk or mail it, be sure to include the sheet printed out under Postal Coding in step 5 above. 8. When you get the disk back, check to see if the file name was changed during processing. DIR A: 9. Copy the processed file over the old file. Assume for our example that the new file name is MYFILE.ZIP. COPY A:MYFILE.ZIP C:\LABEL\MYFILE.SDF 10. Run MAIL CALL. 11. Select Open from the Main Menu. 12. Enter a new filename. (not MYFILE) 13. When you are shown the first record to Add, press Esc. You will be asked if you want to Import a file. Answer Yes. 14. Select MAIL CALL from the Import Menu. All the files with the SDF extension will be displayed. 15. Select the processed file off the list. (MYFILE in our example) 16. MAIL CALL will check the file to be sure all the lines are the correct length. Then, it will ask if you want the fields Normalized. If you say Yes, the Last Name, First Name, Company, Addresses, and City fields will have the first letter in each word capitalized and the rest in lower case. This makes the file more readable. Since there is an option to print your labels in all upper case, there is no reason to store your records in all upper case. 17. The processed file will be read in and all the indexes updated. 18. You can now delete your old file and rename the new file the same as the old one, if you wish.