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 individualized email messages. It takes a database of information and an email message template and merges the two to create customized email messages.
The potential uses are endless and include invoicing, sales, debt recovery, student grading and even personal messages.
Messages are sent through any one of 7 email programs, listed below:
• Microsoft Outlook Express
• Microsoft Entourage
• Qualcomm Eudora
• Claris Emailer
• Bare Bones Mailsmith
• CTM Development PowerMail
• CE Software QuickMail Pro
At least one of these programs must be installed on your computer. Demo or light versions of many 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 Template to edit the email message template .
• Preview / Send to preview 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, the online help can be brought up by clicking the help bar at the bottom of the window. As well as covering all of Email Merge's features, the online help contains a simple Tutorial section to help get you started with Email Merge. There is also a folder called Sample Merges included which demonstrates potential uses of Email Merge.
We hope you find Email Merge useful. If there are any queries, comments or suggestions, please contact us at support@sigsoftware.com.
Sig Software
http://www.sigsoftware.com/
Purchasing
Email Merge is freely distributed as trial software. You are permitted to evaluate it for 28 days before discarding it, or purchasing a license. Once a license is purchased, the 20-message restriction on merging is removed.
Licensing
You must purchase one license for each computer on which Email Merge is used. Licenses can be purchased with the enclosed Register Email Merge program, using a page on the World Wide Web, or via telephone. Payment may be made by cash, check, VISA, MasterCard, American Express or First Virtual.
Pricing
Current pricing is $30 for a single license, $25 each for two or more, and $250 for a site license covering a single organization for an area up to 100 miles in radius. A bundle with a license for TableText and Email Effects for Mac ($20 and $15 respectively) costs just $49 (a $16 saving!). For excellent discounts on volume pricing, please contact us at pricing@sigsoftware.com.
Purchasing online (easiest)
• Click Purchase Online… in the about box or go to http://order.kagi.com/?BX
• Wait for your web browser to load up the page.
• Select how many of which products you wish to purchase.
• Enter your name, address and email address in the areas provided (all are required).
• Please enter any additional comments in the space provided.
• Follow the instructions on the web page to enter your credit-card details.
Purchasing via email
• Click Purchase Alternative… in the about box or run the Register Email Merge program.
• Enter your name, address and email address in the areas provided (all are required).
• Select how many of which products you wish to purchase.
• Please enter any additional comments by clicking the speech bubble next to the product name.
• Select the VISA, MasterCard or American Express payment method and enter your card details.
• Click the Copy… button to copy out the text for emailing.
• Create a new email message in your email software.
• Choose Paste from the Edit menu.
• Address the message to shareware@kagi.com and send it.
Purchasing over the telephone
• Call (US) 510 658-5244, available 10am to 5pm PST weekdays and at some other times.
• Follow the instructions on the telephone.
• When asked, specify how many, of which products you wish to purchase.
• When asked, state your name, address and email address clearly (all are required).
• Please note that telephone orders carry an additional handling charge of $5.
Purchasing via fax
• Click Purchase Alternative… in the about box or run the Register Email Merge program.
• Enter your name, address and email address in the areas provided (all are required).
• Select how many of which products you wish to purchase.
• Please enter any additional comments by clicking the speech bubble next to the product name.
• Select the VISA, MasterCard or American Express payment method and enter your card details.
• Click the Print… button to print out the form for faxing.
• Fax the printed form to (US) 510 652-6589.
Purchasing by mail (slowest)
• Click Purchase Alternative… in the about box or run the Register Email Merge program.
• Enter your name, address and email address in the areas provided (all are required).
• Select how many of which products you wish to purchase.
• Please enter any additional comments by clicking the speech bubble next to the product name.
• Select the Check, Cash, VISA, MasterCard or American Express payment method.
• If you are purchasing by cash, select the currency you wish to pay in.
• If you are purchasing by credit-card, enter your card details.
• Click the Print… button to print out the form to sent with your payment.
• Send to: Kagi, 1442-A Walnut St PMB #392-BX, Berkeley, CA 94709-1405, USA.
After you have purchased
Shortly after your payment has been processed by Kagi, you will automatically receive an email with the subject Thanks for your Payment containing an enabler code which will work for 7 days. During this period you will be emailed your permanent license code or contacted if there is a problem (a human has to check your details before sending a permanent license). If you wish to trace an order, please contact support@sigsoftware.com.
Tutorial
In this section, we will create a simple merge from within Email Merge (i.e. without importing), sending a simple message to a number of recipients. While proceeding, you may click the bar at the bottom of the screen at any time to return to the help page and click again to go back to where you were.
Creating the Database
1. Click Edit Data (top left) to bring up the database pane.
2. Click in the left-hand column in the main area of the pane to create a new field and call it Name.
3. Click again below the previously-created field and call this new field Email.
4. Click the New button to create a new database record.
5. Click in the right-hand column opposite the Name and Email fields to enter contact information.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 as many times as are required. One message will be sent for each database record.
Creating the Message
1. Now is a good time to save your work – choose Save from the File menu to do so.
2. Click Edit Template (top left) to bring up the message pane.
3. Click the Basics tab (top) to bring up the subject line.
4. Type a subject line for your message opposite the word Subject.
5. Click the Recipients tab (top) to bring up the recipient fields.
6. Opposite the word To, there should be «Email».
7. This means that each message will be sent to the address in the Email field in the database.
8. In the main message are, there should be Dear «Name».
9. This means that each message will only contain the word Dear followed by the name in the Name field in the database.
10. Edit the message to your requirements, using the Insert Field menu (top left) to add in available fields.
Previewing and Sending the Message
1. Click Preview / Send (top left) to bring up the preview/send pane.
2. Preview the messages to be sent using the left and right arrows.
3. Click Verify All to check for problems – if there are any, follow the instructions to fix them.
4. When you are ready, click Send All, choose your email program, and the messages will be queued.
5. Switch to your email client program and tell it to send the queued messages.
You've now completed the tutorial. Please read the subsequent sections of the help to read about the many other features of Email Merge.
Importing Data
Data can be imported into Email Merge from four sources: text on the clipboard, a text file, the frontmost FileMaker Pro (3.0 or later) database or an exported Market Master file. To set up data importing, click the Import Data button (top left).
Preparing the data for importing
If you are importing directly from FileMaker Pro, open the database you wish to import in FileMaker. Email Merge can import all the fields shown on the selected layout and all the records in the currently found set.
If you are using 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. Set the First row is setting in Email Merge for the data you have copied – if the first row contains field names, click Header, otherwise click Record.
If are using a text file, export the database from the program currently holding it. For example, in Microsoft Excel, choose Save As… from the File menu and specifying a format of Text (tab delimited) for the file. Data can also be imported in comma-delimited text form. Set the First row is setting in Email Merge for the file you have saved – if the first row of data contains field names, click Header, otherwise click Record.
If are using Market Master, export the mail merge from within Market Master. For more information, contact that product’s documentation. The format for a Market Master export file is the message subject followed by a tab, followed by the message text, followed by a tab, followed by the recipient email, followed by an ASCII 255 character. This is repeated for each record.
Performing the importing
Before importing data, you may sample it by clicking the Sample button and specifying the data source (only those currently available will be shown). 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 actually import the data, click Import. If you have already sampled the data, the same will be imported, otherwise you will prompted for the data source. If the database is not empty, you will be asked whether to replace all previous records or keep them.
Editing Data
Click the Edit Data button (top left) to bring up the current database.
Browsing Records
Browse through the records in the database by clicking the left and right arrows. The number of the current record is shown below them. You may also scroll through the fields by clicking the up and down arrows.
Search for a record by clicking the magnifying glass, then entering the text you want to find. The search will begin at the current record.
Creating and deleting records
Create a new record by clicking New.
Clone the currently shown record by clicking Clone.
Delete the currently shown record by clicking Delete.
Clear all records in the database by clicking click Clear.
Editing Data
Rename a field by clicking the field name on the left.
Edit the contents of a field of the current record by clicking the line containing the field contents and editing the text in place.
Add a new field by clicking on a blank line below the field names. Fields cannot be removed from the database (there is never a need to).
Advanced Operations
Sort the records in the database based on a field by clicking Sort. 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.
Search for duplicate records by click Duplicates. Select one or more fields from the list presented – Email Merge will search for records containing exactly the same data in all of the specified fields. Click Include to count all records in a set of duplicates or Exclude to only count those after the first (i.e. if there are 3 duplicates in a set, should all 3 or only the last 2 be included). Once searching is complete, you will be given the option of deleting the duplicate records, moving them to the end of the database for further analysis or doing nothing further.
Editing the Template
Click the Edit Template button (top left) to bring up the email message template. The template contains several areas - some of these are made visible by clicking the three tabs at the top. The main area contains the text of the message itself.
In any area of the template, a field placeholder in double-angle brackets (e.g. «Product Code») may be used. This will be replaced with the contents of that field for each record in the database when performing the merge. Use the Insert Field popup menu to insert a placeholder easily. In this menu, there are also built-in merge parameters which can be used.
Basics
The Subject field contains the title of the message to be sent out.
The Email Client field allows one of the installed email client programs to be specified for merging. Usually, this can be left on Ask on Sending, however you may wish to specify a client to save time later or in order to get the list of available accounts for that client (see next paragraph).
The Account field allows a specific account to be used for merging. (Note that neither QuickMail nor Emailer can be used with this feature.) Usually, this can be left on Client’s Default to use whichever email account is set within the client program as default, however you may wish to send messages from a different account. Once the email client is specified, select Get Account List… from the menu to get the list of available accounts in that client. A field in your database may also be used to allow each messages to be sent via different email accounts – to achieve this, select Custom… from the menu and insert the database field into the area provided for the account name. It is recommended to verify messages before sending in order to ensure that all the account names exist in the client. If a message is created with an incorrect acccount name, Outlook Express, Entourage, Eudora and Mailsmith will send the message with the default account but PowerMail will simply fail to create the message altogether.
Recipients
Each message can have one recipient in each of the three categories. A To recipient is one to which the message is directly addressed. A Cc (‘carbon copy’) recipient appears as a secondary addressee and is otherwise identical to a To recipient. A Bcc (‘blind carbon copy’) recipient is hidden from the sent message, so that no other recipient will be aware that they received a copy.
Recipients can also be named by putting the name in brackets after the email address. For example, a recipient of john@doe.com (John Doe) will be sent to the address john@doe.com with the name John Doe attached.
Attachments
An attachment is a separate file which is sent along with a message and which does not appear within the main message text. As for as possible, attached files should be in a standard format which is readable by all recipients, e.g. JPEG or PDF.
The Attachment File Paths field shows a list of all attachments currently being sent with the message. Click Add… to select a file for attachment and Remove… to remove an attachment. By default, in order to prevent accidental editing, file paths cannot be edited manually. However, if you wish to do so, perhaps to insert a field from the database into the file path, check Editable File Paths.
All attachments need an encoding type which specifies how they should be attached to the message and they may also be sent using StuffIt compression. Not all email programs support StuffIt compression or all attachment encodings – when verifying or performing the merge, a warning will be issued if necessary.
Previewing Merge
Click the Preview / Send button (top left) to preview the messages to be sent.
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:
• 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 automatically verify most aspects of outgoing messages, click Verify All. This will check for badly-formed email addresses, blank subjects and messages, referenced fields which are not in the database, messages without recipients, wrong attachment file paths, unsuitable email encodings and non-existent email accounts.
When the previewed results of the email merge are satisfactory, the merge itself can be performed.
Performing Merge
Click the Preview / Send button (top left) to allow messages to be sent.
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 queued in that program.
To send a message for each record in the database, click Send All (ensure that you are ready to do this!) The messages will then be queued and a progress report will appear in the bottom of the window. Once Email Merge is finished it work, your email program may still take a while to received all the queued messages.
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, as follows:
• In Outlook Express, click the Send & Receive button.
• In Entourage, click the Send & Receive button.
• In Eudora, choose Send Queued Messages from the File menu.
• In Emailer, choose Connect from the Mail menu.
• In Mailsmith, choose Send Queued Mail from the Mail menu.
• In PowerMail, choose Connect from the Special menu.
• In QuickMail, click the Check button.
If your email software is configured to send messages immediately, this may not apply.
Features & Tips
Some features of Email Merge worth knowing:
• The current merge configuration, containing the database and message template 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 the message template.
• The database can be exported at any time as a tab-delimited text file by choosing Export… from the File menu.
• The font for displaying the database and message can be selected by choosing Select Font… from the Edit menu.
Some other hints about using Email Merge:
• It is strongly suggested to hide the email program being used while performing a merge – this will speed things up considerably.
• 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.
• The speed of different email client programs at creating messages ranges broadly. These results are for creating 100 simple messages on a mid-range G3 computer, in order of speed:
◊ PowerMail: 5 seconds
◊ Emailer: 8 seconds
◊ Outlook Express: 17 seconds
◊ Entourage: 20 seconds
◊ Mailsmith: 32 seconds
◊ Eudora: 85 seconds
◊ QuickMail: 140 seconds
Furthermore, Mailsmith is exceptionally slow at adding message attachments.
Troubleshooting
Because Email Merge controls external email programs, there can be occasional problems caused by the external program not interpreting messages it receives correctly. If you are having a problem with Email Merge, please contact us at support@sigsoftware.com.
Known problems:
• When starting up, Email Merge freezes or takes a very long time.
This may be due to the number of fonts installed on your system and conflicts between them. Please try temporarily reducing the number of fonts and see if that helps.
• Instead of making multiple messages, Eudora creates one and keeps changing it.
This is due to Eudora's International Sorting option. Choose Settings… from the Special menu in Eudora, scroll to the Miscellaneous panel and check that the Correct International Sorting option is turned off.
• Outlook Express is not accepting message attachments.
This is a known problem with Outlook Express version 4.0. Please download version 5.0 from Microsoft at www.microsoft.com.
• Netscape Communicator is not supported.
Unfortunately, Netscape Communicator for Macintosh cannot be controlled externally - this is beyond our control.
• PowerMail merging is not working.
Please upgrade to version 3.0.1 of PowerMail or later – earlier versions contained a bug which prevented merging from working.
• Foreign characters are not coming through in Outlook Express.
This is a known issue with Outlook Express 4.5, due to how it implements its external interface.
• Email Merge cannot find my email client program.
Try rebuilding your desktop (hold Command-Option down as the Finder is appearing after startup) or simply launch your email program before Email Merge.
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.
