The Business Master (3rd Edition)

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What Mailing List? __________________ CONTENTS I. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 II. COPYRIGHT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 III. LICENSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 IV. TECHNICAL SUPPORT (HOW TO REACH ME) . . . . . . . . . . 2 V. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 VI. REGISTRATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 A. Updates Are Free . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 B. The Other Five Benefits of Registration . . . . . . 4 C. How Much D'y'all Want For It? . . . . . . . . . . . 5 D. How to Get a FREE Registered Edition . . . . . . . . 6 VII. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 VIII. FILES WHICH MAKE UP THE PACKAGE . . . . . . . . . . . 10 IX. RUNNING What Mailing List? FOR THE FIRST TIME . . . . 10 A. Quick Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 B. Using a Monochrome Monitor with a Colour Card . . 11 C. Using the Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 D. Status Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 X. MANAGING FILES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 A. Creating a New File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 B. Opening an Existing File . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 C. Saving a File / Close . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 D. Deleting a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 E. Making Back-up Copies of Your Files . . . . . . . 14 F. Restoring Files from a Back-up Copy . . . . . . . 15 G. Formatting Floppy Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 H. Fixing Damaged Index Files (Re-Indexing) . . . . . 15 I. Removing Records Which Are Marked for Deletion (Packing) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 J. Importing Data from Other Software . . . . . . . . 16 1. Importing ASCII Files (16) _____________________ 2. Importing WML 1.x Files (17) _______________________ 3. Importing WML 2.x Files (18) _______________________ 4. Importing Other dBase Files (18) ___________________________ -i- What Mailing List? __________________ K. Export . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 1. WordPerfect Merge (19) _________________ 2. Microsoft Word Merge (20) ____________________ 3. Ventura Publisher (20) _________________ L. SELECT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 1. Selection Examples (21) __________________ M. PRINT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 1. Group List (22) __________ 2. Phone Book (22) __________ 3. Laser Envelopes (23) _______________ 4. Laser Labels (24) ____________ 5. Continuous Labels (dot matrix) (24) ______________________________ XI. DATA ENTRY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 A. Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 1. Special Keys and Moving Through the File (25) ________________________________________ 2. Using Filters (25) _____________ 3. Help, Find, and Group (F1/F2/F3) (26) ________________________________ 4. Adding New Records (27) __________________ 5. Changing Existing Records (28) _________________________ 6. Using the Delete/Omit/Bad Address Flags (28) _______________________________________ 7. Using Smart Zip (29) _______________ B. Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 C. Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 XII. INDEXING (CONTROLLING THE SORTING SEQUENCE OF ENTRIES) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 A. Changing the Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 B. Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 1. Setting a Filter (31) ________________ 2. Clearing a Filter (32) _________________ XIII. PREFERENCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 A. Setting Your Return Addresses . . . . . . . . . . 32 B. Choosing a Back-up Method . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 C. Mailing to Various Countries (Country setting) . . 33 D. Setting Envelope Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 E. Selecting Continuous (Dot Matrix) Label Types . . 34 F. Defining your Printers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 1. Default Directory for Laser Printer Soft Fonts ______________________________________________ (35) G. Duplicate Checking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 XIV. HELP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 -ii- What Mailing List? __________________ I. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY By using this software and documentation ("WML") you must accept this disclaimer of warranty: WML is provided "as is" without any warranties or conditions, expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, those concerning merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. By using WML, you are expressly releasing the author, Angel Babudro, from any liability resulting from the use of this software and documentation. You must assume the entire risk of using WML. Please test and supervise WML thoroughly before relying on it. II. COPYRIGHT WML is owned and copyright (c) 1989-1992 by Angel Babudro, all rights reserved. You may only use and/or distribute WML under the License terms below. III. LICENSE 1. WML is being distributed as Shareware. This program is not free. WML is licensed for individual personal use and evaluation for an unlimited time. Use and evaluation by businesses, corporations, governments, consultants or professionals of any type, or individuals in any kind of organized or commercial activity is limited to 60 days, after which time the REGISTERED Edition of WML must be purchased or the use of Unregistered Edition of WML must be discontinued. 2. You may keep as many backup copies of WML as you wish, but you may not run a Registered Edition of WML simultaneously on more than one computer. Additionally, you are granted the right to share WML with others, as long as you distribute the WML archive exactly as you received it, with all associated files included. REGISTERED USERS MAY NOT DISTRIBUTE the separate file CONFIG.WDT which contains the registration stamp NOR the font files (*.SFP and *.SFL). 3. Under no circumstances may you charge any fee or receive any other form of consideration for distributing the WML files without express written consent from the copyright holder, Angel Babudro, other than to charge a fee of not more than US$6 (six dollars) for the disk and/or service of distribution. -1- What Mailing List? __________________ IV. TECHNICAL SUPPORT (HOW TO REACH ME) The best way to figure out a problem is to keep hitting keys until it all works out (the brute force method of computer operation)... :) Just kidding. If you have questions or need help, just drop a note to me or send mail to the BBSs listed below. Registered Edition users, vendors, and sysops may contact me via telephone as well. Check out the Registration section below for ways to get a free registered copy of WML. Sysops and shareware vendors please see VENDOR.DOC for distribution information. Sysops please also read SYSOP.DOC. Mail Angel Babudro, "Organic Computer Wizardry", 28 Mulberry Street, Clinton, NY USA 13323-1506 Phone (315) 853-6942 9am - 5pm Eastern Time, Mon-Fri BBS Angelo Babudro (to avoid gender confusion) West Coast Researcher's BBS, So Cal (805) 949-8151 USR DS East Coast Nite-Air, Central NY (315) 339-8831 USR 14.4 Odie's PCBoard Central NY (315) 339-6713 USR DS V. INTRODUCTION Introducing What Mailing List? version 2. In the summer of 1989 WML was originally written using QuickSilver (a dBase compiler). As features were added the EXE got bigger and slower until I realized WML could never become the product I had envisioned unless I switched languages. During the summer of 1992 I re-wrote the whole darned thing in PDS/BASIC 7.1 (didn't hurt as much as I thought it would). What Mailing List? provides a simple and flexible way to easily manage and print mailing lists. I made WML to keep track of customers, friends, family, etc. and print envelopes or labels. My focus has been providing the tools to track relatively small amounts of information (on the order of 500 to 2,000 names per list, in up to 250 lists). WML is ideally suited for those times when you want a good-looking, laser-printed envelope or dot matrix label -- but just a few, not a thousand. I use WML regularly: when I need an envelope I print it on my laser, and when I need labels I switch to the dot matrix printer. It's very fast and easy for me to use, and I hope you find WML just as easy and fast to use. -2- What Mailing List? __________________ Learning WML can probably be done as you are using it, without little or no help from this manual. Keep an eye on the bottom of the screen since that is where I put special function keys. If you use a mouse, many of these commands can be accessed with the mouse as well. Many of my clients' greatest fear is losing data, so I'd like you to know that I use WML almost every day and my information is safe, plus WML will always warn you before it erases or abandons information so you can't lose anything without knowing about it first. Guarantees are impossible to make (actually, they're easy to make but impossible ____ to keep), but I can say that WML is as "safe" as any other high quality PC software product. This shareware manual is intended for computer-literate people who have a good understanding of computers, MS-DOS, and at least a theoretical understanding of what a data base is. A typeset manual is available to registered users which is more thorough, covering subjects for the computer novice (such as data base concepts and terminology) as well as some more technical topics not covered here. Any trademarks I happen to mention here are, of course, property of their respective owners. Thanks to The Researcher's BBS sysop Skip Taylor for all his beta testing and for urging me back to BASIC. Thanks to HDM IV author Jim Hass for beta testing and his most excellent hard disk menu. I'd like to recommend the EZ-Windows library by John Strong to other QB/PDS programmers -- it's an excellent library. VI. REGISTRATION Although I hope that you are so happy with WML that registering will be reward enough in itself, but I think it's more fun & exciting to get something new. And so you shall! You will get the latest version of WML. I do so much programming on this machine that there are updates every day, so you will definitely get an updated version. One day I realized that if I'm always updating my software some people will want to wait for that day (never) when it's "done." So I thought, "Hey, wouldn't it be nice if software publishers gave out free updates?" So I decided to do just that... -3- What Mailing List? __________________ A. Updates Are Free Really. Register yourself for WML version 2 and your registration is valid for ALL releases of WML version 2. You can download the latest updates from a bulletin board and extract the new files (over-write the old files with the new ones). The new version will recognize your registration "stamp" in your CONFIG.WDT file (which is NOT distributed with the Unregistered Edition). If you cannot find WML on a bulletin board in your area, tell your sysop you want it and give her/him my address and/or BBS contact numbers & maybe s/he can get it for you (I've heard it called FREQing, don't know what it is yet, though, so ask the sysop). If, for some reason, I must provide a new registration file or if you want to get an update through the mail, I will provide updates on disk for US$7 ($5 plus $2 shipping) to U.S. addresses, Cdn$10 ($5 plus $5 shipping) to Canadian addresses; other countries please contact me. Prices are subject to change, but basically I want to cover all my costs and give the update for free. You may also send me a disk and return postage, I'll make new labels and re-use the envelope to mail it back to you without charge (if you would send an extra 29-cent stamp to cover my incidental costs it would be much appreciated). Please understand that I may need to revise my updates-by- mail policies (and many others, I'm sure) as I learn more about this Shareware business from day to day... B. The Other Five Benefits of Registration 1. You will receive free soft fonts for use with WML and a PCL laser printer, including a postal bar code font. 2. You may order the complete manual, printed & bound or on-disk/ready to print for your printer. 3. The 7-second pause at start-up will go away. 4. Technical Support: My 6-month-old son handles all the tech support calls & I do the diapers ;) but in-between diapers you can contact a real person who is 100% knowledgeable about WML via mail, BBS, or telephone. 5. You'll have helped one of the smallest businesses in the country (can't get much smaller than one person, right?). My theory of economics says that it helps everyone to support the "little guys" who are trying to create their own jobs. I'll take MicroFox over Microsoft any day... -4- What Mailing List? __________________ C. How Much D'y'all Want For It? Single Copy -- A single copy costs $25 in U.S. or Canadian funds; I wish there weren't any exchange rate, so I'm willing to forget that there is one. You will receive the latest, Registered Edition of What Mailing List? with automated installation, the latest revision of this documentation on disk, some PCL soft fonts that I have put together (including a postal bar code font), and notification of updates. See below for detailed manuals on paper or disk. Multiple Copies / Wholesale -- If you would like to resell What Mailing List?, give it to clients as a promotional item, have multiple locations at which you would like to install WML, etc., please send: Qty. 2-4 $15.00/disk Qty. 5-8 $12.50/disk Qty. 9 or more $11.50/disk Site License -- purchase one copy of WML and use it on as many computers as necessary at a single location of a single business. Up to 4 computers $50.00 Up to 10 computers $100.00 Up to 20 computers $150.00 Any number of computers $400.00 Manuals -- these are typeset with Ventura Publisher, printed on a laser printer, and bound in a flexible binder (very nice looking). Every screen is shown and explained, basic computer and data base terminology are discussed, and an index is included to locate topics quickly. Although I want people to have and use these manuals, I am concerned about our planet hurting from deforestation, so I would like to encourage people to only order manuals if necessary. Experienced users will probably have little need for these detailed manuals; they are intended more for the occasional or novice computer user. Purchasing a Site License gives you the right to photocopy the manual yourself, if you prefer, for the number of copies purchased or number of computers licensed. Pricing for manuals is as follows: One copy $8.00 2 through 9 copies on same order $6.00 each Contact me for larger quantities -5- What Mailing List? __________________ Video Manual -- I am working on video manuals for all of my software so you can learn by watching someone else do it (which is probably the best way to learn anything, actually). I can provide tapes in HiFi VHS, 8mm, or Beta formats. I'm planning to price the video tapes at $9, but this may fluctuate a dollar or two as I get everything figured out. Please contact me if you are interested! D. How to Get a FREE Registered Edition I would like to give away some complimentary registrations in return for a little bit of marketing assistance. 1. If you write a review of one of my packages and post it on a bulletin board, send me a copy of it showing the BBS's header and the name and phone number of the BBS. Just give me your honest praise and criticism in a decent review. Your review will be most helpful to me if it mentions your best & worst- liked features and any ideas you have for improvement. If you have any experience with other mailing list managers, please include your opinion of how they compare to each other. This will help me decide the future of WML and for that help I will send you a complimentary registered disk. 2. It helps me to know which BBSs carry my software and the more the better, of course! If you will upload a package to at least five public ("open") BBSs, send me their names and phone numbers along with the archive name you uploaded, and I'll send you a complimentary registered disk. I would appreciate you uploading to time-share systems, private ("closed") BBSs, or part-time BBS, but please do not use these to apply for a complimentary registered edition. BTW: I use an HST 14.4 modem so it would be best if you provided me with BBSs which also use HSTs so I can hook-up at high speed. 3. If you are a consultant or other type of computer professional and your recommendation leads to one or more of your clients purchasing WML, just send me a note with your client's registration or have them mention your name when they register. I will send a complimentary registered edition or an update for every registration you get for me. This is in lieu of a multiple copy discount; I intend it for consultants who choose not to deal with sales tax. I want your help with distribution, but please remember that this is not Microstuff Corp. -- it's just me and my computer. When you order a complimentary registration please fill in the -6- What Mailing List? __________________ appropriate information below PLUS the Invoice so I know what size disk you need, etc. COMPLIMENTARY REGISTRATION APPLICATION Also fill in the Invoice (put $0 for the disk) (__) Review posted on (BBS) _____________________________________ Phone number & modem__________________________________________ (__) I uploaded (archive name, like WML20X.ARJ)__________________ to these 24-hour public ("open") BBSs: BBS Name Phone Number/Modem Type Sysop Name ________ _______________________ __________ 1_______________________ ________________________ _______________ 2_______________________ ________________________ _______________ 3_______________________ ________________________ _______________ 4_______________________ ________________________ _______________ 5_______________________ ________________________ _______________ 6_______________________ ________________________ _______________ These offers subject to withdrawal or change at any time without notice. All prices are subject to change without notice. Bulletin Board Sysops please see the file SYSOP.DOC for special pricing and information; vendors & sysops please see VENDOR.DOC. Angel Babudro -- "Organic Computer Wizardry" 28 Mulberry Street, Clinton, NY USA 13323-1506 (315) 853-6942 Mon-Fri 9-5 Eastern Time (home phone; east coast is 3 hours later than west) Please register the Shareware you keep. -7- What Mailing List? __________________ What Mailing List? INVOICE Your Name______________________________________________________ Company Name___________________________________________________ Address________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ City_________________________ State/Prov_____ Zip code_________ Where did you get your unregistered copy?________________________ Printer model (for docs on disk)_________________________________ WML disks Single copy, docs on disk - just $25 2-4 copies Qty _____ x $15 each 5-8 copies Qty _____ x $12.50 each 9 or more Qty _____ x $11.50 each _______ Site Up to 4 computers = $50.00 License Up to 10 computers = $100.00 Up to 20 computers = $150.00 Unlimited license = $400.00 _______ Printed Manuals One copy $8, 2-9 $6 each Qty _____ x $______ each = _______ Video Manuals HiFi VHS, 8mm, or Beta - available soon Shipping & Please add $2 $2.00 _______ Expenses Please add $3 for 8" disks _______ Canada, AK, HI, VI, PR add $3 extra _______ ** T O T A L ** _______ Disk size & quantity [__] 3½" [__] 5¼" [__] 8" Drive density [__] Low (DD) required [__] High (HD) ok WML has been delivered to and accepted by customer. All prices are in U.S. or Canadian dollars. Please contact me for orders to other countries. Orders to New York State please add sales tax for your area. Mail this page with your cash (use Registered mail), cheque or money order to Angel Babudro, 28 Mulberry Street, Clinton, NY USA 13323-1506. Thank you! -8- What Mailing List? __________________ VII. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS Any IBM-PC-compatible with a 720k floppy or better amd at least 350k of free RAM will work. I recommend an 80286 or faster, a hard disk, and MS/PC-DOS 3.3 or later. WML has been tested on MS-DOS 3.3 and 5.0. It should work properly under PC- DOS or MS-DOS version 3.1 or later. You will need about 400k of disk space for WML and its necessary files plus disk space for the files you will create. PCL laser printers are supported, including the LaserJet III and its scalable fonts. Epson-type printers are supported at this time. Please let me know your printer type when ordering so I can make sure I have it in the printer file. WML will detect whether you have a monochrome or colour card installed, but it cannot detect what type of monitor you have. If you have a monochrome monitor with a colour card and the screen is difficult to read, try starting with the "/M" switch (for "M"onochrome): "WML /M". WML was designed to manage relatively small mailing lists. Although the system is capable of handling 5.5 million names per mailing list file, you would need a supercomputer or a lot of time to manage it. A 386dx/20 handles 2,000 names or less well; a 386dx/40 can handle 3,000; a PC/XT gets bogged down at around 700 names or so. I imagine that a 486dx can probably handle 4,000 to 7,000 names per list without much trouble. Remember, you can have hundreds of files; these are just practical limits for each of those files. Duplicate Checking slows things down, so if you have a huge list or a very slow computer, you might want to turn Dup Checking off. WML supports two printers concurrently -- a laser printer and a dot matrix printer on LPT1, LPT2, or LPT3. The laser printer must be a PCL 1-5 printer (compatible with H-P LaserJet I, II, or III). The dot matrix printer should be Epson- or IBM-compatible. Please let me know which printer you have when you register and I will be sure to include it. Also, please let me know of any troubles you may have. I test everything on my NEC P5300, but that's no guarantee that it'll work for you. So check with me first if you have problems. Thanks! -9- What Mailing List? __________________ VIII. FILES WHICH MAKE UP THE PACKAGE What Mailing List? is made up of the following files: WML.EXE The executable file WML.HLP The help file WML.TXT The ASCII text file of this document [*] WML.WP The WordPerfect file of this document (so you can format it for your printer) [*] POSTAL.DAT Zip codes file PRINTER.DAT Printer definition file MAILCODE.SFL PCL landscape USPS postal bar code font READ.ME A text file of late-breaking news. Read this first. [*] ORDER.FRM Order form for all of my software VENDOR.DOC Information file for BBS Sysops & Shareware distributors/disk vendors [*] SYSOP.DOC Special deals for BBS sysops & co-sysops [*] These are the files which are provided with the unregistered package. Additional files will be created in the same directory as you use WML. Files marked with [*] are not needed to run WML so they may be erased if disk space is a premium (I would appreciate, however, if you would keep ORDER.FRM around until you decide whether or not to order). The Registered Edition contains extra files which are for use by the registered owner only. So if you share WML with friends and BBSs, please DON'T include these files: *.SFP Portrait soft fonts *.SFL Landscape soft fonts CONFIG.WDT Registration stamp & configuration info IX. RUNNING What Mailing List? FOR THE FIRST TIME A. Quick Start Type "WML" from the DOS prompt, press "P" to open the Preferences menu. Go down the list and fill in each preference window as necessary. Then use File/New to create a file, and enjoy. Before you can start entering addresses you will need to create at least one mailing list file. Do this by selecting the "New" option under "File" (described below). Before you can -10- What Mailing List? __________________ print anything you will have to set your Preferences, at the very least defining your printer(s). Here's a more detailed explanation: Highlight "Preferences" and press RETURN (or press the letter "P", or point & click with your mouse) -- you will see a list of choices. Select each item by pressing the highlighted letter or by highlighting it using the arrow keys and pressing <-+Enter. After you are done setting your preferences, press ESC to close the Preferences menu then press "F" for the File menu. If no files are on disk, the only option available will be "New" and "Exit". Press "N" and type a name for your mailing list file. In a couple of seconds the list will be created and you'll be ready to go. That's all there is to it! WML should be installed in its own directory. This not only help keep things organized on your hard disk, but it also speeds up execution as there is not as large a directory to search. If you have old List Manager files or files made with WML prior to 6/30/90 please refer to the section on Importing WML 1.x Files. If you decide to place WML 2 in a different directory you should move or copy all of your DBF files into the new directory. Again, refer to the Importing WML 1.x Files section. To start What Mailing List?, go to the disk and directory which contains the programme (e.g., "C:" <Enter> "cd \WML" <Enter>) and type "WML". In a second or two you will see the welcome screen and the menu will appear. On unregistered copies some licensing information is displayed and a 9-second reading pause is enflicted upon the unregistered user... B. Using a Monochrome Monitor with a Colour Card If you have a monochrome (aka Black & White) monitor connected to a colour adapter card then WML will use colours which may not be very readable. CGA adapters are the worst, VGA may look fine. In any case, you can start WML in monochrome mode by using the "/M" switch like so: WML /M Add the "/M" to your WML.BAT file using a text editor. An even better way is to use a menu, such as HDM. There are a few screens which do not "listen" to the /M -- it's a low priority, -11- What Mailing List? __________________ but I am working to fix this. Please let me know if you have difficulty. C. Using the Menus I have used what I understand to be an SAA-compliant (Standard Applications Architecture, an IBM slogan) menu system. Most folks know it better as the Macintosh or Windows menu standard. Basically, there is a horizontal menu of choices -- File, Data Entry, etc. Under each of the horizontal choices is a menu of functions pertaining to that item -- it is a two- dimensional menu, in other words. The last item of the left-most menu is always Exit, to end the programme or the sub-menu you are on. There are two ways to select an item from the main menu: 1. Press the letter which is highlighted in the option description 2. Use the Up/Down/Right/Left arrows to highlight the option you want then press <-+Enter (a.k.a. RETURN or CR). Some menus do not have highlighted options. On these menus you must use the arrow keys to highlight your choice then press <-+Enter. If you want to cancel an operation you selected, just press the Esc ("Escape") key. D. Status Line WML has two status lines: at the top & bottom of the screen. At the top is the title of the programme and the WML file you have open (if any). At the bottom of the screen is a bar which looks like this: Total|Selected|Bad/Omit|Pack|Index|01-01-1980 From left to right the items are: 1. Total records in the open file 2. Total records selected for printing 3. Total records bad or excluded from mailings 4. The word |Pack| if there are entries to be erased 5. Selected indexing method (name, company, address, or zip). -12- What Mailing List? __________________ 6. To-day's date (so far as the computer knows). If you have a filter chosen, this will be replaced with "Filter" followed by: * "Sel" for Selected records only, * "Del" for Deleted records only, or * "SelDel" for both. If the filter message is bright the selection is unchanged, otherwise changes have occured. For example, suppose you have set the filter to "Selected Only" then cleared the selection status of a record. The filter message would change to dim since the filter is no longer accurate. X. MANAGING FILES The choices under the File menu are New, Open, Close, Delete, Back-up, Restore, Format Floppies, Index, Pack, Import, Export, Select, Print, and Exit. Many of these options cannot be used at certain times (e.g., you have an empty mailing list file so the Select option is useless). When an option is not valid it will be "gray" with no highlighted letter. A. Creating a New File File/New let's you create new mailing list files. Up to 250 files can be managed by What Mailing List? (if anyone ever has a problem with this, let me know and I'll increase it). When you press RETURN while this option is highlighted you will be asked to enter a name for the new file. The name you enter will be check for proper syntax. In addition you will be warned if you enter the name of a file which already exists. A few seconds after you enter a valid name, your new file will be created, opened, and ready for use. B. Opening an Existing File Just like using a filing cabinet, you have to open a file before you can see what's in it. File/Open let's you open a file which has been previously created. After you select this option you will be presented with a list of the WML files in the current directory. Use the up and down arrow keys to highlight the file you wish to use, then press <-+Enter. -13- What Mailing List? __________________ Note that entries will be displayed and printed in the order indicated on the bottom status line. To change the sort order use the Index menu. C. Saving a File / Close WML saves your information every time you change something. If you enter information and press the Esc key or click on a "Cancel" button with your mouse a message will warn you about losing any changes you have made. The only danger comes with a power outage or anything else that causes WML to end improperly (e.g., the reset button or Ctrl-Alt-Del are used). However, even in this case the only thing you would have to do is re-index the file -- no information would be lost. Just the same, it's always safest to Close a file when you will be away from your computer for a while. That way if anything happens while you are away your information is saved. The other use for Close is when you want to delete the open file. The Delete function (below) will not let you delete an open file, so you must close it first. D. Deleting a File WML contains all the tools you need to manage your mailing list files. The File/Delete function gives you a convenient way to remove files from your disk. When you select this option you will get the same file list you see with the "Open" option.1 Highlight a file and press <-+Enter, and the computer will read the name back to you (to be sure you picked the right one) and ask for permission to continue. If you press <-+Enter (or click on "Ok") then the file will be erased from the disk (along with it's indices) and will no longer appear on lists. E. Making Back-up Copies of Your Files File/Back-up protects your information by allowing you to copy it to another disk. Using Preferences/Back-up you should have decided how you wanted to perform a back-up -- using the DOS COPY command, ARJ, LHARC, or PKZIP (the default is DOS COPY). After you select File/Back-up you will see a summary window and the system will pause for you to enter the back-up destination (which is typically a floppy disk drive, but you may decide to ____________________ 1 The list will not contain the name of the open file (if any), only the files which are "put away." -14- What Mailing List? __________________ back-up to another hard disk, a network drive, etc.). All WML data files will then be backed-up to the destination disk and directory using the method shown in the window. Please see also the section on choosing a back-up method under Preferences. F. Restoring Files from a Back-up Copy If you ever need to recover data files from a floppy disk you made using the Back-up command (above), just place the floppy disk in its drive, if applicable, and select File/Restore. The method used to restore the files will be the one specified on the Preferences/Back-up window. The system will pause for you to enter the source drive -- the one you used when backing-up, which is typically a floppy disk drive, but may be another hard disk, a network drive, etc. All WML data files will then be restored from the back-up copy to the WML directory. Please see also the section of choosing a back-up method under Preferences. G. Formatting Floppy Disks This option is for those times when you have decided to make a back-up copy of your data but don't have a formatted disk handy or want to re-format a disk to check for any bad spots. File/Format Floppies lets you format a floppy disk to your computer's standard density without exiting WML. By "standard density" I mean that if you have a high density drive you can only format high density disks (in other words, WML doesn't pass any parameters to DOS FORMAT). There is an exception to this: If you have What Floppy Format? (WFF.EXE) available somewhere in your DOS search path, WML will automatically access it for formatting floppy disks so you can format any kind of disk using FDFORMAT. (You will receive a complimentary copy of the latest version of WFF with your WML registration. FDFORMAT is a Freeware product by another author and can be found on my support BBSs.) H. Fixing Damaged Index Files (Re-Indexing) Sometimes a data base's index files can be damaged. This can typically happen with a power outage, Ctrl-Alt-Del while in WML, etc. File/Re-Index allows you to re-build the indices for a -15- What Mailing List? __________________ mailing list. Just open a file then select this option; everything is automatic. I. Removing Records Which Are Marked for Deletion (Packing) File/Pack is used to remove deleted records from the mailing list data base which is currently in use. When an item is marked for deletion from a mailing list file the records are not removed from the data base until this option is chosen. This can be handy if you accidentally mark a record for deletion because you can "un-mark" it; or you could use this feature to mark all the records you want to delete then review the records on the screen before actually packing the file. J. Importing Data from Other Software File/Import allows you to read data from other files to become a part of the mailing list file you are using. Once you select import, you will be shown a menu of file types: - ASCII - What Mailing List? 1.3 file - What Mailing List? 2.x file - Another dBase file Highlight the type of file you would like to import and press RETURN. 1. Importing ASCII Files _____________________ An ASCII file must have commas delimiting each field and one record per line (i.e., CR/LF or ASCII 13 10 terminates a record). The structure of a record is: - First name (up to 15 characters) - Surname (last name) (up to 15 characters) - Company name (up to 35 characters) - Address line 1 (up to 35 characters) - Address line 2 (up to 35 characters) - City (up to 21 characters) - State abbreviation/Province (two upper-case letters in American mode or up to 15 characters in Canadian or International mode) - Zip code (up to 9 numbers (no dash) in American mode or up to 10 characters in Canadian or International mode) -16- What Mailing List? __________________ - Phone (up to 10 numbers) - Phone Extension (up to 4 numbers) - FAX phone number (10 numbers) - BBS or other phone number (10 numbers) - Group definitions (20 characters, ASC(1) through ASC(255) representing group #1 through 255) - Comment #1 (up to 76 characters) - Comment #2 (up to 76 characters) - Comment #3 (up to 76 characters) - Number of times this record has been printed (integer) - Last mail date, Year (integer, ####) - Last mail date, Month (integer, ##) - Last mail date, Day (integer, ##) - Bad address flag (integer True/False) - Exclude from mailings (integer True/False) - Selected for printing? (integer True/False2 That's a lot of fields! Well, don't worry. You don't have to include them all. If your ASCII file only contains names and addresses, that's fine. Just put each entry on a separate line in the file. For example, your ASCII file might contain: John Doe,123 Main St,,Anywhere,CA,0000 Jane Doe,321 Side St,Apt. 5,Somewhere,WV,0000 NOTE: Version 2.0 is only able to import the first 8 fields. Anything past these will be ignored. Version 2.1 will have complete flexibility in ASCII importing. 2. Importing WML 1.x Files _______________________ If you have been using version 1 of WML (or earlier versions of List Manager) you can import these files into WML 2. Please note that List Manager files need to be imported into a WML file since there were structure changes between these versions. So use your old WML to create new ____________________ 2 Versions of WML prior to 6/26/90 had the Selected flag as the first item of a record. If you have files created with these older versions you can convert them with your old version of WML 1.x by creating a new data base and then importing the original file (File/Import/WML File). Then you can import the newly created file into WML 2.x and delete the old files. -17- What Mailing List? __________________ files & import any of those List Manager files, then bring up WML 2 and select this option. After you select File/Import/WML 1.x you will see a list of DBF files in the current directory. I haven't figured out a good way to allow disk drives to be navigated in this file lookup window, so you are restricted to the current directory. After you select a file to import you will see a graph showing progress and the number of records imported will be shown on the status line. 3. Importing WML 2.x Files _______________________ This option is handy for consolidating several files into one. Just select File/Import/WML 2.x and you will see the file list box. Choose a file, then choose whether to import all of the records or just those which are selected for printing, and away it goes. As usual, you will see a progress graph and the record number count on the bottom status line will be updated. This is a handy way to separate a group of entries which have grown too large. For example, let's say you had a list of clients grouped by occupation and one occupation became so large that you wanted to put them in a separate file. You could select all of the records with that particular group for printing. Then, create a new file and import the selected records. Back in your old file you can delete all of the selected records. Now you have a new file with just the records you want in it. 4. Importing Other dBase Files ___________________________ Release 2.0y is the first to have a functional dBase DBF file import. I'm happy to introduce it to you now. WML's DBF import can handle any file made by dBase, FoxBase, dB XL, dB Fast, QuickSilver, Clipper, or any other dBase clone. Many information organizers (including other mailing list managers) use the DBF file format. Chances are, if the file ends in DBF you can import it into WML. When you select this option from the menus you will be asked to enter a file specification and "*.DBF" will be the default answer. Type the name of the DBF file you want to -18- What Mailing List? __________________ import or use the DOS wildcards to scan a file list. For example, you might type "C:\DBASE\*.DBF" to see a list of files in that directory or you might type the whole file name something like, "C:\DBASE\MYFILE.DBF". Once the DBF file is established you will see two windows with field names. On the right are the WML field names. On the left are some or all of the DBF field names for the file to be imported. Use the arrow keys to highlight a WML field in the right-hand window then press ENTER to define it and you will see a pop-up menu of DBF field choices. Highlight the DBF field and press ENTER. You will see the field you chose highlighted in the left window as you move between the WML fields. Press the F10 key to begin importing records from the DBF file. If the dBase file you are importing does not have a field corresponding to one of WML's you do not need to define it. A near-future update to this function will be the ability to map more than one DBF field to one WML field. K. Export Export is the reverse of Import: It allows you to send information to these file formats: - ASCII - WordPerfect merge - Microsoft Word merge - Ventura Publisher Most commonly information is exported to an ASCII file and then imported into a word processor, spreadsheet, or other programme. All export types except for WordPerfect and Word merge place all fields in the export file; the mail merge formats place only the name, address, city, state, zip code, attention, and phone information in the file. 1. WordPerfect Merge _________________ When you select this option you will be asked for a file name. Enter the full file name you wish to use, including drive and path if necessary. Once you finish with this function you will have an ASCII file which -19- What Mailing List? __________________ contains WordPerfect's merge codes. To use the file, run WordPerfect, import the file (Ctrl-F5, 1, 2) and save it. 2. Microsoft Word Merge ____________________ Just like with the WordPerfect Merge file, this option will make you an ASCII file which is in Word's merge format. To use the file, run Word then import the file. 3. Ventura Publisher _________________ This is a special form of an ASCII text file. The resulting file will be given a "TXT" extension and each line of the data will begin with an "at" sign (@), the name of the field, a space, an equal sign (=), another space, and then the data. For example: @NAME = ABC Company @ADDRESS_1 = 123 Main Street The file will be double-spaced since this is how VP determines end-of-paragraph in an ASCII file. L. SELECT This option lets you select or clear the records you wish to print. After you choose it, a new menu will appear with the options: Select, All, Group, Date, City, State, Zip, Individual, and Actions. "All" lets you mark or un-mark all records in the data base. "Group" lets you select or clear records according to the groups to which they belong. "Date/New" will mark or un-mark records which have never been printed (i.e., the number of last mail date = 0); "Date/by Date" will select or clear records based on a specific date you provide. "Individual/All" will allow you to scan the entire data base, marking and un-marking records one at a time; "Individual/Selected" will allow you to scan only those records which are currently selected. City/State/Zip options let you select or clear options based on exact matches in these fields. The "Action" submenu lets you perform actions on the selected records. This is somewhat of a "query" function, if you like data base terminology. Once you have selected records you can reset the group settings for the records, flag them as deleted, or clear the delete flag. Please note that if you use -20- What Mailing List? __________________ the Group function it will replace existing group definitions with the new definition you specify. To exit the Select menu, use the "Exit" option under "Select" (which is the only option available) or press the Esc key. 1. Selection Examples __________________ WML's Select feature may seem limited at first glance, but it is actually very comprehensive. At the time of this writing I found myself thinking that WML couldn't do a certain type of query and then realizing that it could, so I think some examples are in order. Let's say you have two groups defined in a mailing list: Team A and Team B. Of the entries on file, some are part of Team A, some Team B, and some are both. Now, let's say you want to send a mailing to all Team A members. First you may want to choose All/Clear to clear any existing selection, then you would choose Groups/Select and flag the group Team A in the Groups Window. For another mailing you want to include all members of Team B who are not members of Team A. First, clear any existing selection. Second, use Groups/Select to flag all members of Team B. Finally, use Groups/Clear to clear all members of Team A from the selection. For another mailing you may want to include all members of Team A who have not yet received a mailing. Use the Date/New option to select these. Or you can use Date/by Date to select members who last received a mailing on a certain date. Whatever you need to do, chances are WML will do it. If you can't figure out how to get what you want, please let me know! M. PRINT This is the area of the programme which is really useful, because is puts your work on paper. This menu has options to print envelopes, labels, a group list, or to select the records you wish to print. The number of records which are selected for printing appears on the status line at the bottom of the screen. -21- What Mailing List? __________________ Here is an overview of the sequence of events for printing: Print Menu | Group List Phone Book Envelopes Laser Labels DM Labels | | | | | +-> Which printer? Select | | | return | | | address | | | | | | +----> Which Font? <------+-------<-------+ Group List & <----------+ | +--->-----+--------->-----+ Phone Book: | | | Print & End | Define Pick | labels labels | | | +----->-------+---------<-----+ | Print | Update Times Mailed and Last Mail Date 1. Group List __________ The Group List option lets you print a list of the groups you have defined. If you have two printers defined you will be asked to choose the one to use. Group List only appears if you have defined groups, and does not update the times mailed or last mail date. 2. Phone Book __________ Since WML can track phone numbers, it would be nice if it could print them, wouldn't it? Sure! A nice 2-column phone book, suitable for folding into one's pocket. You can print the phone book on your dot matrix or laser printer. A 12cpi to 17cpi mono-spaced (fixed) font will work best for the phone book, although the entries themselves work quite well with proportional fonts. If you use a proportional font for the titles you will find that the index at the top right of the page "floats." Short of figuring out how to do width tables, this was the best I could come up with. So just use Courier 12 or something -22- What Mailing List? __________________ like that. Experiment to find the best method to print the phone book on your equipment. The phone book will only include records which have been selected for printing, and does not ask to update the Times Mailed and Last Mail Date. Entries without a phone number will just show the name & address (no trailing dots after the name). 3. Laser Envelopes _______________ Laser Envelopes lets you print envelopes on your laser printer (I know WML works with a Panasonic KX-P4450 and a LaserJet III, and it should work on any PCL 1-5 laser printer). First you will be given a choice of return addresses to print on the envelopes if any have been defined. If you did not set up at least one return address this menu will not appear and no return address will be printed. Otherwise you will see a menu of three choices: None, the first address, and the second address you defined. Select one and press <-+Enter. Next you will be asked to select the font you wish to use for printing. If you opted to print a return address you will be asked twice for a font selection -- for the return address and addressee. Use the up and down arrow keys to highlight a font then press RETURN. If you want to use a soft font just select the first option, "Select a soft font" and you will be prompted for a drive and path name, with the default being that which you set on the Preferences/Laser Fonts screen. Once you enter the drive and path you will be given a list of soft fonts ending in SFL (landscape fonts). Highlight a font and press RETURN, or press Esc to cancel the print operation. Following font selection any soft fonts will be downloaded (including the postal bar code font, if present) and the envelopes will be printed. After they are printed you will be asked if you want to update the Times Mailed and Last Mail Date for the records printed. Answer by pressing the RETURN key for "Yes" or the Esc key for "No." -23- What Mailing List? __________________ 4. Laser Labels ____________ Select this to print sheets of labels on your laser printer. You will be asked for the specifications of your labels (number across and inches (vertically) between labels), and the font you would like to use. 5. Continuous Labels (dot matrix) ______________________________ Select this to print continuous-feed labels on your dot matrix printer. You will be given a list of label types from which to choose, followed by a list of your printer's fonts. Please note that the default set-up for 1-across labels includes a left margin setting of 1½-inches. I set it this way because my printer's paper sensor is 1½-inches in from the left. You can use Preferences/Label Types to change this if necessary. XI. DATA ENTRY This menu of What Mailing List? lets you enter data into a mailing list or define groups and abbreviations. "Names" accesses the mailing list entry screen. "Groups" accesses the group definition window. "Abbreviations" accesses the abbreviations definition window. A. Names This is the main data entry screen of WML since it is where you enter and change your mailing list information. You can only use this function when you have a mailing list file opened for use. When you choose Names a window will open which has room for all of the information for a single entry. If the file in use has any entries the window will be filled with the first entry on file. If the file is empty, a blank (new) record will be displayed. As you move through a mailing list file, a file position indicator on the right side of the screen will change to show you the displayed record's position in the file. When you are entering a new record the indicator turns yellow (or bright white on a monochrome monitor) and is positioned at the bottom. -24- What Mailing List? __________________ 1. Special Keys and Moving Through the File ________________________________________ While on the Names screen there are several special keys (such as PgDn) and key combinations (such as ^PgDn) shown at the bottom of the screen. PgDn Move forward (down) through the file. If you press PgDn on the last record on file, What Mailing List? will beep. PgUp Move backward (up) through the file. If you press PgUp on the first record on file, What Mailing List? will beep. ^PgDn "Control-PageDown" -- hold down the key marked Ctrl and press the PgDn key. This tells WML to begin adding new records. ^Home "Control-Home" -- moves to the first entry on file. Hold down the Ctrl key then press the Home key. ^End "Control-End" -- moves to the last entry on file. Hold down the Ctrl key then press the End key. 2. Using Filters _____________ If you have selected one or more filters from the Index menu the entries you see will be only those included in the filter at the time the filter was set. The Names screen will begin with the first entry with the filter criteria (e.g., the first deleted record on file may actually be the fifth record). When records within a filtered set of records change, those records remain within the filtered set of records. To illustrate, if you have the filter set to show you only those records which are selected for printing, then you go to the Names screen and change the Select flag for a record. Since this record is no longer selected for printing it doesn't "belong" in the filtered set of records any more, but WML leaves it there so you can review the changes you have made to the records which were originally filtered. To reset a filter (e.g., using the above example, to eliminate the records which were changed from the filtered set), just toggle the filter setting OFF then back ON again. -25- What Mailing List? __________________ As you use the PgUp and PgDn keys the display will jump to the next or previous entry with the filter criteria. The F2 (Find) key will display only those selections included in the filter. Note: I decided that filters are more useful if they do not change dynamically. That is, if you have the filter set to Selected records then you Clear (or un-select) a record, that record will still be in the filtered list until you reset the index or filter options. Think of it this way: if you are reviewing a bunch of records you had marked for printing to make a final decision, it would be really a pain if, every time you changed a Select status flag, entries disappeared from your review list so you couldn't see which ones you had Cleared from being printed. If you want to reset the filtered list after changing many records, just go to the Index menu and turn the filter off and back on. 3. Help, Find, and Group (F1/F2/F3) ________________________________ On the bottom of the screen you will see several function keys defined. To use a function just press the key shown. F1 Help -- Available only in State/Province field; brings up a list of U.S. State and Canadian Province names from which you may browse and select one. The abbreviation for the selected State/Province will be placed in the record. F2 Find -- Opens a window showing all of the entries on file. You can browse through the list to jump directly to the entry you want. F3 Group -- Opens a window showing all of the groups defined with arrows next to ones to which this record belongs. Highlight a group and press <-+Enter; the arrow will appear and disappear (toggle). When you press F2 Find you will notice new function keys at the bottom of the screen. You can press a letter or number to go directly to the entry beginning with that letter or number (please note that you will go to the first letter or number of the index key (name, company name, address, or zip code) which is displayed on the status line). Use the arrow and PgUp/PgDn/Home/End keys to move -26- What Mailing List? __________________ around the list. Press <-+Enter to use the entry which is highlighted. When you press the F3 (Group) key a window appears showing the groups defined. Inside the window all of the group descriptions for this mailing list file are displayed (up to 255 groups). You can move through the list using the up/down arrow keys, the PgUp/PgDn keys, or by pressing the first letter of the group description you wish to find. When a group is highlighted, press <-+Enter to select it or clear the selection. Selected groups have an arrow to the left of them. When a group is Selected for an entry, it means that this person or business is a part of that group. For example, if you have a group called "Christmas List" you can Select this group for all people you want to be on your Christmas list. 4. Adding New Records __________________ When you first use the Names screen on a new (empty) file, WML will automatically place you in Add mode. Once the file has information, however, you are initially placed in Edit mode (i.e., existing information is displayed for you to view and/or change). To add a new record to the file just press ^PgDn (hold down the Ctrl key then press the PgDn key). This places ____ ____ you in Add mode. You will see a blank data entry form and the file position indicator will go to the bottom and turn yellow (or bright white on a monochrome monitor). While adding new records What Mailing List? checks for duplicate names and addresses. If you have duplicate checking enabled (on the Preferences menu) you will see an information window telling you about any duplicates and asking permission to continue. An entry must contain something unique in personal and company name. You can't enter two records with the same personal names and company name. The only time I can think that you might need to enter a duplicate is if the same person & company has two offices. I may figure out a way around this soon... When you are finished entering new addresses you can change modes in one of three ways: 1. Press ESC on a blank form to return to the menu (if you press ESC and have changed any information on the -27- What Mailing List? __________________ screen you will be given a message and an opportunity to save it -- don't worry) 2. Press PgUp to move "up" to the existing records in the file (i.e., switch to "change" mode) 3. Press F2 (Find) to locate an existing record To abandon new information (i.e., if you have started entering something on the screen and decide you don't want to save it), press the Esc key before you finish the ______ screen. 5. Changing Existing Records _________________________ While an existing record is displayed you can change information, mark it for deletion, exclude it from being printed, or mark it as being a bad address. You can use your mouse to go to the field you want to change or use the arrow keys to move around. After you have made changes just press F7 (Save), or press Esc (Cancel) to abandon any changes you made. 6. Using the Delete/Omit/Bad Address Flags _______________________________________ On the right side of the Names data entry window you will notice four lines which have square brackets [ ] to the left of them. These are called flags (since they flag _____ a condition) or toggles (since they act like toggle _______ switches, being turned on and off). If there is a check- mark ( ) inside the brackets then this item is selected, otherwise it is not. For example, if a check-mark is next to the "Delete" flag then this record is marked for deletion and will be removed from the file the next time it is Packed. You can set the toggles either with a mouse or the keyboard. To use a mouse just place the mouse cursor anywhere on the item you want to change and press the left button. The check-mark will turn on and off as you click on the option. To use the keyboard just press the Alt key (Menu); this will bring up a menu of the toggles. Just highlight the one you want to change and press <-+Enter. Press Esc to cancel the menu. The Delete toggle indicates whether a record is to be removed from the file the next time the File/Pack option is used. The Bad Address toggle indicates that the entry is a -28- What Mailing List? __________________ bad address and should not be printed. Likewise, Exclude indicates an entry which should not be included in print- outs. Records marked Bad or Exclude cannot be selected for printing. The Select flag indicates whether the entry is selected for printing. Only those entries which are selected for printing will print. 7. Using Smart Zip _______________ Release 2.0g of WML brings Smart Zip -- a feature which can save a lot of typing if your mailings tend to target a region. Using Smart Zip is easy -- it's automatic, there's nothing to do. Every time you type in a zip/postal code, WML will look for it. The state/province will always be filled in for you, although it is not always 100% accurate since some states overlap (according to the information I have). If the exact zip code is on file (5 digits checked for U.S. zip codes) the city will also be filled in. If the exact zip is not on file, the city and state/province you enter will be remembered. The next time you type that zip code the city & state/province will be filled in automatically! B. Groups Use this screen to define and change up to 255 group descriptions. Grouping entries together makes it easy to select just the people you want for mailings. For example, if you are setting up a mailing list for your business which will contain retail stores and service companies you might want to make groups for each type of business. You might also want to set up groups to identify the people who have responded to a mailing and those who have not. Note: Groups are an optional part of each record. An entry may belong to no groups at all, or it may belong to a maximum of 20 groups. Use the Up and Down Arrows to highlight existing entries and press <-+Enter to edit. Press the Ins (Insert) key to insert a new entry. Press the Del (Delete) key to delete (erase) an entry. Note: When you tag a mailing list entry as belonging to a particular group, WML remembers the record number of the group, not the actual name. So if you change the name of a group all entries will reflect the change. If you delete a group, any -29- What Mailing List? __________________ entries which were part of that group will remember the record number; next time this record gets used for a new group these entries will "belong" to the new group. The reason for this is that it could be a very slow process to have WML search through every mailing list file to remove a group codes from all files -- if you had many large mailing lists it could take minutes or hours to delete a group code. I didn't think that was a good way to do things... C. Abbreviations This is a handy feature of WML -- it lets you define as many abbreviations as you want to be used in entering your data. Abbreviations will be used on the city, address and comment lines of entries. Use Ins/Del to insert and delete abbreviations, or use the Up/Down arrows to highlight and change existing abbreviations. An abbreviation entry consists of an abbreviation and the full text for the abbreviation. For example, an abbreviation might be "LA" and the full text "Los Angeles." Any time you put "LA" on the city, first address line, or any of the comment lines it will be expanded to say "Los Angeles." XII. INDEXING (CONTROLLING THE SORTING SEQUENCE OF ENTRIES) This menu lets you change the order in which the entries in your mailing list are displayed and printed. There are four indexing options and two filter options from which to choose: 1. by Name -- will sort entries by Surname plus First Name plus a portion of the Company Name. 2. by Company Name -- will sort entries by Company Name plus Surname plus a portion of the First Name. 3. by Address -- will sort entries by the first address line plus a portion of Surname plus a portion of First Name plus a portion of Company Name. 4. by Zip/Postal code -- will sort entries by zip/postal code plus a portion of Address. 5. Filtered to include Selected records only. This option, when activated (a dot appears to the left), allows only the records which are selected for printing to be displayed and modified. To state the reverse, any records which are not selected for printing will -30- What Mailing List? __________________ seem to be gone -- they will not show up on the screen nor on the F2 (Find) window. 6. Filtered to include Deleted records only. When activated (a dot appears to the left), only records which are marked for deletion will show up on the Names data entry screen, including the F2 (Find) window. Any potential conflicts of keys (as noted in earlier releases) have been removed (if you don't know what I'm talking about, don't worry about it - it's fixed). A. Changing the Index The active index has a dot to the left of it. To select a different index and/or to clear any filters (on the bottom section of the Index menu), just highlight or press the first letter of the index you would like to use. Only one index can be active at a time. B. Filters A filter is a way of limiting what you see, just like a camera filter. This makes it easier to review certain entries, especially in very large mailing lists. 1. Setting a Filter ________________ Let's say you selected all records in Group A for printing and then wanted to browse that list, eliminating a few here and there to reach a goal of 75 mailings. Just use the Index menu to set the "Selected filter" ON (a dot will appear to the left when it is ON). You will see a bar graph as the open file is filtered (on smaller files it may fly by so quickly you'll barely know it was there). Now, when you go to the Data Entry/Names screen you will see the first record on file which is selected for printing (which may not necessarily be the first actual record on file). Pressing the PgUp and PgDn keys will move you around with the filtered list. If you press the F2 (Find) key, the window will contain only the filtered list. It may seem as if the other records are gone, but a quick look at the status line at bottom of the screen will tell you that the number of records in your file has not changed. -31- What Mailing List? __________________ 2. Clearing a Filter _________________ To clear a filter just select it again from the Index menu. Filters are toggles -- select once to turn ON, again to turn OFF, again to turn ON, etc. etc. XIII. PREFERENCES The Preferences menu contains options which help you customize the operation of WML and set necessary parameters, such as the type(s) of printer(s) you have. Preferences are in two groupings on the menu, separated by a horizontal line. The upper options are screens; the bottom two options are toggles (i.e., they are either "on" or "off"). A dot next to either of the bottom two toggles indicates that it is "on." Please check each Preferences screen before making full use of WML, otherwise something might seem wrong with the software whereas it is due to the set of conditions under which WML is operating. A. Setting Your Return Addresses You can set up to two return addresses which you would like to print on laser envelopes. Each address may contain up to four lines, and can include punctuation, even quotation marks and commas. When you are finished with this screen you can click on "Ok" to save the information and exit, "Cancel" to ignore any changes and exit, or use the keyboard keys F7 to Save or Esc to cancel. B. Choosing a Back-up Method Under the File menu are options which allow you to back-up and restore your data to/from other disks for safety. These operations will use the DOS COPY command unless you use this option to change it. You will see a menu of four choices of methods to use when backing-up and restoring: DOS COPY (the default), ARJ, LHARC, or PKZIP. In order to use ARJ, LHARC, or PKZIP compression software you must have the compression programme available in your DOS PATH. In addition, you will also need enough free memory (RAM) to run both WML and the compression software. -32- What Mailing List? __________________ C. Mailing to Various Countries (Country setting) WML has been designed to validate data differently for U.S., Canadian, and other (International) addresses. By using the proper country setting you will have the following abilities and features: The U.S. setting will only allow numerical zip codes in the format #####-####, telephone numbers in the format (###) ###-####, dates in the format MM/DD/YYYY, and state two-letter abbreviations. If you enter a full State name (properly spelled, of course) WML will find its abbreviation for you. The Canadian setting allows postal codes only in the format A#A #A# (where A is a letter and # is a number), telephone numbers as (###) ###-####, dates in the format DD-MM-YYYY, and province abbreviations. If you enter a full province name WML will find its abbreviation for you. The U.S. & Canadian setting accepts data in either of the formats mentioned above. Dates are presented in the format "## AAA ####". For example, "17 Sep 1992". The International setting does the least "work" for you: it does not format zip codes or telephone numbers and does not look up state/province abbreviations. Everything you enter is treated as literal information. Dates are displayed in yyyy-mm-dd format. D. Setting Envelope Size I expect that most folks, like me, tend to use the same kind of envelope time and again, and it's probably a #10 "business" envelope. So I decided to keep this screen simple and just have a single definition for an envelope which can be changed from time to time, if necessary. There are just three numbers to fill in: The width of the envelope (left to right), the length (top to bottom), and the left margin for the return address. Enter fractions of an inch as decimal figures (e.g., 1/2 is .5, 1/8 is .125, etc.). The left margin adjustment can be negative or positive. A negative number will move the return address to the left, a positive number will move it to the right. -33- What Mailing List? __________________ E. Selecting Continuous (Dot Matrix) Label Types Version 2 brings a vastly enhanced label system. Now, instead of picking two labels from a list, you always have access to the entire list of defined label types. And instead of only one user-defined label type, ALL label types are now user- definable. WML is pre-configured for a few common label types, such as the ever-popular 1-across 3½-inch by 15/16-inch labels which are commonly sold in boxes of 5,000. There are several blank, undefined label types which you can set up yourself. In addition, you can even change the pre-defined labels to whatever you need. First you will see the menu of label choices. Highlight the one you want to change and press <-+Enter. A window will open showing the name of the label and all of the measurements. Type a short name (such as "Mailing", "Shipping", "Disk", etc.) to indicate the type of label. Enter the width of the actual label (i.e., how much room there is upon which to print), the vertical distance from the top of one label to the top of the next, the horizontal distance from the left side of one label to the left side of the next, and the number of labels across. You can use the Up and Down Arrow keys to move between lines, or point and click with a mouse. When you are finished click on "Ok" to save or "Cancel" to abandon any changes, or use the keyboard keys F7 to Save or Esc to cancel. F. Defining your Printers Before you can print anything you will have to tell WML what type(s) of printer(s) you plan to use. WML can use two printers, a laser and a dot matrix. The laser can be used to print envelopes and laser labels. The dot matrix can be used to print continuous labels. Either printer can be used to print group lists and phone books. Until you define your printer(s) and font(s) there will be a flashing message at the bottom of the screen and you will not be able to use the File/Print option. The Printer definition window shows the current settings. Use the arrow keys to move around, and press the F3 key to change anything. For example, to set your dot matrix printer move the cursor down to that line then press F3 and a menu of choices will appear. Highlight your printer (or one compatible with it) and press <-+Enter. Then move down to the font definition and press -34- What Mailing List? __________________ F3 again. Highlight your font selection and press <-+Enter. When you are finished, highlight the "Ok" button and press <-+Enter. Alternately, you can press F7 to save the screen and exit. 1. Default Directory for Laser Printer Soft Fonts ______________________________________________ Version 2 of WML is much more flexible in handling laser printer soft fonts. After you set your laser printer, highlight this field and press F3. Enter the directory name on your hard disk (e.g., "D:\VENTURA\") which contains your soft fonts. WML will check to see if the directory name you entered is valid and if it exists, and will inform you if not. Once set, WML will present a list of all available fonts whenever you need to choose one. G. Duplicate Checking If you want to have WML check for duplicate company names and/or addresses while you are entering information, just select either of these toggles. A dot to the left of the toggle indicates that it is turned on. You can toggle them on and off as necessary. The setting of these toggles will be saved when you exit WML. Using duplicate checking is a good way to avoid duplicate entries which have different personal names attached to them or ones which have identical addresses but a different name. The drawback to duplicate checking is that it slows the computer down. If you are working on a large mailing list duplicate checking may be best turned OFF. XIV. HELP The Help menu has two options: About and Index. About just gives you some information about your memory and a copyright notice. Index will give you a Help Index menu from which you may choose a topic and press <-+Enter, whereupon a helpful window of information will appear :) It's a handy (albeit brief) on-line manual, in other words. -35-