The Business Master (3rd Edition)

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PlusBar v2.0 Mail List Management System (C)1991 JSoft - Fairware All Rights Reserved 105 Rio Verde Circle Cheyenne, WY 82001-1915 (307) 637-3152 SHAREWARE VERSION Table of Contents DISCLAIMER ............................................... 1 LICENSE AGREEMENT ........................................ 1 DISTRIBUTION ............................................. 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................. 2 SATURATING THE MAIL ...................................... 2 THE MAIN MENU ............................................ 3 MAINTAIN SELECTED LIST ................................... 4 MAINTAIN COUNTRY ABBRV ................................... 5 DATABASE MAINTENANCE ..................................... 6 PRINT LABELS/REPORTS ..................................... 6 SYSTEM SETUP ............................................. 7 DISCLAIMER No warranties are made as to the contents of this manual or the accompanying software. Although every effort has been made to insure that the manual is accurate and the software reliable, product distributors and the authors can not be held responsible for any damages suffered from its use. The user assumes all responsibilities. Installation and use implies your acceptance to this disclaimer. The manual and software are subject to change without notice. If you are not in agreement with this disclaimer do not install and use the software. The United States Post Office is not affiliated with this soft- ware package and therefore makes no warranties and takes no responsibility for its accuracy. Postal regulations and codes are subject to change without notice. LICENSE AGREEMENT This software is being distributed under the Shareware concept. In other words your may try it before you buy it. The trial period is 30 days. If at the end of this period you are satis- fied with the software and wish to continue using it, you must register. To register, print the order form from the Main Menu of the program, complete the form and send it along with a check or money order to JSoft. Call (307) 637-3152 to order by phone. Only MC and Visa orders will be accepted by phone. No COD orders. DISTRIBUTION This is Shareware so feel free to pass it around or upload it to Bulletin Board Systems as long as the software and documentation remain unaltered. The file called PBMS.EXE contains all required files in a self extracting format. This file is ready for upload to your favorite bulletin board. No fee can be charged for the software. A reasonable fee for copying and shipping the disk may be charged by Shareware vendors. page 1 INTRODUCTION The PlusBar System was designed to organize and maintain your mail lists. Using this system may help cut your mailing expenses in half or even better. This system has the following features: 1. Maintain multiple lists 2. Maintain foreign address lists 3. Prints 5 digit barcodes labels 4. Prints 9 digit barcodes labels (plus 4) 5. Prints 11 digit advanced barcodes labels 6. Sorts list down to carrier route order 7. Prints a grouping list for bulk rate mail 8. Exports lists to a file for Postal verification 9. Imports verified lists. SATURATING THE MAIL The best discounts in bulk mail are available to those sending many pieces of mail to the same general destination. For exam- ple, if you send a letter to every address in a city, you will receive much lower rate than a person sending the same amount of mail to 50 different cities. See your local post office for information on bulk mail rates and then use PlusBar to assist you is achieving the lowest possible rate for your mail list. Plus- Bar will print a report that groups mail by 3 digit, 5 digit, and carrier routes. page 2 THE MAIN MENU Maintain Selected List This option allows you to browse, add, delete, edit and search addresses in the active mail list. Maintain Country Abbrv This option allows you to browse, add, delete, edit and search foreign country abbreviations. Database Maintenance This option allows you to select a different mail list, create a new list or delete an old one. It also creates a Standard Definition File (SDF) from the active mail list that can be taken to the Post Office for verification. They will also add the plus 4 and carrier route information to this file for you FREE of charge. An option to import the SDF back into the mail list is also available. Print Labels/Reports This option allows you to print 1 or 2 across labels for all mail or only a selected group of Zip Codes. It also creates and prints the Bulk Mail report required by the Post Office. System Setup The Setup Menu lets you change the colors, printer type, printer port, and label format. page 3 MAINTAIN SELECTED LIST The default mail list is called MAIL. To select or create a new list, choose Database Maintenance from the Main Menu. Once you have selected the desired database, use this option to maintain the list. Maintaining the mail list consists of adding new addresses, deleting unwanted addresses, and editing existing addresses. Each address in the database consist of the following lines of data: 1. Name - The name can be entered in either of the two for- mats below. Name Example: JOHN E. DOE (Not recommended) DOE, JOHN E. (Recommended) Company Example: SAMMY'S SEWER SERVICE (Recommended) SERVICE, SAMMY'S SEWER (Not recommended) If you enter the name as shown in line 2 of each example, the name will be turned around and the comma removed before print- ing. Function key F9 allows the mail list to be changed from Zip Code to name order. If you enter the names in last name first format the database will be indexed in alphabetical order by last name. It makes reading the list much easier when browsing. 2. Additional Information - This line can be used for any additional information you may wish to print on the label such as "in care" of some person. 3. Delivery Address - This is the street address or PO box number of the mail recipient. Example 105 RIO VERDE CIRCLE or P.O. BOX 1234 4. CITY - Self-explanatory. 5. ST - State or country abbreviation. When you type in a state or country abbreviation it is checked for validity. First it is checked to see if it is a valid state. If a state is not found, it then searches the country database (Main Menu option 2). If no matches are found, an error message is displayed. If a country match is found, the label line con- taining the carrier route is changed to reflect the country you have chosen. 6. ZIP+4 - Put the 5 or 9 digit Zip Code for the selected state on this line. If you don't have the Zip Code, then leave the line empty. If you enter a Zip Code it will be checked to see if it is valid for that state. If you type in page 4 a country code instead of a state abbreviation, you can use the Zip Code block for miscellaneous information. Enter the Zip Code in this format: 99999-9999. 7. C RT - This line is for the carrier route if known. If unknown then leave it blank. There are ten function keys listed across the bottom of the screen. The following is brief description of these keys: 1. F1 - Displays a help screen. 2. F2 - Adds an address to the mail list. 3. F3 - Edits an existing address. 4. F4 - Deletes/Undeletes an address from the mail list. 5. F5 - Locates a Zip Code or name depending on the sort order. 6. F6 - Searches for any text anywhere in the address. 7. F7 - Searches for the next occurrence of the F6 search. 8. F8 - Prints label(s). 9. F9 - Changes the mail list sort order (zip or name). 10. F10 - Exit back to the Main Menu. The active mail list, total number of addresses, current sort order, delete/insert/overwrite flags are displayed at the top of the display. When you press F4 to delete an address it is only marked for deletion. An arrow is displayed next to the deleted address and the delete flag will appear at the top of the display. When you press F10 to return to the Main Menu deleted addresses will be removed from the list. You can undelete the address before returning by highlighting the address and pressing F4 again. MAINTAIN COUNTRY ABBRV This option allows you to add, edit, and delete country address lines. For a foreign country, the last line of the label is replaced with this line containing address information unique to that particular country. The country abbreviations are not printed. They are only used for reference. There are eight function keys listed across the bottom of the screen. The following is brief description of these keys: 1. F1 - Displays a help screen. 2. F2 - Adds country information. 3. F3 - Edits an existing country data. 4. F4 - Deletes/Undeletes a country. 5. F6 - Searches for any text anywhere in the country. 6. F7 - Searches for the next occurrence of the F6 search. 8. F8 - Prints list of countries and abbreviations. 10. F10 - Exit back to the Main Menu. page 5 DATABASE MAINTENANCE This option allows you to select a mail list, create a new list, delete a list, create a SDF postal file, and import a SDF postal file. Select Mail List: You can easily select a different list using this option. The new mail list will be reindexed auto- matically. Create Mail List: You can quickly create a new mail list with this option. The new list is not active until you select it using the above option. Delete Mail List: Self explanatory. Create SDF Postal File: This is a powerful feature of Plus- Bar. Creation of the SDF file provides you a simple method of converting 5 digit Zip Codes to the zip+4 format. The US Postal Service will use this file and do this conversion for you FREE. They will also add the carrier route information for you. All you have to do is create the file, copy it to a floppy disk, and take it along with a blank disk to your post office. On-screen information is provided about your SDF file that the postal service requires, so write this information down. If your post office is small, they may have to send the disks to another, otherwise, it is normally an overnight service. Once this is done, you are on your way to saving money on postage. This option can be used to "Backup" a mail list too. Import SDF Postal File: You can import any SDF file created by PlusBar into any mail list. This allows you to the flexi- bility of combining mail lists. If you are using this option to import a list that the postal service worked with, you should create a new, empty list and import the SDF file into the new one to make sure the file is not corrupt. Files sometimes get damaged. Once you are sure the file is good, delete the old mail list. See last page for SDF structure: PRINT LABELS/REPORTS The print menu provides several important options: Select Groups To Print: This simply allows you to select a group of Zip Codes from the mail list. Selecting this option will result in a new mail list to be created (when you print labels or create a report) called PRINTIT.DBF. This new mail list contains only those Zip Codes you specified. Begin Printing Labels: The entire mail list will be printed unless you selected a group using the "Select Groups To Print" option. Be sure you have the labels across, printer, and printer port selected from the SETUP menu before printing. If you need to abort printing, simply press ESC. Create Address Report: This option will create a report that page 6 groups 10 or more similar pieces of mail together by 3 digit, 5 digit, and carrier routes. The labels are printed in the same order. The post office may need this report and it will make your job of properly grouping the mail much easier. Take it with you when you do a bulk mailing. Print An Address Report. If you selected a group of mail when you created the report, your report will be called PRINTIT.REP, otherwise, it will be same name of the mail list except with the file extension REP. SYSTEM SETUP The setup menu allows you to select screen colors, a printer, a printer port and label formats. These settings will remain in effect until you change them. The file called MAIL.DAT stores these values. Select Colors: You can select hundreds of different color combinations from this area. You simply press the left/right arrows to change the background/foreground colors. You can also press the home/end and PgUp/PgDn keys to change the prompt and highlight bar colors. Experiment with these to come up with a color scheme that suits your taste. Select Printer: Your printer will probably work fine with PlusBar without selecting a printer; however, the most common printer drivers are included. These files have the extension "PRT". If your printer does not work properly when printing barcodes, labels or the report, you will need to select a different printer driver. If none of the drivers provided will work for you, notify JSoft/Fairware and we will be happy to create one for your particular printer. This can be done overnight for you in most cases. Select Printer Port: You can select one of three ports: LPT1, LPT2 or LPT3. Select Label Format: The most common label is selected upon initial startup of PlusBar. This label's dimensions are 3 1/2" X 15/16". You can also get this size in the two across format which may prove to be more cost effective. You can modify the: A. number of labels across, B. spaces to pad on the left of the label, C. spaces to pad beneath the label, and D. spaces between columns of labels. /---------------------------\ /-----------------------------\ B| A=2 across |D| | | | | | \---------------------------/ \-----------------------------/ C You can also set PlusBar to print advanced barcodes from this area. Advanced barcodes will soon be widely used and should result in further discounts. Advanced barcodes identify mail by the specific address. Currently, the +4 format only iden- tifies mail by the block area. This means the postman will spend less time organizing his/her route in the office. This is currently an expensive and time consuming process. The page 7 advanced barcode is simply a graphical representation of the Zip Code+4 and the last two digits of the "address number". For example, the "18" from 4318 Ocean Ave. would be added on to the zip+4 information when the barcode is created. The SDF file structure is shown below: 1-4 5-39 40-74 75-109 --------------------------------------------------- |Blank Name Add Info Delivery Address --------------------------------------------------- 110-129 130-131 132-141 142-145 ---------------------------------------- City State Zip+4 Carrier Rt | ---------------------------------------- page 8