App. A: Database Formats
Supported by EmailUnlimitedYour data source is a database file
that keeps your list of email addresses. Here is a list of the data
formats EmailUnlimited™ supports, along with instructions how to use
them for your campaigns:
Microsoft Access is the database EmailUnlimited™ has originally been designed for, so it is the
preferred choice. You may use almost all formats, from Access 2.0 to
the new Access 2000. EmailUnlimited™ does not only support MS Access
databases, but also Queries that you have defined. This is very useful
if you have a very relational database that you want to use as a data
source.
To use an
Access database, just select your database file and click Ok. Then the following
dialog box will be shown to you:
Picture: Select a database table
Here
you can choose if you want EmailUnlimited™ to create a new table for
you or if you want to use one of your existing tables. When you are
finished, press Ok.
(If you make
EmailUnlimited™ create the table, however, it will be in Access 2000 format and will only contain those fields absolutely necessary
for EmailUnlimited™, which is an email address field, first name, last
name and the fields necessary for the follow-up autoresponder).
Using an Excel Spreadsheet is similar to using an Access table as described above. However, there are some restrictions
when using Excel: EmailUnlimited™ cannot create a new Excel sheet for
you. It is also unable to automatically remove rows from your mailing
list, which means that EmailUnlimited™ always uses negative lists.
If you want to use
your dbase database, select the database file you would like to use in the file dialog
box described above and click Ok.
Using dBase
databases, EmailUnlimited™ is not able to delete records, however,
there is a work-around that will be explained in this manual
later. There
might also be problems with different data formats, so we recommend to
use simple text fields whenever you can.
EmailUnlimited™ does not support the original Works Database format,
however, you can use your
Microsoft Works Database by converting it to dBase format.
You can do this by
opening your database in Microsoft Works and choosing “Save as…” on the File menu,
which give you the choice so save your database in dBase format (it
does not matter if you choose dBase III, IV or V format).
As you
can use the dBase format in Microsoft Works directly, you do not have
to switch between the two formats.
Choosing a Microsoft Outlook Contact List allows you
to use all contacts stored in Microsoft Outlook. This format is only
available if you have Microsoft Outlook installed on your computer.
While Outlook Contact Lists have the advantage of
being very easy to setup, they have the disadvantage of being very
slow to access. Tasks like editing your Contact List in
EmailUnlimited, sending a mailing or processing follow-up
auto responses may take a lot of time.
One of the reason why Outlook is a rather slow
option is that large number of fields it provides. In order to speed
up the usage of Outlook, we have added an option that allows you to
select the Outlook Contact fields you really need. You can change that
option by clicking on Tools/Outlook Options in the main screen of
EmailUnlimited.
Please note: Microsoft Outlook means Outlook 98,
2000 and XP. Outlook Express is not a real Outlook, and Outlook
Express Address Lists are not directly supported at the moment,
meaning that you will have to export them into a different format.
Using Outlook Distribution
Lists
EmailUnlimited is not capable of
using Outlook Distribution Lists directly, however, it is easy to export them to
a different format like Excel that is supported by EmailUnlimited.
1. Choose 'Contacts', then
double-click the distribution list you wish to export.
2. On the 'File' menu choose
'Save as...', confirm the file name and in the 'Save as type' choose 'Text',
press 'Save'.
3. Open a new Excel sheet and
name it with the same name as the text file. From the 'Data' menu, choose
'Import External Data' and then 'Import Data'; choose the Text file you wish to
import and then click 'open'.
4. Press 'Next' [delimited
selection], then again 'Next' [Tab selection], then 'Finish' [General option is
selected].
5. Press 'Ok'.
6. In the column next to the
'Distribution List Name' write the words 'e-mail'.
7. Press 'Save'.
Now your distribution list is
ready for EmailUnlimited in an Excel file format.
ACT! 6.1 Database
Choosing an ACT! 6.1
Database allows you to use your ACT! contacts directly in
EmailUnlimited. All you need to do is choose your ACT! database and
Group. Then you are ready to send personalized HTML mailings to your
ACT! Contacts.
In EmailUnlimited™
Professional Edition, you can even use ODBC compliant
databases as your data source - e.g. your company's SQL server. When
you choose ODBC as you data source, EmailUnlimited will display the
Windows default dialog for selecting ODBC data sources, as shown
below:
The
"Select Data Source" dialog is a very powerful dialog,
because you can select a data source, and you may
also connect to new data sources (Click on the "New.." button and
follow the instructions"). Technically speaking, ODBC data
sources are not really data sources, but connections that provide
access to data sources, like your SQL Server.
Once you
have selected your data source, click on Ok, select your table, and you
are ready to go.
Text files offer the least sophisticated
method of storing your email addresses. They are not very secure and
rather inflexible. Furthermore, text files cannot be used in follow-up
autoresponder.
However, text databases are still commonly used by
many people, so we have decided to support them as well.
To use a text data source with EmailUnlimited™, do the following:
Choose
the text file you want to use as your mailing list and press Ok.
When you use the file for the first time, the dialog box on the right will
appear.
EmailUnlimited™
can
only use text databases in which fields are separated by a delimiter.
Please specify the delimiter of your database file in the
'Choose
delimiter that separates your fields' option frame.
Next, you have to
tell EmailUnlimited™ about your field names in the “Fields of your
database
” option frame. If you are lucky, they are specified in the first
line of your database. If not, you have to enter every single field
name in the correct order into the appropriate field. To help you with
this, we have included a text box below that frame, which displays a part of
your database.
The picture above
shows what a delimited text database should look like if you want to
use it with EmailUnlimited™:
The first line
contains the field names: “Type”, “EmailAddress”,
“Date”…
The other lines
contain the database entries or records:
“Mailmachine”,
“test”, “10/27/98”, … ,
“Mailmachine”,
“rv@vclab.com”, …..,
Each line represents
a record; each field value is separated by your delimiter, and at the
end every line has to contain your delimiter. Otherwise EmailUnlimited™
will not be able to process your database and produce error messages.
Once you have
finished this procedure, click Next and you are almost ready to go!
So
Which Database Format is Best?
The best choice is either using Microsoft Access
or a dBase file format. Both formats are quick and support all operations, while
there may be limitation when using the other formats.
If you have a corporate SQL Server, ODBC is also
be a good choice, although it may be harder to set up.
(AfterDocument)
