Mailing List Files & Databases

You can create your mailing list within CustomMailer itself, read your mailing list from a plain text file, or read your mailing list from an SQL database such as Access, SQL Server, Oracle, or MySQL (with the CustomMailer Enterprise Edition).

Create Mailing List inside CustomMailer

The easiest way to create your mailing list is to do so inside CustomMailer. Here's how:

1. Under the File menu, select the item "New Mailing List...".
2. Use the dialog that appears to define a set of mailing list columns such as: Email, FirstName, LastName, etc. In this dialog you can also delete any unwanted column names and reorder the column names by dragging them in the list. When you say OK, you will go back to the main window with your columns shown in the mailing list but with no rows of data. CustomMailer will automatically add the column SendStatus and also the columns LastSent and/or NumberSent if these options are checked in Preferences.
3. Now under the Edit menu, select the item "Add Mailing List Row..." to add rows to your mailing list.
4. Use the dialog that appears to enter values in each column for one row of your mailing list, then say OK.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for each new row to add to your mailing list.
6. When you are done, select "Save Mailing List As..." under the File menu. Thereafter CustomMailer will remember this file name and open it each time you start up CustomMailer.

Under the Edit menu, there are other useful commands for editing your mailing list, including:

1. "Edit Mailing List Row..." to change any of the values in a selected row
2. "Delete Mailing List Row(s)" to delete any number of selected rows in your mailing list
3. "Restore Last Deleted Row(s)" to restore the most recently deleted set of rows back to your mailing list. NOTE: restored rows will be added to the end of the list, not in their original positions.
4. "Add Mailing List Column..." to add a new column to your mailing list. This command allows you to set the values for each row of the new column which can be either:
   a) a string entered by you (which may be left blank)
   b) the value of a |tag|, which will copy the values from another mailing list column,
   c) the value of a |macro|, which will be evaluated based on the values from other mailing list columns for each row
   d) the values SELECTED or NOT SELECTED based on whether that row was selected.
5. "Edit Mailing List Column..." to edit the values in an existing column. You can either rename the column, perform 1st letter capitalization of the values in the column, or set row values using the methods 4a), 4b), 4c), and 4d) above. "Edit Mailing List Column..." also gives you the option to change values in all rows or only in a subset of rows selected by you.
6. "Delete Mailing List Column..." to delete unwanted columns.
   

Mailing List in a File

You can also create your mailing list file outside of CustomMailer using a spreadsheet, word processor, or text editor, then save to a text file, and read this file into CustomMailer. Or, if you have your mailing list in a personal database, email program, or personal information organizer, these programs usually let you export this data to a text file (such as comma-separated values or tab-delimited text) suitable for reading into CustomMailer.

In your mailing list file, each recipient should be on a single line. Each line should contain one or more fields separated by delimiters (use tab, comma, or space). By default, the first line of your file is assumed to be the column headings specifying the names of the fields (you can turn this feature off in Preferences). For example, your mailing list might look like:

Date Company Product OS Title First Last Email
5/5/03 IBM display WinNT Mr. James Jones test1@wildcrest.com
6/8/01 Apple CD ROM MacOS Ms. Linda Blake test2@wildcrest.com
7/17/02 HP modem Win95 Dr. Henry Flynn test3@wildcrest.com

NOTE: In general, we recommend using tabs for delimiters so that spaces in phrases like "CD ROM" are preserved in your mailing list or in case you want spaces in your column heading names.

If you use a spreadsheet, save your mailing list as tab-delimited text or comma-separated values. For example, in Microsoft Excel, use "Save As" and in the "Save as type" field select "Text (Tab delimited) (*.txt)" or "CSV (Comma-delimited) (*.csv)". If you use a *.csv file, CustomMailer will automatically change your field delimiter character to comma in Preferences. If you use a *.txt file, CustomMailer will attempt to guess the field delimiter character you are using and offer to change your Preferences setting as needed.

NOTE: You can also read in your mailing list directly from a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet using JDBC (this requires the CustomMailer Enterprise Edition), see Example #3 in the "Mailing List in Database" section below.

If you use a word processor or text editor, it is easiest to save your mailing list in a .txt file.

If you use a personal database such as Microsoft Works, Access, etc. you can generally "Export" your database as tab-delimited text or comma-separated values. Generally it is easiest to save your text in a .txt file. Regular databases such as Oracle, SQL Server, or MySQL also usually provide a way to save selected rows as tab-delimited text or comma-separated values.

If your want to use your Address Book from your regular email program, generally these programs let you "Export" your Address Book to a plain text tab-delimited file. For specific instructions on using Address Books from Microsoft Outlook or Netscape Messenger, see "Mailing Lists" under Frequently Asked Questions.

By default, multiple adjacent delimiters do not count as a single delimiter. This is how spreadsheets such as Excel export their tab-delimited records, and this allows you to have "empty" fields (denoted by back-to-back delimiters). You can change this in Preferences to allow the use of multiple spaces, tabs, etc. between individual fields (but then you will not be able to have "empty" fields). The most common need for this is if you have multiple spaces between fields, for example, if what used to be tabs in your mailing list got converted to multiple spaces.

The number of fields in the first line will determine the number of fields per line for the rest of the file. Empty fields will be added and extra fields ignored as needed. This makes the reading of mailing lists very robust. You can easily read in mailing lists which contain blank lines, comments, tabulation lines, extra fields, etc. and just send mail to those lines that make sense (in fact, CustomMailer will not send email if the TO: field does not contain a standard Internet address like user@domain.com, so CustomMailer will skip any such non-recipient lines even if you just "Select All" and send). If CustomMailer detects that your mailing list file has records with extra or missing fields, it will put up a dialog telling you how many of these records were encountered and will note which records they were in the SendLog.txt file (viewable from the View menu) in case they are actually errors you wish to correct.

In addition to guessing the number of fields per record and the field delimiter character in your mailing list, CustomMailer attempts to guess whether you are using the first line of the mailing list as column headings and, if different than the current setting, will offer to change your Preferences accordingly. The guess is based on whether there is a valid email address anywhere in the first line of the mailing list file.

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