Manage Mailing Lists (Platinum Version Only)

The Mailing Lists feature in OfficeReady 4.0 Platinum allows you to send Mail Merges quickly and easily. OfficeReady 4.0 Platinum allows you to import contacts from Outlook, ACT!, and more. Once you import your contacts, you can manage your Mailing Lists all in one place, as well as use these Mailing Lists to send your Mail Merges.

The Mailing List Manager can be accessed by clicking on the Mail Merge button on the top toolbar of the Template Browser. This will expand the Mail Merge button to show the possible options, as shown below.

Click Manage Mailing Lists to enter the Mailing List Manager.

New Mailing List

If you haven't set up a Mailing List, clicking the Manage Mailing Lists button will bring up the following screen:

Enter a name for your Mailing List in the List Name field, and a description for the Mailing List in the Description field. Click Next to continue.

You will then be given a list of sources:

Note: If you are creating your first Mailing List in OfficeReady Platinum, the "Existing OfficeReady 4.0 Mailing Lists will be disabled, because there are no existing lists to use as a source.

You can import contacts from the following sources. To view Help on how to import from the various sources, please click on one of the following links:

Import from File (CSV, Tab Delimited)

Enter Data Manually

Existing OfficeReady 4.0 Mailing Lists

Microsoft Access Database File

DBF Database File

Microsoft Outlook

ACT! (Versions 6.0, 2005-2008)

QuickBooks

Outlook Express / Windows Mail

 

Once you have imported your contacts, you will now see your Mailing List in the Mailing List Manager.

Note: To create another new Mailing List, click the New List button at the top of the Mailing List Manager.

 

Sorting Mailing Lists

The Mailing List Manager allows you to sort your Mailing Lists for easier viewing when you have multiple Mailing Lists saved. To sort Mailing Lists in the Mailing List Manager (shown above) by any of the columns (Name, Total Contacts, etc.), click on the column's header:

To sort in the reverse order, click on the same header again.

 

Deleting a Mailing List

To delete a Mailing List, highlight the Mailing List you wish to delete and click on the Delete List button at the top of the Mailing List Manager. You will be asked to confirm this deletion:

Click Yes if you want to delete the highlighted Mailing List. Click No if you want to keep the Mailing List and cancel the deletion.

 

Renaming a Mailing List

To rename a Mailing List, highlight the Mailing List you wish to rename, and click the Rename List button at the top of the Mailing List Manager. This will bring up the following screen:

Here, you can change the List's name and/or description. When you are finished, click OK to save your changes and return to the Mailing List Manager, or click Cancel to return without saving your changes.

 

Exporting a Mailing List

OfficeReady Platinum allows you to Export your OfficeReady Mailing List for use as a backup or to send to another OfficeReady user within your company. To export a Mailing List, click the Export List button at the top of the Mailing List Manager. This will open the Save File dialog box:

Navigate to the folder to which you would like to export the Mailing List. Change the file name if needed, and click Save to export the Mailing List. This will bring up a confirmation message:

Click OK to complete the process and return to the Mailing List Manager.

 

Editing a Mailing List / Viewing Contacts

To edit an existing Mailing List, or to view the contacts in a Mailing List, highlight the list and click on the View Contacts button at the top of the Mailing List Manager. You can also open a Mailing List for editing by double-clicking it. This will open the Mailing List, and show the following menu, the Contacts Menu.

From within this menu, you can add, edit, and delete contacts.

Note: OfficeReady Mailing Lists can be synchronized with Outlook contact lists, and with other OfficeReady Mailing Lists (see screenshot above). They cannot be synchronized with other types of sources.

 

Editing a Contact

To edit a contact, highlight the contact you wish to edit and click the Edit Contact button at the top of the Contacts Menu. You can also edit a contact by double clicking the desired contact in the list on the left-hand side (see above).

Once you have begun editing a contact, you can edit any of the contact's information by typing in the fields (see above). You will also see a Save Contact button and a Cancel button appear at the bottom of the menu. Once you have finished, click the Save Contact button to save your changes. If you would like to finish editing without saving changes, click the Cancel button at the bottom of the Contacts Menu.

 

Adding Contacts

To add contacts to the Mailing List you are viewing, click on the Add Contacts button at the top of the Contacts Menu. Adding a contact (or multiple contacts) to an existing Mailing List is much like creating a Mailing List (see above).

 

Deleting Contacts

To delete a contact from the Mailing List you are viewing, highlight the contact you wish to delete and click on the Delete Contacts button at the top of the Contacts Menu. You will be asked to confirm this deletion:

Click Yes if you want to delete the highlighted contact. Click No if you want to keep the contact and cancel the deletion.

 

Custom Fields

Custom Fields allow you to keep any information you need which is not a default field in OfficeReady in your OfficeReady Platinum Mailing Lists. OfficeReady Platinum allows you to import all information commonly stored in Contact Lists such as name, address, email, etc. However, if you need to store information unique to your business, such as gender, customer number, or anything else, Custom Fields allow you to do this.

Importing Custom Fields

To import information into a Custom Field, begin importing contacts as described above. After selecting your source, you will be brought to a Field Mapping screen.

 

Select the column of information that you wish to import as a Custom Field by clicking on the drop-down menu at the top of the column (shown above). In this case, we will set Field 3 as a Custom Field, CustomField1. Once you have completed the import process, you will see your custom information in the Custom Fields area of the Contacts Menu, like the area shown below.

Note: If you do not have any custom information to import, you can enter information into any of the custom fields manually, just as you would any other field (see "Editing a Contact" above).

Renaming a Custom Field

You most likely will not want to keep the name of your custom information as "CustomField1." Fortunately, OfficeReady Platinum allows you to rename any or all of the Custom Fields to any name you'd like. Let's assume that the custom information you have imported (or that you wish to enter manually) is Customer Numbers. To rename Custom Field 1, click the Rename Custom Fields button at the top of the Contacts Menu. This will bring up the Rename Custom Fields Menu:

Choose the Custom Field you wish to rename, and enter the new name for this Custom Field. When you have finished, click OK. You will now see the new name of the Custom Field in the Custom Fields area at the bottom of the Contacts Menu:

This can be repeated for any Custom Field you wish to rename (up to 8 total). You will also notice that the Custom Field has been renamed for all contacts in that Mailing List.

Note: Once you have finished working with a Mailing List, click the Back to Mailing Lists button at the top of the Contacts Menu to go back to the Mailing List Manager, or click the Main Menu button (also at the top) to go back to the Main Menu.