The records initially show the Firstname, Surname, Company and Email Address columns followed by the 20 optional fields (Pro only). On the very first column starting from the left, a check box lets you activate or deactivate each entry individually. In addition, that column also displays the entry number and an icon indicating the delivery status.
Adding, deactivating and deleting records
To enter a new recipient, just press the Add button (+ icon) and enter the details directly in list. To remove entries, select them and press the Remove button (- icon). Note that deleting recipients that have unsubscribed from your newsletter is almost never a good strategy for maintaining your lists because you may add them again later accidentally. MaxBulk Mailer lets you deactivate unsubscribed recipients by selecting one or several recipients and using the list contextual menu 'Subscribe' or 'Unsubscribe'. Unsubscribed recipients are deactivated and remain on your list thus you can't add them again later. You can re-subscribe them anytime.
Editing a record
Double-click an entry icon to display the editor or double-click a cell to edit its contents directly in list. Using the editor you can navigate thru records using the 'Previous' and 'Next' buttons. Press Command or Control at the same time to increment or decrement by 10 and Shift + Command or Control for even bigger steps (list count / 25). You can also use your mouse wheel to navigate up and down thru your list anywhere in the windows. You can also edit several entries at once, like you already do with songs in iTunes. That allows you to set the common data of a group of recipients or to clear columns. Just select several entries from your list and select 'Edit' from the list contextual menu. You will get displayed a new multiple edit window very similar to the one in iTunes, actually it works mostly like Apple iTunes. Only checked fields/columns will be finally updated throughout the selection. A field get checked as soon as you modify it.
Temporal record deactivation
In order to get control over each recipient, MaxBulk Mailer lets you enable or disable each entry individually. By default all entries are activated. Uncheck the recipients you don't want to send your message to or activate/deactivate several thru a selection. This feature is intended to be used for specific deliveries. To deactivate a recipient as a result of an un-subcription request, use the 'Unsubscribe' feature.
Selecting or changing recipient statuses
Use the tool menu or the list contextual menu to mark recipients as Sent or Unsent and also to Subscribe or Unsubscribe them. You can select entries depending on their status or remove them thru the same set of menus.
List management
All the list management is done through the list pull-down menu and the Save button on the right. If you add entries to a list for the first time second step is saving this list by using the pull-down Save current list as... menu, you give a name and save. Then you will see you list selected. Each time you add new entries press the Save button if you want this changes to be saved to the list. Each time you want to send a message to a list, just select it from the pull-down menu. You can have as many lists as you need and all of them will be available through this pull-down menu. To add new entries to any of them select it first using again this pull-down list. To delete a list first select it and then select 'Remove Current List' from the same pull-down menu. Note that deleted lists are moved to the '~/Documents/Maxprog/MaxBulk Mailer/Trash' folder so they can be recovered in case or an accidental deletion.
Merging lists
You have the possibility to temporally merge multiple recipient lists. It is a very simple way to send a message to several lists at once avoiding duplicates. That feature lets you freely merge lists removing duplicates automatically for eventually performing a delivery or saving the resulting list. All you need is at least two lists. Then just select the 'Multiple Lists' menu from the List pull-down menu and check the lists you want to merge. If you uncheck a list, recipients are also removed from resulting list. If you select lists the recipients that belong to them will also be selected. Once you are done you can simply perform a delivery or save the new list.
Quick Selector (Pro Only)
Press the disclosure triangle on the left of the Lists selector pull-down menu to get the Quick Selector displayed. Quick Selector lets you select, unselect, activate or deactivate entries matching a given rule. For example you could activate recipients from a given state only or select recipients from a given domain.
Sorting
As usual you can sort columns by pressing on their headers but you can also sort e-mail addresses by domain with ALT or Cmd - click on e-mail column header or recipients by status with ALT or Cmd - click on Delivery column header.
MaxBulk supports several types of imports taking care of bad e-mails and duplicates entries for you. Note that duplicate checking can be deactivated from the preferences. A report is displayed right after the import when errors are detected.
Importing from a Text file
To import data from another database application, you need to export it to a common database format like Tab-delimited or Comma-Delimited text. Once you have the data in a format MaxBulk Mailer can handle, you simply click on the Import button, select the data file from the dialog and select Open. You'll then be presented with a screen showing all the fields included in the data file. You can use the Field Delimiter pull-down menu to choose the right format and to preview the actual data you can use the left and right arrows in the top left corner to scroll through each record.
Maxbulk assists you during the importation process giving you the possibility to import data from file to MaxBulk the way you want, that is, the fields you really need in the order you want using one of the four available delimiters: tab, comma, colon or semicolon. Your database field order likely won't correspond with the field order required by Maxbulk Mailer. Just highlight a field and use the up and down arrows on the right hand side of the screen until it matches the correct field and repeat as often as required. You can go thru file data in order to check that each field is really where expected. Once all the fields are aligned and properly checked, click the Import button and your data will be imported .
Note: Be aware that e-mail field must contain an mail address that is, if no e-mail address is detected, no entry will be added. MaxBulk Mailer lets you save your current import settings for later use. Just use the Import Presets pull-down menu to create, load or remove your import settings.
Drag'n'drop
If you choose to drop a file or text directly onto Maxbulk recipient list, make sure it is Tab delimited with recipient first name first, then surname, company, e-mail and all optional fields (Pro version only):
FirstName1<tab>Surname1<tab>Company1<tab>Email1<tab>Opt1<tab>....Opt20<Return>
FirstName2<tab>Surname2<tab>Company2<tab>Email2<tab>Opt1<tab>....Opt20<Return>
FirstName3<tab>Surname3<tab>Company3<tab>Email3<tab>Opt1<tab>....Opt20<Return>
If you don't follow that format a parser will be activated and will extract the e-mail addresses from the text.
Pasting from the clipboard
You can also import recipients from the clipboard. Just copy your text and then select Paste Special from the Edit menu. The format to follow is the same as above. You can for example copy an Excel sheet columns and paste them to MaxBulk. First column should be Firstname, then Surname, Company and e-mail address.
From Plain Text
This option lets you paste unformatted text and force MaxBulk to extract the e-mail addresses. You don't have to follow any format. It can be a bunch of e-mails separated per commas as for example:
address1@domain.com,address2@domain.com,address3@domain.com,
address4@domain.com,address5@domain.com,address6@domain.com,
address7@domain.com,address8@domain.com,address9@domain.com,
address10@domain.com
From Apple Mail, Microsoft Entourage, Eudora and PowerMail
You can extract email addresses from messages stored in a given folder or mailbox inside Apple Mail, Microsoft Entourage, Eudora and PowerMail. Just select the corresponding menu from the Import button or the 'File | Import Recipients' menu.
Look at the FAQ for more information about importing addresses from Entourage Address Book.
From Mac OS X Address Book and Now Contact
Lets you import Mac OS X Address Book and Now Contact entries. Note that MaxBulk also supports VCARD imports and drops so you can easily add recipients from Mac OS X Address Book to MaxBulk simply dragging and dropping one or many entries at the same time.
From a remote Database (Pro only)
Import records from a remote mySQL or postgreSQL database. In both cases you need to submit the host name, the port if different than default (mySQL:3303, postgreSQL:5432), your account ID and password, the database name, the number of columns your query will return, and the query. You have to line-up the expected cursor columns with MaxBulk's so the data is inserted in the right places. Feel free to select an encoding if the response is not ASCII and check for duplicates. Note that a remote server can be configured to only accept requests from from a script running in the same server. Contact your provider if you can't manage to get access from MaxBulk.
Batch processes:
• To remove several addresses from a list at once create a plain text file named 'DELETE', add all the addresses to remove to it, save it and drop it onto the list to process inside MaxBulk Mailer.
• To unsubscribe several addresses from a list at once create a plain text file named 'UNSUBSCRIBE', add all the addresses to unsubscribe to it, save it and drop it onto the list to process inside MaxBulk Mailer.
• To keep addresses from a list create a plain text file named 'KEEP', add all the addresses to keep, save it and drop it onto the list to process inside MaxBulk Mailer. All other e-mails will be removed.
Exporting a list:
To export a list select the 'File | Export Recipients' menu. You can select the columns you want to export and set their order. You can also set the separator between Tab, Comma, Colon and semicolon and the text encoding. As a result you can fully tailor the output file depending on your needs.
Cc and Bcc (Pro only)
Cc stands for 'Carbon Copy'. It allows you to send a copy of each message to one or several addresses. Bcc stands for 'Blind Carbon Copy', it is the same as Cc but the addresses remain hidden to recipients. A copy of each message means that for a delivery of 2,500 recipients and Cc or Bcc set to yourself you would receive 2,500 copies. In case of messages personalized with tags you would receive them as the real recipient will. This feature is embedded with the Quick Selector so press the disclosure triangle on the left of the Lists selector pull-down menu to get it displayed.
