TradeWorks Software for retail barter exchanges and companies

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ASCII to Email ...
2 Minutes to an Email Address Book in Netscape or Outlook Express!

The new Client Master (from the Client Screen) allows you to keep track of up to 15 email addresses for each client. They are searchable from F1, SF1, and you can create an email address book in virtually any email program in less than 2 minutes! The address book includes all 15 of the addresses for each client, unless in SF1, option #3 you’ve indicated with an ‘X’ that a particular address shouldn’t be included.

There are essentially two steps for creating an email address book. First we pull the email addresses straight out of TradeWorks. We have to pull them out in a format that other programs can understand, and that format is a simple text format called ASCII. In the second step we pull that ASCII file into our email program using the import feature:

I. Create the Email File in TradeWorks

General instruction: if you’re typing/keying data into a field, use the ‘+’ key on the far right of your keyboard. Fields are usually blue. If you’re typing where there’s no field, use the ‘Enter’ key (either one).

From the Main Menu: select Menu 16; Menu 14; #5 (Email Addresses); press Enter.
From screen choices: ‘01’ next to Business Name; ‘02’ next to Email Address; numbers ‘03’ through ‘16’ for any other data you want to include; then press F5. For example, you might want to include the Status code and Broker code so you can effectively sort when the data is in the Address Book.
Select from 13 options: which clients do you want to select? If you only want to email the clients on standby (for example), select option #2, Status code, then enter the code for standby (in my office that’s status code 4). But if you want to email all your active clients, select option #3, Status Group. The active status group is ‘00’; type 00 and press the + key.
Now you may have another choice - just follow the instructions on the screen. For example: if you selected status group ‘00’ TradeWorks will ask for the highest status code within the group you’d like to include. Remember, the active group 00 includes status codes 1-9. In my office status 9 clients are headed for collections and I don’t usually send them marketing emails. So I select 08 as the highest status code to include.
At some point TradeWorks will ask “DO YOU WANT TO OMIT EMAILS CODED AS NOT TO BE INCLUDED?” The normal answer is ‘Y’. Remember, you put an ‘X’ next to the email address of folks who don’t want to receive your emails, so you should omit them from this list.
As the computer is processing, look at the screen. In parentheses you’ll see the name of the file the program is creating. It looks like ‘TnnnnEML.txt’, where nnnn is a series of 4 numbers. For us the file name is T2277eml.txt (your version has different numbers). In just a few short seconds the computer will finish.

IIa. Now get into Netscape Navigator

You’ll be using your mouse to move around the Netscape screens. (Remember, you don’t use the ‘+’ key when typing data into boxes and windows. Press Tab or Enter, or click the appropriate box.) Get into the Email area (Netscape Communications Services)

Click the Communicator pull down menu at the top of the screen; look for Address Book and click on it
On the left side of your screen you’ll see a directory of all your Address Books.
First Time: If you don’t see an Address Book for your exchange, create one: Click the File pull down menu at the top of your screen: find New Address Book and click on it. Type a name in the name field and click OK. Now you’ll see it in the left, Directory window. Click on your Address Book so that it’s highlighted and skip the next step.
After the First Time: If there’s already an address book for your exchange click on it. In the right hand window you’ll see your client names and email addresses. Click on the top most client, then press the shift and end keys simultaneously. All your clients should be highlighted. Press the delete key. They’re history. Now in the left window, the directory, Click on your Address Book so that it’s highlighted.
Click on the File pull down menu at the top of your screen; look for Import and click on it.
Select Text File (address book) and click Next.
File Format should be Comma Separated. The cursor is in the Import File field. Click on Browse.
Click the down arrow of the Look In field. Click on your Network Drive (usually the F drive).
Now you’ll see folders: double click the RPG folder; then double click the ASCII folder.
Change Files of Type to Text Files or Any File by using the down arrow.
Now you should see several files with ‘.txt’ after them. Single click on your file name ‘Tnnnneml.txt’, and single click Open (remember, the ‘nnnn’ are the numbers discussed above).
Make sure the File format is Comma Separated or CSV. If it’s not, use the down arrow to make the change.
Now you’ll see a box. You’ll see a business name and an email address below it. Directly across from each on the left are description boxes. Click the ‘down’ arrow and find the appropriate description and click on each. Mine says ‘Company’ in the first box and ‘Email’ in the second box. In other words, you’re telling Netscape what each of these pieces of information is.
Click Import - the computer will work for a few seconds. Then you’ll see everything listed. If the top most item is blank, click on it and delete it.

After a couple of practice runs, this took me 60 seconds! If you like to email your clients frequently, create a new address book as often as you like. Just delete the old version from Netscape Communicator, Address Book. Then create the new version.

OR

IIb. Now get into Outlook Express

You’ll be using your mouse to move around the Outlook Express (OE) screens. (Remember, you don’t use the ‘+’ key when typing data into boxes and windows. Press Tab or Enter, or click the appropriate box.)

Click on the Addresses icon, near the top of the window.
The default folder for OE is the Main Identity’s Contacts folder, so make certain it’s empty before you proceed. If there are addresses in it already and you don’t want to save them, just highlight the first one by clicking it, then hold down the shift and end keys simultaneously. They should now all be highlighted. Press the delete key then answer yes and they’re history.
If you want to save the addresses in the Main Identity’s Contacts folder, click on the first address, press the shift and end keys simultaneously, then let go. Everything should be highlighted. Now right click on any one of the items, then move the mouse/cursor over to the target folder and let go. It may take a moment for everything to move over so be patient. (If there’s no target folder, click on the New icon, click on New Folder, then type in a name and click OK.)
Now, either by deleting or moving addresses, your Main Identity’s Contacts folder should be empty and you can start.
Click on Main Identity’s Contacts.
Click the File pull down menu; move the cursor down to Import, then over to Other Address Book; now let go. The Address Book Import Tool box should appear.
Click on Text File (Comma Separated Values). In this case, that’s another name for the ASCII file. Click Import.
The cursor is in a field labeled Choose a File to Import. Click on the Browse button to the right.
You’ll probably see a box showing the My Documents folder, which is the usual default. Our file is not in this folder, so click on the little arrow to the right to see all your options. Move the cursor down and click on the F drive (if the F drive is not your network drive, click on the appropriate drive letter).
Use the right arrow to scroll through the folders until you see the RPG folder. Hint: the folders are arranged alphabetically ... R comes after Q and before S. Double click the RPG folder. You’ll see more folders - double click the ASCII folder.
Now you’ll see a blank box - look towards the bottom and locate the Files of Type field, click the down arrow to see all your options. Click Text Files or All Files - they both work.
Now you should see some files and some of them will have .txt extension. Select the one with the name Tnnnneml.txt, where ‘nnnn’ are the numbers discussed above. Mine says T2277eml.txt. Click on it then click Open.
Click the Next button.
Now you’ll see one of the clients you’ve imported. In our example you’ll see the business name, email address, broker code and status code. OE wants to know what these things are, so you’re going to tell it. This is called Mapping.
Click the Check Box next to the business name. A blank field will appear. Click the down arrow then scroll down until you see Company. Click on it, then click OK.
Now click on the Check Box next to the email address you see in the box. Again, click the down arrow and scroll down until you see Email Address. Click on it and click OK.
If those are the only two items you’re importing, click Finish. Otherwise click the check box next to an item and select a description for it in the same manner. There isn’t a description for broker or status code, so be creative - use something like nickname.
If you made a mistake, click on the item that’s wrong then click Change Mapping. You’ll be able to change the description of this item. For example, if in the previous step you clicked on Pager instead of Company, you can use the arrow and cursor to fix it.
Wait a few seconds, then click OK when the box tells you OE is done. Then click Close on the Import Tool Box.
Usually the very first line item is empty. If so, delete it. Just click on the empty space and press your delete key and answer Yes.
You can leave the addresses here, or move them to a folder of your choosing (see instructions above).

After a couple of practice runs, this took me 70 seconds! If you like to email your clients frequently, create a new address book as often as you like. Just delete the old version from OE. Then create the new version.

No Matter Which You Use ...

You may want to create address books or folders for the email addresses of special groups of clients. Certainly you can enter them the long hard way that Netscape and Outlook provide, or you can import the whole membership, then click on and copy selected email addresses to a target folder. For example, if you frequently email to your restaurants, create a folder labeled Restaurants, then copy email addresses to it and maintain it separately by adding, deleting and changing, as needed.

All of these steps really do only take a few moments once you’ve done them a few times. Personally, I like Navigator because it doesn’t use a default folder that you have to empty every time. But if you like OE, you’re only using an extra step or two.

III. Send a Broadcast Email in Outlook Express

Click on the icon Create Mail
The New Message box opens up and the cursor is flashing in the To: box. OE wants to know to whom you’re sending email. Type in your own email address.
Just below, click on the Cc: icon (the little open book). The Select Recipients box opens up. You’ll probably see Main Identity’s Contacts as the default. If you kept email addresses in that folder you’ll see them in the large box on the left.
If you moved them to a different folder, click on the little down arrow, then click on your folder. Now you should see the addresses in the big box.
Highlight the first address, hold down the Shift key and press the End key. All the addresses should be highlighted. Click on the Bcc: icon. Bcc is preferable because it sends the same email to all the selected addresses without revealing them to each other. Hence Blind Carbon Copy.
Now you’ll see the addresses in the bottom box on the right. Click OK.
Use the Tab key or your mouse to put the cursor in the Subject box and type something (no, not something ...type the summary of your message!).
Type your message in the large message box. When you’re finished use the Spell Checker, proof your content, then press the Send icon. If you’re attaching something, click the Insert pull-down menu and click the appropriate item BEFORE you click the Send icon.
You can get fancy by using bold, italic, underline, color and bullets, but the more your do the larger the file size and some email programs like AOL and Hotmail restrict the email file size that your clients can accept.

If you need more help with Outlook Express, there’s someone in your office who is really good at it. Find her(him). I’m a Netscape user and the above tips are the extent of my expertise. Happy Emailing.