Sunday, October 27, 2013

Turbo Mailer | How to use Software Turbo Mailer

How to use Software Turbo Mailer

You download for trial Turbo Mailer here: http://www.xellsoft.com/download/TurboMailer-Setup.exe

I/ User Interface / Mailer Page

SMTP Server
The address of your SMTP server (and optional port).
Examples.:  smtp.mydomain.com   ,   smtp.my.org:2525
All known SMTP servers are supported. Most SMTP servers from ISPs need a login authentication with user and password. Some SMTP servers require to reconnect after a certain number of mails. In that case set the Mails/Block property below the Send button for block-by-block transmission.
From Address
Format :   name@server.dom
        or :  "Display User Name" <user_name@server.dom>
SMTP user / SMTP password   (optional)
Your login information for your SMTP server. Leave these fields empty if your (intranet) SMTP server doesn't need/support login.
 Unlimited IP SMTP Server and Unlimited Domain SMTP Server
Reply Address (optional)
Enter a email address where recipients should replay to (instead of "From Address"). Leave empty if your "From Address" is ok for replying to it.
Auto-Dial intern
Check this option and select a RAS Network for internet dial-up, in case you want Turbo-Mailer to auto-dial and close the RAS automatically after email transmissions are complete.
TO: Address List  /  Open File / Save / Add / Delete
This list area displays the current target address list (recipients of your email message). This list can also contain additional personalization columns which can be referenced with %1%, %2% in your mail text/html or subject, or with %-1%, %-2%.. to even inserted un-escaped HTML snippets from such columns. See also Address list line format.
A new address list ( simple list with one address per line / table / CSV file / TAB CSV file ) can be loaded to this list area by pressing the "Open File" button or "Menu/File/Open address list" or by file-drag-drop or by pressing the "<<TO-LIST" button in the List Processor Page)
You can also copy&paste a list or table from Excel using the Windows clipboard.
The TO: list contents are permanent throughout shutdown & re-opening of Turbo-Mailer.
Press this button to start sending out the messages after a confirmation.
BCC Bulk
Activate this checkbox in order to enable the BCC Bulking.
BCC Bulking: Many email address are targeted with one SMTP email transfer using the blind-carbon-copy method. This reduces network traffic to the SMTP server (but not behind that server). Messages with personalization variables (%N%) are never BCC bulked.
In the BCC Bulking options dialog you can set the common "TO:" display name, the "Maximum number of BCC addresses per email transfer". You can also hide the BCC address list completely from the mail header.
Mails / Block
Activate this checkbox and set a maximum number of mails (N) per block, if your SMTP server doesn't like too much email transfers to be sent during one SMTP connection. Thus TurboMailer establishes a fresh connection to the SMTP server each N mails. This option can be mixed with Multi-threaded (parallel) SMTP.
Max Threads
Activate this checkbox and set a maximum number of parallel connections in order to optimize transmission speed. This option exploits the available bandwidth most efficiently and is especially helpful, when email addresses are checked live by an SMTP server ( which slows down simple serial processing dramatically). Multiple SMTP connections are possible on most SMTP servers today.
HTML Message
Check this checkbox if you want to transmit HTML email code.
Note: You can use the "Edit HTML" button for editing your HTML mail using a WYSIWYG HTML editor.
Note: You can configure a non-default HTML editor in Menu/Config/Settings. Installing Mozilla/Netscape is recommended, when you don't have another professional HTML editor installed on your computer.
Subject / Text Body
Enter your email message here. Or load it from a .eml / .txt / .html file. Or drag-drop a file to this area.
Attachments / + / -
Add attachment file using the + and - Buttons.
Note: Embedded HTML images (local URL's) are automatically attached to the email. You don't need to add them explicitly as attachment.
Edit HTML / Refresh
Edit your HTML mail message with an WYSIWYG HTML editor. 
Press the "Refresh" button for importing a HTML mail text repeatedly after changing and saving it in your HTML editor. The "Refresh" button can only be used after a first "Edit HTML" cycle.
Note: You can configure a non-default HTML editor in Menu/Config/Settings. Installing seamonkey/Mozilla or "Kompozer" is recommended, when you don't have another professional HTML editor already installed on your computer.
Preview
Press this button in order to preview your HTML or text email message. In case of personalization columns: The preview is rendered using the first email address of your current TO: List

II/ Mail Text / Subject / Attachment Personalization

The text of additional personalization fields (columns) in an adress list files can be rendered into the mail text or subject or attachment filenames - in order to "personalize" the mail.
The column variables are like: %0% (=email address itself), %1% (2nd column), %2% (3rd column), %3% ...
Columns which are not present in the list/table end up as empty string in the message.
HTML Mail: Column numbers referenced with a minus sign in front end up as raw HTML code insertion (HTML/XML format escaping bypassed).

Example of a email subject and text with variables for personalization:

Subject: Personal Newsletter Weatherforecast for %1%
Text:

Hello %1%,
nice weather today.
Today's personal message for you is: %2%
Regards, Dr. Weatherman
PS: this mail was sent to %0% - newletter ref = %-3%.
(Note: the last negative variable %-3% would insert plain HTML snippets in HTML mails without escaping HTML-characters; No difference to %3% in text mode mails.)

The resulting email for this example and address list below (first address) will be:

Subject: Personal Newsletter Weatherforecast for %1%
Text:

Hello Mister A,
nice weather today.
Today's personal message for you is: abc
Regards, Dr. Weatherman
PS: this mail was sent to aa@bb - newletter ref = personal_code123_1.

Example address/personalization list file for this message:

#Example address list (CSV file)
aa@bb; Mister A; abc; personal_code123_1
cc@dd; Mister B; def; personal_code123_2

Or copy&paste a table like this via the Clipboard from Excel:

  • In Excel press Ctrl-A to select all lines; and press Ctrl-C to copy
  • Click into TurboMailer's To: Address List (Recipients) and press Ctrl-V for pasting;
    (Or press the Paste address list button in the toolbar)

Attachment File Personalization

Attachment files can be personalized by adding an attachment file name like personal-attachment-%3%.gif .  The filename part %3% is then replaced by the same scheme as with text or subject (4th table column in this example).

III/ HTML Mail

HTML Mail transfer is switched on by the checkbox "HTML Mail" in the Mailer main window.
HTML Mail can be edited in code view mode or in WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) view mode : Checkbox: HTML View.
By default a auto-generated plain text version of a HTML mail is transmitted together with the HTML format - consistent with MIME standards. This setting can be changed in Menu/Config/AppSettings/HTML_Mail

How to set a manually edited plain text version for HTML Mails

A manually edited plain text version for a HTML Mail can be set - overriding auto-generation from the HTML version. This can be done by putting the plain test version into a special HTML comment "MIME_PLAINTEXT" somewhere inside the HTML code of the message - like this:
<html>
<head>
<title>A HTML Mail with manually edited plain text version</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Hello!</h1>
<p>This is a HTML mail.</p>
<img src="icon.png">
<p>Thanks for reading.</p>
</body>
<!-- MIME_PLAINTEXT:
Hello!
This is a manually edited plain text version of this HTML mail.

Thanks for reading.-->
</html>

IV/ Embedding Images in HTML Email

Embedding images in HTML emails is easy: Turbo-Mailer embeds all local images in your HTML message (image links to local files on your computer) directly into the email as internal attachment automatically when the email is sent. Image links to images on a server (<IMG SRC="http://...">) are sent unaltered. Best test for correct results with some of your own test email addresses and email viewers (sophisticated HTML is displayed differently in different email readers).
Generating a new HTML mail from scratch:
  • New Mail: Press the New Mail tool bar button or select Menu/File/New Mail.
     
  • Select HTML Mail: Check the HTML Mail checkbox above the "Subject" Field in order to tag the message as HTML Mail.
  • Use internal HTML Viewer/Editor: Check the HTML View checkbox and hit the Edit button next to HTML View in order to get additional controls for editing HTML directly inside TurboMailer.

    or / and :
     
  • Use an external HTML editor): Press the "Edit HTML" button on bottom-right of Turbo-Mailer (or Menu/View/HTML Editor) for editing the current message body in a WYSIWYG HTML Editor. You are asked to first save your (empty) message in a file. Its recommended to do this: Thus your HTML code has a definite home folder on your hard disk and you can insert local embedded images with relative paths consistently.

    The HTML editor can be configured in Menu/Config/Settings. Mozilla, Netscape, Dreamweaver and Frontpage are found automatically by Turbo-Mailer and offered in a drop-down list. The default HTML editor is the built-in editor of Internet Explorer (IE; version >= 5.5 ) - which is not recommended. Installing Mozilla or Netscape is recommended, when you don't have another professional HTML editor installed on your computer.
     
  • Edit: Just edit your HTML template file locally with your configured HTML editor. Use simple relative or absolute file paths to your local images for embedding those images to the email.
     
  • Preview: Press the "Preview" Button:  on bottom-right of Turbo-Mailer (or use Menu/View/Preview) in order to check your HTML message.
     
  • Auto-Embedding: All locally linked images are embedded on-the-fly by Turbo-Mailer when the emails are sent out. Best try for correct results with some of your own test addresses. When a local image is not found during transmission you'll get an error message and transmission does not take place.
     
  • Non-Local Images : URLs of absolute web linked images on a server ("http(s)://...") are left unchanged. Such images are not embedded.
    Note: It is recommended to keep big images and attachment files on a web server in order to reduce bandwidth consumption
Generating a HTML mail from an existing HTML file:
  • Load: Drag-drop (or open) the HTML file into Turbo-Mailer and edit the subject. Turbo-Mailer thus knows the home directory of the HTML code for finding relatively linked local (embedded) images.
     
  • "Edit HTML" Button: You can also press the "Edit HTML" button on bottom-right of Turbo-Mailer for editing the current message body quickly in a WYSIWYG HTML Editor. The editor can be configured in Menu/Config/Settings. Default is the built-in Editor of Internet Explorer (IE; version >= 5.5 )

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