Contact Manager: Manage Messages Contact Manager: Manage Messages
The Contact Manager system can store any number of letters and email messages. These can be retrieved to be sent to either a contact or group of contacts.
To access the program, select Manage Messages from the Contact Manager menu. The following window comes into view:
On the left is a listing of all the letters and message currently stored in the system. Letters are preceded by a letter icon, email messages by an email icon. On the right is a preview of the highlighted letter or message. Scrolling through the list on the left will change the preview on the right.
Adding or Changing a Letter or Message
When the ‘Add’ button in pressed, the following menu comes into view:
If ‘Email’ is selected, the following screen comes into view:
In this simple screen, the title and body of the email message can be entered. Recipient(s), subject, and attachment(s) may be added when the message is actually sent to a contact or group of contacts.
Add Merge Field (drop-down list box)
This drop-down box contains all of the available merge fields for email composition. When a merge field is selected from the list, it will be placed in the email message body at the current cursor location. The field will appear in brackets {}, which indicates that this field will be replaced with information from the contact file when the email is sent to a contact or group of contacts.
HTML Text (check box)
Check this box if the Email message will be sent as an HTML Message. Create an HTML message with an HTML editor and paste the code in this window. HTML enabled viewers will display the message appropriately.
Preview (button)
Press the Preview button to view the HTML message in the default HTML viewer of the current user.
If ‘Letter’ is selected during insert, the following screen comes into view:
Here the letter can be composed. Each letter is stored using Rich Text Format (RTF) which means that formatting characters are added to the text to allow different font sizes, styles and colors, as well as tabs and justification. Also, merge fields are available to allow the creation of Form Letters.
Description
Enter a short title or description for the letter. This will show up in the letter list on the previous screen. The title entered here serves as the sort order for the list of letters.
Margins (button)
Clicking on the margins button will cause the following screen to appear:
Specify the width of the Top, Left, Right and Bottom margins in inches.
Add Merge Field (drop-down list box)
This drop-down box contains all of the available merge fields for letter writing. When a merge field is selected from the list, it will be placed in the letter at the current cursor location. The field will appear in brackets {}, which indicates that this field will be replaced with information from the contact file when the letter is printed for a contact or group of contacts.
Font Tools (buttons)
Drop down boxes are provided for Font Style and Font Size. Buttons are provided for Bold, Italic, Underline and Font Color.
Alignment Tools (buttons)
Buttons are provided for Left Justification, Centered, Right Justification, and Bullets/Numbering.
Ruler
Tab stops can be inserted on the ruler at the top of the text box. Simply click on the ruler to add a tab stop. Click on an existing tab stop to delete the tab stop.
All of the tools described above will apply to the highlighted text. For example, if a block of text is highlighted and the ‘Italic’ button is pressed, only the highlighted characters will be Italicized.
Additional Pull-Down Menus
When this screen is visible, additional menu items are added to the main window.
Edit Menu
The ‘Edit’ menu has additional menu options of ‘Undo (Ctrl-Z)’, ‘Redo (Ctrl-Y)’, ‘Find (Ctrl-F)’ and ‘Replace’. These are the same functions the user might expect to find in any Windows word processor.
Format Menu
A new pulldown menu titled ‘Format’ will appear on the main window. This menu includes options for ‘Font...’, ‘Alignment’, and ‘Bullet Style’. These also are functions found in other Windows word processors, and will not be described here.
When the letter has been completed, click on the ‘OK’ button to save the letter. The letter will now appear in the list box, with its contents previewed in the box on the right.