Tutorials

What is the "Regional Publication" mailing list entry?

Member View comes with a predefined default mailing list named "Regional Publication". New members are assigned to this mailing list when they are read in from the national data file, provided that the person and the address are not already on the list. You should not delete "Regional Publication" from the member list definitions.

How do I rename "Regional Publication" to the actual name of our newsletter?

You may rename "Regional Publication" to the name of your newsletter by clicking on the "People" button in the "Views" Panel to activate the "People" view. Then select the "Mailings" tab page from the right panel of the "People" window. The top list contains the names of all of the mailing lists defined in your system. Click the "Edit the Mailing List Definitions" button to invoke the mailings list editor dialog.

In the "Edit table" dialog, select the "Regional Publication" entry in the list and type in the name of your newsletter. Then click on the check mark button on the "DB Navigator" beneath the list. Then press the "Close" button to dismiss the dialog.

You will see that the name "Regional Publication" in the upper window (and in the bottom window should the currently selected person be on the mailing list) is replaced with the name you just typed.

Note that you can change any of the mailing list names without affecting the people and addresses that have been assigned to the list.

How do I output a mailing list?

To output a user defined mailing list, for example the "Regional Publication" mailing list, click on the "Mailings" button in the "Views" section of the "Member View Controller".

Select an entry from the right list pane. This list contains an entry for each mailing list name defined in the system. After a short delay, the left pane will contain a list of names and addresses assigned to the selected mailing list.

Press the little hand and paper speed button that appears above the names list. This will cause the "Label Reports" dialog box to appear.

In the "Label Reports" dialog box, select the kind of output you want. "Normal format" will produce a four or five line address. "Publisher format" will produce a special format that is used by commercial printing houses to generate bulk mailings.

If you select "Publisher format" all of the check boxes except the "No Dup.Addrs." check box and the "Call Editor" check box will disappear.

If you want to review the output file in your favorite editor, make sure the "Call Editor" box is checked, and that you have assigned and selected your favorite editor. At CSI, the entry for the editor field is "C:\WINWORD\WINWORD.EXE". On your computer it may be different. Press the button with the three dots to browse for the editor you wish to use, should it not be listed in the combo box drop down list.

Select the options that you want to apply to the file that is to be written. Use "Soft CR’s" and "Form Feeds after records" if you wish to use the file in a Microsoft Word document. If you want a regular text file without any word processor formatting characters, uncheck both these boxes.

If you want to insure that there are no duplicate addresses in the output, make sure the "No Dup.Addrs." box is checked.

Press the "hand and page Report" speed button to continue.

A "Save As" dialog box will appear that allows you to select a directory and file name to which the output is to be written. You may use the defaults or change them. If the file exists, the program will warn you and then ask if you want to overwrite it. If you don’t, say no, and then change the file name or directory.

How do I print a report?

To print the file to a printer you use the printing facilities of your favorite editor or word processor. You can read the generated file into your word processor, or if you selected the "Run Editor" selection, you can format and print the file immediately. If you changed the format, be sure to save it before dismissing the editor or word processor.

Member View does not directly support printing to a printer. This was done on purpose as we did not want to produce the full featured word processor within Member View that would be required to duplicate the features of commercial word processors. Generally there is some formatting required for mailing labels and other documents that would be beyond the scope of Member View to duplicate. Plain text printouts are not particularly useful anyway. This is also why CSI choose (at this time anyway) not to integrate a commercially available report generator into the product. Nearly all of these programs simply write formatted reports to a printer, rather than writing formatted (for example Rich Text Format) text to a file. We feel that the idea is to reduce the paper glut, not increase it!

How do I create a Drivers mailing List?

Click the "People" view button on the "Member View Controller".

Select the "Mailings" tab from the "People" view window.

If you don’t find "Drivers" listed in the upper right list pane then do the following.

Press the "Edit the mailing list definitions button".

In the "Edit table" dialog box, press the "+" button at the bottom of the list. A blank entry will appear in the list. Mouse to the empty field, and type in "Drivers" (with out the quotes, of course). Then press the little "check" button in the strip of icon buttons below the list to accept the entry. Click the "Close" button and the new mailing list name should appear in the upper list of the currently selected member.

Click the "user defined query" button that is in the array of buttons underneath the names pane. This is the button with the fancy blue question mark and the little vertically arrayed dashes.

In the "Query Name" list, select the entry entitled "Drivers".

Click the "OK" button.

All of the people who have some kind of competition license should then be listed in the "People" view name list pane.

In the "Mailings" tab page, click the "Batch" button.

In the "Mailing Address Batch Operations" dialog box, select "Drivers" from the list.

Click on the "Add to mailing" radio button from the "Command" panel if it is not already selected.

Click on the "People in List" radio button in the "People" options panel.

Choose the desired selection in the "Addresses" options panel.

Press the "Execute" button to put the people on the mailing list.

"Close the Mailing Address Batch Operations" dialog to finish.

Is there another way to put members on a mailing list?

Yes. You can put members on a mailing list using the "Mailing Address Batch Operations" technique as described for drivers.

If you only want "Primary Members" on the mailing list, execute the user defined query named "Active Primary Members", then press the "Mailing Address Batch Operations" and select the desired mailing from the mailings name list, turn on the "People in List" radio button and click "Execute".

How do I remove dropped members from my mailing lists?

To remove the dropped members from a mailing list. Go to the mailings tab page. Click the "Batch" button. In the batch dialog, select the mailing list you want the people to be removed from, in the command group, click on "Remove from mailing" radio button. In the people group, click on the "Dropped Members" radio button. Then click on the "Execute" button to perform the operation. All "dropped" members will be taken off the selected mailing list.

How do I remove people from a mailing list without having to select each person in turn?

Use the mailing address "Batch" Operations" button located on the "People" view "Mailings" tab page. In the dialog, turn on the "Remove from mailing" radio button located in the "Command" panel. Remember to set up the lists, select the desired mailings name and set the other options before pressing the "Execute" button.

How do I import a Monitor Systems drivers file (Drivers.dat) into Member View?

In the people window menu, click on the Import menu item, then click on the Monitor Drivers item.

In the window that appears, press the Open button to and select a "drivers.dat" file to import, or if a monitor table has been "populated", use the existing file.

Press the "Correct" button. This function checks the data in the Monitor table against the data already existing in the Member View Data Base (MVDB) and corrects the Monitor table entries to reflect the existing data. The assumption is that the data in the Member View Data Base is more accurate than the information gathered at registration. It is necessary to perform this somewhat lengthy procedure to insure that the integrity of the Member View data is not compromised.

The software can match most names and addresses but there are some that it cant match. For example if the middle name and the first names are switched, a match won’t be found. Therefore it is necessary to perform the following step.

Sort the Monitor table on the "Region Name" column. To do this, right click the mouse while the arrow is over the "Region Name" column heading. Then for each name in you region that has not been found (the "In MV" column entry is "No" and the color of the field is yellow) click the "Find in MVDB" button. If a match on the last name of the person is found, all of those with that last name is presented in a "pop up" dialog. Choose the appropriate record from the list or press the "Close" button to dismiss the dialog without making a choice.

When your are satisfied that the names are correct, press the "Import" button to read the names and addresses into Member View. As the data are read into Member View, confirmation boxes are displayed if there is a change to existing data.

Within Member View, each entry will be placed on a list named "Race Entrants".

I get an "Error out of cursor handles" message from MemberView and the applications stops working. How can I keep this from happening.

This error is a result of Windows having a finite number of "file handles" available to an application. There are a couple of things you can try.

If you are working under Windows 95 with the 16 bit version, start the "Database Engine Configuration" program, go to the "System" tab and increase the value of the "MAXFILEHANDLES" parameter. Note that the header of the program window will say something like "BDE Configuration Utility". A value greater or equal to 16 should work, but in any case, increase the number by a significant amount (say 5), and save the configuration when prompted. Don’t touch any of the other values. If the error still occurs, increase the value until the error disappears. The maximum value for this parameter is 255.

On a Windows 3.1 system, you may also have to increase the number of files available to the system as specified in your "config.sys" file. Do this by changeing the "FILES=xx" line to make the xx a larger number. I have used 80 in the past with no problem. If the line is not in your "config.sys" file add the line "FILES=80" to the file (without the quotes, of course).

Tutorials

A single person on mailing lists

In order for an address to be used in a mailing list, two things have to be
so.

1: the "Mail Here" check box on the address tab has to be checked
    for an address to be used
2: the list has to have an address associated with it. Go to the "Lists"
    tab and select the list A pop up with "Last Created", "Last Changed"
    and "Choose from list". Generally the "Last Created" selection
    will be the address you want, but if you have edited the
    address, this may not be so. If this is the case, select the
    "Choose from list" item and select the address that you want
    to use for the mailing.

Batch operations with lists.

Adding people to lists using the "Batch" command.

Go to the "lists" tab on the "People" page and press the "Batch" button.

Select a list in the "Mail List Name" pane.

Select an operation, either "Add to list" or "Remove from list".
  "People" command.
      "People in list" will process only those people
              that are in the "People" list on the main "People" form.
              Selecting this will add or remove only those people
              that are in the "People" list from the selected "mailing"
              list.
      "All People" will add or remove all of the people Member View has in
             the DB  to or from the list.
      "Active Members" will add or remove all of the currently active
             members to or from the list.
      "Dropped Members" will add or remove all of the currently dropped
             members to or from the list.
     Addresses (addresses to use when "Execute"ed.)
    "Ask if more than one" will display a choice list of addresses should a
             person have more than one address in the database. Choose the
            appropriate address.
    "Last Created" will automatically select the last address that was
            created. The creation date for the read in National file data is
            the date of the National file, so be careful with this
            one.
    "Last Modified" this will automatically choose the last address that was
             modified.
     Then press the "Execute" button to execute the change(s).
     When it is done press the "Close" button.

Members only list operations

Adding members to lists using the "Add member to a list" command.
    Go to the "lists" tab on the "People" page and press the
       "Add member to a list" button.
      The "Manage member only lists" dialog will appear.
         "List Name" panel, select a list.
         "Address To Use" (addresses to use when "Execute"ed.)
                 "Choose (if more than one)  will display a choice list of
                       addresses should a person  have more than one
                       address in the database. Choose the
                       appropriate address.
                "Last Created" will automatically select the last address
                        that was created. The creation date for
                        the read in National file data is the date of the
                        National file, so be careful with this one.
               "Last Modified" this will automatically choose the
                        last address that was modified.
         "Restrict to members with status" check boxes
               "Active" will enable operation on all active members.
               "Late" will enable operation only on members with late
                       renewal.
               "Dropped" will enable operation on only members who have
                       been dropped from membership.
               "Unknown" will enable operation on only members whose
                       status is marked as "Unknown".
         "Always confirm" check box"
                Check this only when doing the operation for small
                       selections - like  "Unknown" status.
                        Otherwise uncheck it.
         "Filter by region" button.
                This will restrict the operation to only those regions that
                       have been selected.

Tutorial - Balloting list

Setting up a balloting list.
    If you need a new list.
        In the "People" view, go to the lists tab for any person.
        Press the "Edit the list definitions".
        Press the "+" button on the navigation "widget".
        Type in the name of the new list, for example "Ballot List"
            (without the quotes).
        Press the Check button on the navigation "widget"
        Press the "Close" button.
    On the "Lists" tab do the following.
        Press the "Add members to a list" button.
        Select a list.
        Select the "Address to use" - Try "Choose" for starters.
        Check the "Active" check box.
        Uncheck the "Always confirm" check box.
        Press the "Choose" button in the "Filter by region" section
             and choose your region (For example - Atlanta)
             then press the "Filter" button.
        Press the "Execute" button.


Tutorial - Batch removal

Fixing mistakes or lists with a lot of errors.

    On the "People" view Select the "Lists" tab.
    Press the "Batch" button.
    Select the mailing list you wish to operate on from the
        "Mail List Name" list box.
    Select "Command" "Remove from list".
    Select "Remove from list"
    Select "People" "All People".
    Press the "Execute" button. This operation is very fast
        so there will only be a short delay while the
        operation executes.
    Press the "Close" button.
    The selected list now has no people in it.