There is lots of interest among nonprofits for access to free email list, or listserv, services. ebase is a potential solution, with limitations. In version 1.0 of ebase, you can keep all of your email addresses for any of your contacts and set up any number of lists to distribute information only to people "subscribed" to each list. Please note that ebase is not a traditional listserv or email list application. It is a database application from which you can send email. List moderators in your office can broadcast to the list, but subscribers to the list cannot send messages to the list. Your subscribers cannot subscribe or unsubscribe themselves. Your users cannot receive digested versions of higher traffic listservs. Undeliverable email addresses cannot be automatically removed. These features may or may not be in version 2.0 of ebase, due this year. To set up and use email lists, you'll need to open ebase (available at http://www.ebase.org) using FileMaker Pro (the following instructions are for version 1.03 of ebase using FileMaker Pro 5.5, both current): 1. Go to the Custom tab, and enter Layout mode in the names_.10x file. 2. Throw the Email Lists field onto the first available custom layout. 3. While still in Layout mode, select on the Email Lists field. Under the Format menu, select the Field Format... option. Click on the radio button by "Pop-up list", and then select "Check boxes" from the pull down list. Click OK. 4. Select the Define Value Lists... Option from the File menu. Scroll through the list for Listserv lists, and open it. Note that now it is set to List 1, List 2, etc. You can change these names to anything you like. 5. Still in Layout mode on the Custom layout, resize the field border for Email Lists field to expose your new list of email list names. If you want the Email Lists field to appear on another layout, copy and paste it now. 6. In Browse mode, find records of individuals you want to subscribe to each list, and click in the appropriate check box for each list you want to subscribe them to. When you want to send an email message to one of the email lists, configure your email client to send email. Instructions for configuring Eudora are included in the ebase Administrator Manual, pages 2-8 through 2-12, available for free download at http://www.ebase.org/manuals.htm. If you want to use Microsoft Outlook as your email client on a Windows computer, Microsoft makes it easy for you as long as there is only one account configured. Test it simply by clicking on the email envelope next to the email address on the Home screen of any record that has an email address. If Outlook is configured for more than one account to send email from, Outlook will ask you for which one. This can be a problem, if you are sending a lot of email. Similarly, more recent Outlook security patches will try to prevent any outside program from taking control of Outlook (such as a virus, or FileMaker). Thus when sending email from ebase, outlook will pup up a "do you really want to do this" dialog with every email sent from ebase, requiring an affirmative response from you. This should not be a problem for email lists, however, as you generally send email in batches (see below). NOTE: Microsoft Outlook Express or Microsoft Entourage, both of which work on a Mac OS computer, can be configured to send email from any FileMaker Pro 5.5 application, including ebase. This is different from previous versions of FileMaker which could only send email from Eudora on the Mac. Finally, find the records that are subscribed to the list, and then create a new email message following the directions in Chapter 19 of the ebase User Manual, available for free download at http://www.ebase.org/manuals.htm. Send your emails in "batch" mode for fastest transmission: be sure to change the default number of messages that can be sent in the Setup routine (page 2-21 of the ebase Administrator Manual). Marshall ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ebase - Relationship Management for Nonprofits, http://www.ebase.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Marshall Mayer mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] CEO, TechRocks http://www.techrocks.org 633 Battery Street - Suite 110 phone: 415.291.9535 x104 San Francisco, CA 94111-1812 USA eFax: 208.361.0149 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Please note my new address and phone number in TechRock�s SF office. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------ Reminder to each recipient: To change your list account preferences, go to http://email.sparklist.com/scripts/lyris.pl?enter=support and enter the email address you used to subscribe to the ebase support list:: [email protected] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------- ebase - Relationship Management for Nonprofits, http://www.ebase.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------
