1.

- Getting Started
The Maxbulk Mailer document window is made of five tab panels
labeled: Message,Recipients, Settings, Preview and Delivery.
In the process of creating a new email campaign you will very likely go through
those panels in this same order:
1.- You start a new campaign by setting a subject and composing a message.
2.- You select a recipient list, create a new one or import recipients from a file.
3.- You select a mail account or create a new one by entering all the
necessary settings.
4.- You preview your message to make sure it will show up properly to your
recipients.
5.- You send out your message to your recipients and make sure everything is
going well looking at the delivery panel.
2.- Composing your message
Launch MaxBulk Mailer - On launching MaxBulk Mailer, you are up in the Message
panel, where you can start typing your message.
Type the subject - Use the subject field to place a brief summary of what your message is
about. It is recommended that you keep the subject to 40 characters or less. MaxBulk Mailer
also supplies a number of predefined prefixes ( 'News', 'Announce', 'Information' and 'Press
Release') that you can insert to your subject to help your recipients identify the type of
message you are sending. You can create new ones and store them for later use.
Compose your message - You can drop text files or paste text from any other text editor
to the message field. If you want to, you can also spice up your message by sending it as
styled text or using HTML code, with styles like Bold, Underline, larger font size, or a
different font color. Note that styles and HTML increase the size of the actual email and
perhaps not every one will be able to read it.
Set the priority (Optional) - Priority doesn't make your mail reach the recipient faster but
only produces some effects on recipient side: subject will show itself with a different color
for example.
Add attachments (Optional) - Maxbulk Mailer also supports the inclusion of attachments or
enclosures, so you can add pictures, a Microsoft Word document, an Acrobat PDF or any
type of document to your email out. To add an attachment just drag and drop the
corresponding file to the clip icon, to the attachment list or directly onto the message. Set
the encoding if necessary. Please read carefully the Attachments chapter to learn more on
attachments and encodings. Inline attachments and pictures are allowed.
Ask for a Return Receipt (Optional) - Some email readers include an option that forces
recipients to send a receipt back to the sender when opening incoming mails. It works
properly with Netscape mail client for example and likely will be implemented in most mail
readers in a near future. Use this feature carefully when sending mass mailings to avoid

being flooded by thousands of receipts!

Set the message format - Depending on the type of message you are about to send you
should select the format that best suits your needs from Plain Text, Text/HTML, HTML only,
Web Page and Styled Text.
- Select Plain text for plain text messages.
- Select Text/HTML for a combination of a plain text version and an HTML version of your
message.
- Select HTML only for an HTML message with no plain text alternative.
- Select Web Page to send a copy of an online Web page to your recipients.
- Select Styled Text if you want to use styles like Bold, Italic, Underline, Color, Font, Size,
Bullet lists...
Note that MaxBulk Mailer also supports:
-

Plain Text with attached or inline attachments.

HTML and Text/HTML messages with online or inline pictures.
Styled Text with online or inline pictures.
Web Page (by URL)

An inline attachment in a Plain Text email can be placed anywhere in your message when an
attached attachment will be placed depending on the recipient email software. An inline
picture (HTML, Text/HTML and Styled Text) is embedded directly into the message when an
online picture will be fetched from the internet when the recipient open the message. Read
the 'Message formats' and the 'Attachments' chapters for more information.

3.- Message formats

Depending on the type of message you are composing select the format that best suits your
needs from Plain Text, Text/HTML, HTML only, Web Page and Styled Text. Each
format is explained in details below.
Note: A comment header can be added to your message, whichever the format you have
selected, by using the '<-- START -->' marker. Everything above that marker will be
ignored.
Plain Text
The Plain Text format is the most used, the most compatible and the fastest way for
creating and sending emails. It is very simple to use as only row text is allowed without
styles. The only thing you have to take care of is the number of characters per line when
you insert line breaks. You can just write sentences with no line breaks at all, the final result
will actually depend on the recipient email reader. Modern software like Mac OS X Mail,
Entourage or Windows Outlook use to display the lines the same way without rewrapping
but older software may rewrap your text to 72 characters per line following the 'Philip Bar'
formatting. This is the reason why it is usually recommended to keep lines shorter than 72
characters long to avoid unexpected results on the recipient side, when the email reader is
set to rewrap the message contents to 72 characters. MaxBulk Mailer doesn't insert line
breaks on its own so you are free to send long lines if you prefer and let the recipient mail

reader to freely display the message. MaxBulk Mailer inserts a 'format=flowed' parameter to
the Content-type header of your message to force the recipient mail reader to keep the
original text format.
The Philip bar is a visual marker which indicates the limit of the window's visible area
when the window is zoomed to fill a classic (512-pixel-wide) Macintosh screen. It's named
for Philip Borenstein, former tech-writer at Symantec, who requested some indication of this
width limit, so that he could write "read me" files that all users would be able to read
without scrolling.
Text/HTML
The Text/HTML format is a combination of an HTML message and a Plain Text alternative.
The HTML message is made of standard HTML code. The Plain Text part follow the Plain Text
format explained above.
Actually the Text/HTML format is a MIME format that means HTML with a text alternative,
the HTML code will be rendered by the recipient email reader if supported else the Text
alternative will be displayed. To use that format you have to create a text alternative of your
message, usually a plain text copy of your HTML message and then paste the HTML code
below. At delivery time the Text/HTML will be made of 3 parts:
1.- An error message created automatically by MaxBulk Mailer to warn the recipient in case
its email reader doesn't understand the MIME format. It says:
This message is in MIME format. Since your mail reader does not understand
this format, some or all of this message may not be legible.
2.- The plain text version of your HTML message that will be used in case the recipient email
reader understand the MIME format but is not able to render HTML.
3.- The HTML code to be rendered if the recipient email reader application understand the
MIME format and is able to render HTML.
Note: MIME stands for 'Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions'. It is a standard that
describes how internet messages have to be formated. (RFC2045)
To create a Text/HTML message just choose the Text/HTML format from the format pulldown menu, write the Text version and paste the HTML version code below. Your document
should be formatted this way:
Hello world!
<html>
<body>
<p>Hello world!</p>
</body>
</html>
Note: If you select the "Text/HTML" format but you don't provide a text version it will be
created on the fly using the HTML code. You may get very poor results on complex

documents though.
The HTML code can be created with your favorite HTML editor software. We recommend
WYSIWYG tools like Adobe Golive, Macromedia Dreamweaver or a specialized text editor like
BBEdit from Barebones. HTML documents are always saved as text. <HTML> and </HTML>
tags are required and are always included in the HTML code.
HTML only
'HTML only' messages are made of HTML code only. They don't have any 'Plain Text'
alternative nor a MIME alert. As a result we always assume that all recipient's email
software will be able to render the HTML code. To create an 'HTML only' message just paste
your HTML code to the MaxBulk Mailer message field and select the 'HTML only' format from
the format pull-down menu. Note that your HTML code has to begin with the <HTML> tag
and end with the </HTML> tag. Your document should be formatted this way:
<html>
<body>
<p>Hello world!</p>
</body>
</html>
Note: It's recommended to use the Text/HTML format, which includes a text alternative
version of your message when sending HTML as perhaps some of your recipient's software
may not support HTML.
HTML code can be created with your favorite HTML editor software. We recommend
WYSIWYG tools like Adobe Golive or Macromedia Dreamweaver or a specialized text editor
like BBEdit from Barebones. HTML documents are always saved as text. <HTML> and
</HTML> tags are required and are always included in the HTML code.
Web Page
You can send a message containing a copy of a web page simply by using its URL. Just
select the 'Web Page' format from the format pull-down menu and paste the URL in the
message field. MaxBulk Mailer will get the code located at that address and will send it to
your recipients. It is extremely simple and easy to use. You can provide a BASE HREF tag to
the HTML code on the second line if necessary. The BASE HREF parameter converts all the
relative URLs into absolute ones. To add an alternative plain text version as with Text/HTML
format, add two line-breaks and the text right below.
Styled Text (Pro only)
The Styled Text format allows you to enhance your text messages with styles such as bold,
italic, underline, colors, fonts and sizes. Select the 'Styled Text' format from the format pulldown menu and use the formatting options accessible from both the formatting toolbar
located right above the message field and the 'Format' top menu. Read the 'Formatting text'
chapter for more information on styles.
When sending a "Styled Text" message, MaxBulk Mailer converts your text into HTML code

and also creates a text alternative version on the fly automatically so all recipients will be
able to read your message even though they use a text-only email reader.

4.- Attachments
Maxbulk Mailer allows you to send emails with attachments. You can add pictures, PDFs or
any kind of file to your message. To add an attachment just drag and drop the file to the
clip icon, to the attachment list or directly onto the message.
Click on the disclosure triangle to expand the attachment panel. You can then use the 'Add'
and 'Delete' buttons to modify the list and double-click any attachment to open it with its
associated viewer application. Command-Click or Control-Click an attachment to replace it.
The attachment panel also lets you change the encoding if necessary.
Encoding
Default encoding is Base64. Base64 is fine for the vast majority of attachments. MacBinary,
BinHex, AppleSingle and AppleDouble are old legacy formats used by Apple in the past. You
can also use UUEncode instead of Base64 but this format is less popular nowadays.
Inline attachments
MaxBulk Mailer gives full support for inline attachments allowing you to display pictures or
files right in your message. In fact, inline attachments are files such as pictures you drag
and drop directly to your message rather than to the attachment panel. As a result, if you
have selected the 'Plain Text' or the 'Styled Text' format, the inline attachments will be
displayed in the place they have been dropped. In the case of the HTML format, inline
pictures will be embedded inside the HTML code and will be displayed where they are
referenced. Note that the attachment tags or picture references should always correspond
to the files you have attached to your document.
You have to be very careful about the total size of your attachments when sending
individual messages because you will send as many times that size during the delivery. That
means sending 10Kb to 1,000 recipients will generate 10Mb traffic! With a 2Kb/s bandwidth
it will take 1 hour and 25 minutes.

5.- Recipients
The Recipients panel is the area where you can create and edit your recipient lists.
You can either enter new addresses manually, or import them from a file or another
application like FileMaker Pro or Excel.
The list is made of columns, labeled by default Firstname, Surname, Company and Email
Address followed by 20 optional columns (Pro only). On the very first column starting from
the left, a check box lets you activate or deactivate each entry individually. In addition, that
column also displays the recipient number and an icon indicating its delivery status.
Adding, deactivating and deleting records
You can add a new recipient by clicking on the '+' button. First field will be made editable
allowing you to type the text directly. You can move back and forth between fields/columns
by pressing the tab or the shift-tab keys. To remove recipients from a list, select them and
click on the '-' button. Note that deleting recipients that have unsubscribed from your

newsletter is almost never a good strategy for maintaining your lists because you may add
them again later accidentally. MaxBulk Mailer lets you deactivate unsubscribed recipients by
highlighting one or several recipients and selecting the list contextual menu 'Subscribe' or
'Unsubscribe'. Unsubscribed recipients are deactivated but remain on your list thus you
can't add them again accidently. You can re-subscribe them at anytime though. If a
recipient is present in several lists you can also add it to the blacklist. You can add
addresses to the Blacklist simply by highlighting them and selecting the 'Add to Blacklist'
menu from both the list contextual menu (right-clicking on the list) and from the
'Recipients' main menu. The Blacklist is somehow like a global un-subscription mechanism.
Editing a record
You can edit a recipient in a separate window by double-clicking on a its icon or directly in
the list by double-clicking a cell. With the separate editor window you can navigate back
and forth through all the records using the 'Previous' and 'Next' buttons. Press the
Command or Control keys at the same time to increment or decrement by 10 and Shift +
Command or Control for even bigger steps (list count / 25). In addition, you can use your
mouse wheel to navigate back and forth through the list and edit several entries at once, as
you already do with songs in iTunes. That allows you to set the common data of a group of
recipients or to clear columns. Just highlight several entries from your list and select 'Edit'
from the list contextual menu. You will get displayed a new multiple edit window very
similar to the one in iTunes, actually it works mostly the same way. Only checked
fields/columns will be finally updated throughout the selection. A field get checked as soon
as you modify it.
Temporal record deactivation
In order to get control over each recipient for a particular delivery, MaxBulk Mailer lets you
enable or disable each recipient individually. By default all recipients are checked/activated.
Uncheck the recipients you don't want to send your message to by highlighting one or
several recipients and clicking on any of the check boxes on the left. This feature is
intended to be used for specific deliveries. To deactivate a recipient as a result of an unsubcription request, use the 'Unsubscribe' feature instead.
Selecting or changing recipient statuses
You can change each recipient status by using the tool menu located above the list, the
'Recipients | Mark' menu or the list contextual menu. For example a recipient can be
marked as 'Sent' or as 'Unsent'. You may also select recipients depending on their status
('Select Sent', 'Select Unsent', 'Select Failed'...) and remove them from the list or export
them to a file.
List management
All the list management is done by using the list manager pull-down menu right above the
list field and the 'Save' button on the right. After adding recipients for the first time you
may save the new list by clicking on that 'Save' button or by selecting the 'Save current list
as...' menu from the list manager pull-down menu. You can add recipients to any existing
list by selecting it first. Just remember to click on the 'Save' button when you are done.
Each time you want to send a message to a list, just select it from the list manager pulldown menu. You can have as many lists as you need and all of them will be available
through this same pull-down menu. You can delete a list by selecting it and choosing the
'Remove Current List' menu from the list manager pull-down menu. Note that deleted lists
are moved to the '~/Library/Application Support/Maxprog/MaxBulk Mailer/Trash' folder thus

they can be recovered in case or an accidental deletion.

Merging lists
You have the possibility to temporally merge two or more lists together by selecting the
'Multiple Lists' menu from the list manager pull-down menu. This option offers by far the
best way to send a message to several lists at once as it takes care of possible duplicates
for you. It lets you create clean new lists as the combination of others. All you need is at
least two lists. After selecting the 'Multiple Lists' menu from the list manager pull-down
menu you can start with the merging by checking the lists you want to merge from the top
list. You can see the merging on the recipient list right below. If you uncheck a list, all
recipients from that list are also removed from the merging. If you highlight one or several
lists their recipients will be highlighted as well. Once you are done you can simply perform
a delivery or save the new list.
Remote List Management
You can let people both subscribe to or unsubscribe from your mailing lists at any time by
using the Mailing List manager. The Mailing List Manager (MLM for short) is a double opt-in
list subscription PHP script you might install on your site for maintaining your lists online.
Your clients and contacts can then subscribe to or unsubscribe from any of your lists at any
time through a link on your message or through a web page on your site. It supports a full
set of commands you can use either directly with your web browser to maintain your lists
or by placing them on your web pages or on your outgoing messages. Unlike other products
and depending on your possibilities and knowledge, MLM is prepared to work with either a
mySQL database or simple raw text files. MLM has no limitations, you can create as many
lists as you wish with as many subscribers as you need. MLM works with MaxBulk Mailer
through the 'Remote Lists' menu allowing you to use your remote lists directly as if they
were local, without needing to go through the tedious import/export steps. You just need to
edit the script settings, upload it to your site, open MaxBulk Mailer preferences and enter
the script URL and the administrator password. You can then access your lists from the
'Remote Lists' menu on the Lists manager pull-down menu. You can get more information
on MLM here:http://www.maxprog.com/scripts/list_manager/
Global Blacklist
The Global Blacklist prevents you from sending messages to given addresses whichever the
list you have selected. You just need to add the addresses once to the blacklist to get them
automatically blacklisted everywhere else. The Blacklist is accessible from the List manager
pull-down menu like a regular list. You can add new addresses to the blacklist as you do
with a regular list or by using the 'Add to Blacklist' menu from both the list contextual menu
(right-clicking on the list) and from the 'Recipients' main menu. Blacklisted addresses
appear in red with a different icon so you can easily tell them apart. To remove an address
from the Blacklist you just have to go to the Blacklist, select the address(es), click on the
delete button '-' and then on the 'Save' button. As with unsubscribed addresses, blacklisted
recipients are automatically discarded by MaxBulk Mailer when sending messages. If you
add an address that is currently Blacklisted, it will automatically appear in red with its
specific icon so you can find out instantly about its status.
Quick Selector (Pro Only)
Click on the disclosure triangle on the left of the Lists selector pull-down menu to expand
the Quick Selector panel. The Quick Selector lets you select, unselect, activate or deactivate
entries matching a given rule. For example you may activate recipients from a given state
or select recipients from a given domain.

Sorting
As with any other application, you can sort any column by pressing on its header. Besides,
you can sort email addresses by domain pressing the ALT or the Command key while
clicking on the email column header or you can sort recipients by status pressing the ALT or
the Command key while clicking on the Delivery column header.
MaxBulk Mailer supports several types of imports taking care of bad emails and duplicates
for you. Note that duplicate checking can be deactivated from the preferences. A report is
displayed right after the import when errors or duplicates have been detected.
Importing from a Text file
You can import recipients from other applications quite easily. The very first step is to save
or export your list in a format MaxBulk Mailer understand. That includes Tab-delimited or
Comma-delimited text among others. Once your file has been created you just need to click
on the Import button, select the 'From a Text File' menu and open the file. You will then
enter the import screen. After selecting the field delimiter from the field delimiters pulldown menu you will be able to preview records and navigate back and forth through the file
by clicking on the left and right arrow buttons. Note that what you see on screen is what
you will get after importing the recipients thus it is important to set the encoding properly.
Maxbulk Mailer assists you during the importation process by giving you the possibility to
import the fields you really need in the order you want. In fact, the fields on your file are
likely organized differently and won't correspond with the field order required by Maxbulk
Mailer by default. You can alter that order by highlighting any field and by using the up and
down arrows on the right hand side of the screen until it matches the correct field and
repeat the operation as many times as needed. You can again preview the result in real
time and check whether each field will be transfered into the right places. Once all the fields
have been aligned and are properly checked, click the 'Import' button.
Note that the email field is mandatory and must contain an email address. If no email
address is detected, the entry will be discarded. MaxBulk Mailer lets you save your current
import settings for later use. Just use the 'Import Presets' pull-down menu to create, load
or remove your presets.
Drag'n'drop
You can add recipients directly by dragging and dropping a file to the recipient list. You
have to make sure the file is a Tab-delimited plain text file and the fields it contains are
organized in the right order, namely, the First name, the Surname, the Company, the Email
address followed by the optional fields if any (Pro version only):
FirstName1<tab>Surname1<tab>Company1<tab>Email1<tab>Opt1<tab>....Opt20<Return>
FirstName2<tab>Surname2<tab>Company2<tab>Email2<tab>Opt1<tab>....Opt20<Return>
FirstName3<tab>Surname3<tab>Company3<tab>Email3<tab>Opt1<tab>....Opt20<Return>

If you don't follow that format a parser will be activated and will extract the email
addresses from the text.
Pasting from the clipboard

You can also import recipients from the clipboard. Just copy your the text from any
aplication and then select the 'Edit | Paste Special' menu. The format to follow is the same
as above. You can for example copy an Excel sheet columns and paste them to the
recipient list. First column should be Firstname, then Surname, Company followed by email
address.
From Plain Text
This option lets you import recipients by copying and pasting any kind of text. MaxBulk
Mailer will extract the email addresses from the text using the built-in parser. You don't
have to follow any specific format. It can be a bunch of email addresses separated by
commas such as:
[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],
[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],
[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],
[email protected]
From Apple Mail, Microsoft Entourage, Eudora and PowerMail
You can extract email addresses from messages stored in a given folder or mailbox inside
Apple Mail, Microsoft Entourage, Eudora and PowerMail. Just select the corresponding menu
from the Import button or the 'File | Import Recipients' menu. Note that the folder has to
be a root folder, a folder inside another folder.
Look at the FAQ for more information about importing addresses from Entourage Address
Book.
From Mac OS X Address Book and Now Contact
You can import recipients from the Mac OS X Address Book and Now Contact. Note that
MaxBulk Mailer also supports VCARD imports so you can easily add recipients from Mac OS
X Address Book to MaxBulk simply dragging and dropping one or many entries at the same
time (note that you may have to drag the entries to your desktop first and then from your
desktop to MaxBulk Mailer). In addition you can use the 'Import from the Address Book'
menu to import by group and with extended fields choosing to limit the number of email
addresses per entry and the possibility to overwrite the current list with the new values.
From a remote Database (Pro only)
You can import records from a remote mySQL or postgreSQL database. In both cases you
need to provide the host name, the port if different from the default one (mySQL:3303,
postgreSQL:5432), your account ID and your password, the database name, the number of
columns your query is supposed to return, and the query itself. You have to line-up the
expected cursor columns with MaxBulk's in order for the data to get inserted in the right
places. Feel free to select an encoding if the response is not ASCII and activate or not the
duplicate checking.
Note that a remote server can be configured to only accept requests from a script running
on this same server. Contact your provider if you can't manage to get access from MaxBulk

Mailer.
From a Web page
You can import email addresses from a web page. You just need to drag and drop the URL
of the page from your browser to the recipient list or select the 'File | Import Recipients |
From a Web page' menu. The page is then downloaded, processed in the background and
all the email addresses added to your list. You can drag and drop or select as many URLs as
you wish to get them processed and results added to the same list.
Batch processes:
To remove several addresses from a list at once create a plain text file named 'DELETE',
add all the addresses to remove to it, save it and drop it onto the list to process inside
MaxBulk Mailer.
To unsubscribe several addresses from a list at once create a plain text file named
'UNSUBSCRIBE', add all the addresses to unsubscribe to it, save it and drop it onto the list
to process inside MaxBulk Mailer.
To keep addresses from a list create a plain text file named 'KEEP', add all the addresses
to keep, save it and drop it onto the list to process inside MaxBulk Mailer. All other e-mails
will be removed.
To deactivate addresses from a list create a plain text file named 'DEACTIVATE', add all
the addresses to deactivate, save it and drop it onto the list to process inside MaxBulk
Mailer.
Exporting a list:
To export a list select the 'File | Export Recipients' menu. You can select the columns you
want to export by dragging them from one list to the other and set their order. You can also
set the separator between Tab, Comma, Colon and Semicolon, the text encoding and the
type of recipients depending on their statuses. As a result you can fully tailor the output file
depending on your needs.
Cc and Bcc (Pro only)
Cc stands for 'Carbon Copy'. It allows you to send a copy of each message to one or several
addresses. Bcc stands for 'Blind Carbon Copy', it is the same as Cc but the addresses
remain hidden to the recipients. A copy of each message means that for a delivery of 2,500
recipients and the Cc or the Bcc set to yourself you would receive 2,500 copies. In case of
messages personalized with tags you would receive them as the real recipient will. This
feature is embedded with the Quick Selector so click on the disclosure triangle on the left of
the Lists selector pull-down menu to get it displayed. The Cc and the Bcc fields both
support tags.

6.- Settings
Before being able to send a message you need to create at least one email

account. The 'Settings' panel allows you to create as many accounts as you need
and lets you choose from a wide range of delivery options. Typing the settings is
actually the hardest part since you have to know several server related data such
as the SMTP address, your user ID, your password and the authentication scheme
you have to use. This information was given to you by your ISP or your web
hosting company at some time and you are very likely using those settings already
with your other email software. You will find below a detailed description of each
field.
-

SMTP host: Your SMTP host address and port if different from default (address:port).
SSL: To establish a SSL v2, SSL v2/3, SSL v3 or a TLS v1 secure connection (Pro Only).
From: Your email address in the form [email protected]
Name: The name that will appear in the 'From' header.
Reply-To: Optional header you can use to get replies sent to a different email address.
Errors: Optional header you can use to get the errors sent to a different email address.
Signature: Your signature. It will be appended to your message. (Plain text format only)

Select an authentication scheme. Possible choices are None, POP, ESMTP and APOP.
Authentication schemes are mechanisms to verify your identity prior being granted to send
a message through a server. It is usually done by providing a user ID, a password and by
selecting an authentication method.

POP and APOP Authentication:

POP Server: The POP server address and port if different from default.
Account ID: Your account ID.
Password: The password to access this POP account.
SSL: To establish a SSL v2, SSL v2/3, SSL v3 or a TLS v1 secure connection (Pro Only).

ESMTP Authentication:
- Account ID: Your account ID.
- Password: The password to access this ESMTP account.
- Authentication type: From Login (Default), Plain, MD5 Challenge-Response
Note that the Port parameter is optional on both the SMTP and the POP server address.
Provide a port number only in the case you are not using the SMTP default port 25 or the
POP default port 110 (Secure SSMTP 465 and SPOP3 995 respectively).
The Authentication setting is almost always required and some server-side anti-spam
software may look for an Authentication header to determine whether your message is
legitimate.
Connections: MaxBulk Mailer lets you open several simultaneous connections to your
SMTP server. With a fast internet connection this can speed up email delivery quite
significantly, but with a modem connection, you should keep it to one or two connections
only. You should also double-check your agreement with your ISP as to how many SMTP
connections you are allowed to use at once. Note that using 20 connections is not
necessarily faster than with 5 connections because of your system resources and your
connection bandwidth.

Burst Mode: MaxBulk Mailer offers the possibility to open several simultaneous
connections to as many different servers as you wish. Burst Mode is simply the possibility
to use more than one server at once. All you need is at least two servers. You can activate
this option by selecting the 'Burst Mode' menu from the Server pull-down menu and by
checking the servers you want to use from the list. MaxBulk Mailer will then use the servers
you have selected with their corresponding settings. Note that this feature is closely related
to the 'Connections' setting thus using 10 connections with 2 servers will open 5
connections per server.
Group Mails: Your server may limit the number of messages that can be sent during a
session. You can easily match your server requirements by using the Group Mails option to
specify how many messages have to be sent on each session and by setting an Interval
between each batch. The bigger is your group setting and the smaller is you interval, the
faster you will finish but the more likely you're ISP will flag your message as spam.
Bulk Preferences: If you don't use the personalization options of MaxBulk Mailer, you
are missing out on one of its' most powerful features. However, you can speed up the
processing and the delivery of your messages that aren't personalized by deactivating the
'Singly' option. If the 'Singly' option is activated messages are sent one by one, showing
the recipient "To:" header and allowing the email-merge tags to be replaced by their
corresponding values depending on each entry. If the 'Singly' option is deactivated
messages are sent to all recipients at once. It is called the Bulk mode. Note that in both
cases your list is never sent to the recipients. In bulk mode the Default 'To' header is
automatically set to 'Undisclosed-Recipients'. You can change that text to whatever you
prefer. In bulk mode it is highly recommended to use small groups rather than 'All at once'
to avoid 'Insufficient storage' SMTP errors. The precedence option can slightly impact the
delivery priority by informing the server about the nature of the message.
Signature: The signature is a piece of text that will be appended to your message. We
recommend you to consider using it to indicate how your recipients can unsubscribe from
your list. It is also worth considering reminding people of why they are on your list and/or
how they subscribed to it, particularly if you only use it once a month or less. Note that the
signature only applies to messages in the Plain Text format.
Once you are finished with your settings you can save your account by selecting the "Save
new account as..." menu from the account pull-down menu or by clicking on the 'Save'
button.

7.- Preview
MaxBulk Mailer 'Preview' panel allows you to easily check how your final message
looks like, once tags have been processed, all the pictures have been placed and
the signature has been appended. It also allows you to check all the message
headers and, in the case they contain tags, whether they include the intended
data. You can check each individual record by using the left and right arrows on the
top left.
Built-in preview is able to display all the message formats supported by MaxBulk
Mailer from 'Plain Text' to 'Web Page'. However, if your message contains styles or

HTML code, you may want to preview it using a standard browser as well. You can
do that by using the 'Preview in Browser' (eye icon) pull-down menu and by
selecting a browser from the list (Default Browser, Safari, Internet Explorer,
Netscape Navigator, Opera, Mozilla or iCab). That list also contains a 'View Source'
menu to display the HTML source behind a given rendered HTML message.
Old email software may rewrap incoming messages to 72 characters per line
following the 'Philip Bar' formatting. This has historical reasons dating back to
days when all email was plain text and expected to fit on a 80 column by 24 (or
25) line screen. To make email that had been forwarded easy to read when the
quoting character, usually a <, was added to each line, it was customary to limit
the length of each line to 72 characters. Use the Line Length Checking option to
check how your message would look like.
8.- Delivery
You have the choice between sending your message to all the recipients available
in your list or to only part of it. By default, if you click on the 'Send' button at this
point you will send your message to all the recipients in the currently selected list,
however you surely have needed to send out a message to a reduced bunch of
people. Perhaps because you don't want to abuse your ISP server or you simply
need to stagger out your deliveries over several days or sessions to avoid getting
flooded with responses or bounces. We've found through experience that
staggering out the delivery of a message significantly increases your ability to
handle responses and bounces more efficiently. MaxBulk Mailer allows you to do
that from the delivery panel. You can choose to send to All (Default) or to the next
xxx pending recipients. You can also perform a partial delivery selecting a bunch of
recipients and using the 'Delivery | Send | To Selection' menu or the 'Delivery |
Partial Delivery' menu. Remember that MaxBulk Mailer will only send your message
to the recipients that are checked, subscribed, not blacklisted and undelivered.
Once you are ready, click on the 'Send' button, MaxBulk Mailer will then commence
sending your message displaying a log of the transactions with the server.
Depending on your settings, it will send one at a time or a batch of them. Either
way, you'll get to see it communicate with your SMTP server and the responses it
gets back.
Note that MaxBulk Mailer has a Test Mode. If you have activated that Test Mode, MaxBulk
Mailer will send the message(s) to yourself only. Indeed, it is possible to send a message to
all your recipients or a selection of recipients exactly like a real delivery but messages will
not be sent to the recipient addresses but to an address of your choice. That means you
can simulate a real delivery with real data redirecting all the messages to yourself. In order
to toggle between 'Test Mode' and regular delivery mode use the 'Message | Test Mode'
menu. Once you receive your test message(s) and if all is as expected, you can deactivate
'Test Mode' and click on the Send button again to get your message delivered to all your
recipients for real.

Depending on if you check "Singly" or not, MaxBulk Mailer will send the message once to all
the list members or one message per recipient in the list. You have to keep this option
checked if you want the tags to be processed and replaced with each recipient's data.
During the delivery MaxBulk Mailer updates each recipient delivery status. In fact, delivered
and undelivered recipients can be distinguished easily, looking at their icons. A Card icon
means the message has not been delivered yet, a Paper plane icon means message has
been delivered and a Stop icon means an error occurs when processing the recipient.

This allows you to stop and resume a delivery without sending duplicates, already
delivered recipients are automatically discarded. This information is saved with
your document so if you decide to stop and resume later, just open it back and
click on the Send button again, already delivered recipients are also automatically
discarded.
A delivery report is automatically sent to you by email showing how many
messages have been sent, how many were successful and how many failed. The
failures are based on those that the SMTP rejected immediately, often because the
recipient's domain name didn't exist. It doesn't include bounces - those where the
user didn't exist or had a full mail box. You'll get this back as separate email over
the period of a few days.
9.- Using tags

The feature that sets MaxBulk Mailer above a normal email client like Outlook, Entourage
or Mail is its email merge personalization options. You can use the special
tags[FullName], [Firstname], [Surname], [Company] and [E-mail Address] in order
to customize your message with each of your recipient's data. In addition you can insert
the date by using any of the 15 date tags or specific information about the current delivery.
These personalization options are accessed both through the 'Tags' pull-down menu and
the "Edit | Insert tag" menu. For example, you might start composing a message typing:
Hi [Firstname] [Surname],
Chicago, [Month] [Day], [Year] we are proud to announce...
John will then receive the following:
Hi John Donovan,
Chicago, December 10, 2004 we are proud to announce...
The list below shows the available date tags and what they represent:

The internal tags let you insert informacin about the current delivery:

[Delivery Number] The delivery count, the same number that appear in the
Delivery Report.
[Recipient Number] The recipient number in the list.
[Total Recipients] The total recipient count.
[Test Mode] The Test Mode status, 'Yes' or 'No' (Pro only).
[List Name] The current list name (Pro only).
MaxBulk Mailer Pro also offers 20 custom Tags named [Opt1] to [Opt20] for
email merge. They can be used at your convenience in order to send specific data
imported from your database. That is quite handy for software developers who
need to send serials, schools who need to send scores to their alumni and so on.
You can rename them to something that will make more sense to you like
[Address], [Suburb] or whatever. Read the chapter Renaming Optional Tags for
more information.
When sending a message with external online pictures you need to make sure you
are using absolute URLs everywhere so the recipient software will be able to access
the images from the internet. Usually the base URL will always point to the same
domain and the path will be likely the same as well. To make that piece of
information easier to maintain MaxBulk Mailer allows you to use the [Base
href] tag anywhere on your message. The URL for that new tag can be set from
the preferences. For example let say your pictures are available on your site
'pictures' folder. Just set the Base href tag to
'http://www.mydomain.com/pictures/'. You can then use URLs such as '[Base
href]/mypicture.jpg' in your message.
Tags are allowed in the message body, the signature and the custom headers
including the standard headers added through the header editor. MaxBulk Mailer
Pro also allows you to insert tags in the message subject of your message, the Cc
and the Bcc fields.
If you currently own MaxBulk Mailer Standard and you wish to upgrade to MaxBulk
Mailer Pro, please read
10.- Text formatting

Depending on the format you have chosen for your message you will be able to format
your text in different ways:
Plain Text
The Plain Text format only offers text alignment tools to center, justify, right align and

rewrap your text along with the possibility to remove styles, if any, using the default font
and size. Use the corresponding menus from the 'Format' top menu, 'Rewrap Text', 'Align
to Right', 'Center', 'Justify' and 'Make Plain Text' or the alignment buttons located on the
left, right above the message field.

Note that with the Plain Text format, the center, justify and right alignments are done
simply inserting spaces into the text. The Rewrap Text function not only left align but also
reformat all lines to 72 characters long removing all the inserted spaces. You can remove
styles using the message contextual menu 'Make Plain Text' or the shift+cmd+T shortcut.
Styled Text
The Styled Text format allows you to right-align, left-align and center your text and offers a
wide range of rich formatting options like fonts, colors, sizes, bold, italic and underline. All
the formatting options are accessible both from the formatting toolbar located right above
the message field and the 'Format' top menu.

The formatting toolbar also lets you create definition and bullet lists and change
the message background color.
Note that Styled Text format is converted into HTML code right before the delivery
so you can perfectly use standard HTML tags inside your message. Those HTML
formattings will be passed to the final message. For example, to justify your text
just type the following:
<div align="Justify">
Your justified text here.
</div>
Besides, you can add tables and display your text formatted into columns. Just
create the table with your favorite HTML editor and paste the code into the
message removing all the line breaks. For example:
<table><tr><td>Product</td><td>Price</td></tr><tr><td>eMail
Verifier</td><td>$24.90</td></tr><tr><td>eMail
Extractor</td><td>$16.90</td></tr></table>
Before sending your message to your recipient list it is highly recommended to
preview or send a test message to yourself to make sure the final email actually
looks like as you expect.
11.- Conditional messages
MaxBulk Mailer offers the possibility to add conditional statements to your
message. A conditional statement is a set of instructions that you can use to
modify your message contents depending on the recipient. This is particularly
handy if you need to change your message greeting for example depending on the

recipient gender. To insert a conditional statement, use the button on the right of
the tag pull-down menu, choose the tag to be used in the condition from the tag
pull-down menu, the operator, the value to compare the tag with and the result
(the text you want to be used if the condition is verified).

Operator

*
!*
=
<>
#?
?#
>
<
>=
<=

Meaning

contains
doesn't contain
is equal to
is not equal to
starts with
ends with
is greater than
is less than
is greater or equal to
is less or equal to

You can write as many rules as you need using the AND and OR instructions and IF, ELSEIF
and ELSE switches inside the same conditional statement. A rule is made of a tag, an
operator, a value to compare with and a result.
An example of a conditional statement, to customize your messages depending on the
recipient's gender might be:
<IF [[Gender]] = "M" <AND> [[Surname]] <> "">Dear Mr. [Surname],
<ELSEIF [[Gender]] = "F" <AND> [[Surname]] <> "">Dear Mrs. [Surname],
<ELSE>Dear Friend,</IF>

This example contains 4 rules. We have renamed an optional field to 'Gender'. In the
'Gender' column we have placed a letter 'M' or 'F' for Male and Female. At delivery time
MaxBulk Mailer will choose from: 'Dear Mr. [Surname]', 'Dear Mrs. [Surname]' or 'Dear
Friends' depending on which condition is verified first. Of course you can write and modify
the conditional statements manually, just follow a few simple guidelines:
A conditional statement always begins with a <IF tag and ends with a </IF> tag.
When they are placed inside a rule tags should be always surrounded with double
brackets like in [[Gender]] .
Use as many <AND> and <OR> instructions as needed. Parenthesis are no allowed.
Use as many <ELSEIF switches as you need following the same syntax as with
the <IFtag.
The <ELSE> tag is optional and has to be placed at the end. Only one <ELSE> tag is
allowed per statement.
Available operators are *, !*, =, <>, #?, ?#, >, <, >= and <= according to the table
above.
Place the value of the rule between double quotes and end with a ">". No spaces are
allowed before the ">".
Type the text to be used if the condition is verified.
Despite we have used colors in the example above, styles are not allowed in the
statement, only in the result.
You can set tags data type globally from the preferences or just for the current document
using the 'Edit | Rename Tags' menu. Available types are 'Text', 'Number', 'Date' and
'Boolean'. All tags are of type 'Text' by default. If you set a tag data type to 'Number' you
will be able to use conditional statements with true numeric '>', '<' , ">=" and '<='
operators. The same applies to the 'Date' and 'Boolean' types however you have to make
sure you set dates following your operating system date format (MM/DD/YYYY,
DD/MM/YYYY....). A 'Boolean' field can accept only two values, you have the choice between
using yes/no, True/False or 1/0.

12.- Scheluled deliveries

MaxBulk Mailer includes a basic delivery scheduling system in order to program
email deliveries. It is very simple to use. Once your message is ready to be sent,
select the 'Delivery | Schedule' menu and select the date and time you want your
message to be sent.

Scheduling can be useful if you need your message to get delivered at a given
time, for example overnight, when the internet traffic is low or to get your
recipients to read your message as early as possible in the morning. Your computer

just needs to be turned on, connected to the internet and running Maxbulk Mailer
at the scheduled time.
13.- Renaming tags
All tags or list columns can be renamed except the 'Email address' tag. Besides,
MaxBulk Mailer Pro offers 20 custom columns you can use to store recipient's data
and insert it into your message using Tags. Custom tags are labeled from Opt1 to
Opt20 by default. You can rename them to something that will make more sense to
you such as 'Address', 'State', 'Gender' or whatever.
If you need to rename the optional tags for the whole application use the
'Preferences...' menu. If you just need to rename them for the current document,
use the 'Edit | Rename tags...' menu.
It is strongly recommended to use simple and short words with no accentuated
characters nor punctuation.
You can also set tag data type between 'Text', 'Number', 'Date' and 'Boolean',
affecting sorting and conditional statement results. All tags are of type 'Text' by
default. If you set a tag data type to 'Number' you will be able to sort your list and
use conditional statements with true numeric '>', '<' , ">=" and '<=' operators.
The same applies to the 'Date' and 'Boolean' types however you have to make sure
you set dates following your operating system date format (MM/DD/YYYY,
DD/MM/YYYY....). A 'Boolean' field can accept only two values, you have the choice
between using yes/no, True/False or 1/0.
14.- Hyperlink Manager
MaxBulk Mailer includes a very simple way to store all your hyperlinks, the
Hyperlink Manager.

Using the Hyperlink Manager you can insert hyperlink tags into your message using
the 'Edit | Insert Hyperlink' menu. Hyperlinks tags are surrounded with double
brackets such as in <<hyperlink>>.

Right before the delivery, hyperlink tags are processed and replaced with the
proper values depending on the message format. If the message is a 'Plain Text'
message the hyperlink tags are simply replaced by their corresponding URLs. If the
message is a 'Styled Text' message a rich HTML hyperlink is created using the
assigned tag name as the clickable text but hiding the URL. For example, you
would get Maxprog rather thanhttp://www.maxprog.com/.
You can access the Hyperlink Manager selecting the 'Edit | Insert Hyperlink | Edit'
menu. The URL has to begin with 'http://' for a web page, 'https://' for a secure
web page, 'ftp://' for a FTP address or 'mailto:' for an email address. The Hyperlink
Manager shows you whether your URL is valid or not by coloring the text in blue if
valid or in red if otherwise. Note that when using the 'Styled Text' format you can
add an hyperlink to the manager just highlighting some text on your message and
selecting the 'Message | Link to URL' menu. You will be asked for the hyperlink URL
and the highlighted text will be used as the tag text.
15.- Preferences

The preference window is made of five tab panels labeled: Document, General, Tags, Misc,
Headers and Delivery:
Document
Appearance
- Font: Set the document default text font. (Message body, subject, signature and Preview)
- Size: Set the document default text size. (Message body, subject, signature and Preview)
Saving
Documents
- Save Connection Log: Save a copy of the connection log into the document file.
- Save Recipients list: Save a copy of the current recipient list along with the delivery status
of
each
entry
into
the
document
file.
Default
- Format:
Default
message
format
for
- Text
Encoding:
Document
default
- Account:
Default
account
for
- List: Default list for new documents.

new
text
new

Settings
documents.
encoding.
documents.

Note: Encodings not only determine the way your message looks like when editing but also
the language encoding used when sending. By default type is Monaco 10 and the encoding
is "ISO-8859-1", right for Europe/USA. You have 34 encodings to choose from depending
on your country and language.
General
Startup
- Check for updates at launch
- Create a new empty document at startup
Recipients import
- Title case recipient's name and surname: Change the case of each imported record so first
name and surname get capitalized.
- Check for duplicates: If enabled you will only import one single instance of an email
address thus saving sending multiple copies of your message to that person.
- Extract recipient's name from e-mail address: Extract the recipient name from the email
address if it doesn't exist.
- Create an error report: Create a detailed error report after importing the recipients when
errors or duplicates entries have been found.

Remote Lists
- URL: The URL of the remote list manager script.
- ID: The user ID of the script administrator.
- Password: The password of the script administrator.
Remote Pictures
- URL: Remote pictures URL to be used in place of the 'Base href' tag.
Tags
All tags or list columns can be renamed but 'Email address'. In addition, MaxBulk Mailer Pro
offers 20 custom columns you can use to store recipient's data and insert it into your
messages using Tags. Default tags are labeled Opt1 to Opt20. You can rename those tags
to something that will make more sense to you like [Address], [Suburb] or whatever.

These changes are global and will affect all future documents so if you need to rename
those optional tags for the whole application this is the right place to do it however if you
want to rename them for the current document only, use 'Rename tags...' menu instead.

It is strongly recommended to use simple and short words with no accentuated characters
nor punctuation.
You can also set tag data type between 'Text', 'Number', 'Date' and 'Boolean', affecting
sorting and conditional statement results. All tags are of type 'Text' by default. If you set a
tag data type to 'Number' you will be able to sort your list and use conditional statements
with true numeric '>', '<' , ">=" and '<=' operators. The same applies to the 'Date' and
'Boolean' types however you have to make sure you set dates following your operating
system date format (MM/DD/YYYY, DD/MM/YYYY....). A 'Boolean' field can accept only two
values, you have the choice between using yes/no, True/False or 1/0.
Headers
The Header editor lets you add custom and standard headers to your mail-out. Headers are
optional fields that appear inside the email header part, all that "jargon" at the beginning of
an email. Many people include an Organization X-Header and sometimes in the Comments
X-Headers information on how to un-subscribe can be included.

MaxBulk Mailer includes 15 custom and standard headers:

Cc Add a Carbon Copy address header. Your email will appear Cced to that address.
Comments Add a comment about your message or yourself.
Organization Add information about your company or organization.
Errors-To Ask recipient Mail Exchanger server to send bounces to a different address.
Return-Path Set the message return path. Note that this header most of the time can't be
overwritten.
User-Agent Add the name and version of the mailer.
X-Mailer Same as User-Agent.
X-Confirm-Reading-To Ask for a delivery receipt.
X-Legal Add legal information about your message.
List-Unsubscribe The email address to unsubscribe from your list.
List-Subscribe The email address to subscribe to your list.
List-Owner The email address of the owner of the list.
List-Help The email address to get help about the list.
X-List-Host The list hosting server.

List-Software The software used to send to the list.

You can also add headers that are sent by default as for example the 'From' header.
MaxBulk Mailer will detect such cases and will use the one from the header editor rather
than the default.
Press the 'Factory Settings' button to reset all the preferences to default.
Delivery
Delivery
- Send delivery report by e-mail: Activate whether you want a Delivery Report to be sent by
e-mail back to you or to a different address when delivery is done. The summary report
only display the overall result. The detailed report also add a list of the sent recipients.
- Output connection log to a file: Create a copy of the connection log to your hard disk.
- Preview message during delivery: Force MaxBuk to display a preview of each message on
the Preview panel during the delivery process.
- Delivery complete sound: Play the selected sound once the delivery is done.
- Next Delivery ID#: Set the next delivery number. The number is used on the delivery
report and on the 'History' window.
Connection dropped by server
- Resume in: Set the delay before attempting to reconnect to a server after a connection
drop.
Advanced
- Encoding: Set the message encoding.
- HELO/EHLO: Set the greeting string when connecting to the SMTP server.
Click on the 'Factory Settings' button to reset all the preferences to default.
There may be times when you need to use MaxBulk Mailer on a different computer but
transferring lists and preferences is everything but easy. MaxBulk Mailer gives you the
possibility to export and import back selected settings for backups or for transferring
settings and lists between two computers. The feature is available by selecting the 'File >
Settings > Export' and 'File > Settings > Import' menus. It allows you to backup or transfer
MaxBulk Mailer preferences, your email accounts, your recipient lists, your templates and
your favorites. You can both select what settings to export and what settings to import.
This feature is compatible between Mac OS and Windows versions of MaxBulk Mailer.