Generating E-mail Address Lists. When any number of records are chosen in the Main Menu, you can use the Copy Emails button to copy all of the email addresses into a long list, separated by commas. So if you have selected all the people in the ZIP code 20910 you can click Copy Emails, and then paste them into the message you are sending.

Almost all email programs allow this, though some Internet Service Providers will refuse to send an email if there are too many people on the "CC" or "BCC" list. We strongly recommend you use the "BCC" feature when you are mailing over ten people because it keeps your list of email addresses private.

You can also copy the email addresses in eight additional formats by right-clicking on the Copy Emails button to see them. The formats include:

• semicolon-separated (for MS-Outlook 97 users)
• one email per line
• email with name, tab-separated (no duplicates)
• email with name and phone, fixed-width formatted
• email with name and phone, tab-separated

The first five copy-emails options will eliminate duplicate email addresses automatically, so that you don't end up sending multiple mass email messages to the same person. These five copying options will also automatically eliminate from the list those people who have the "nospam" box checked. The fourth option (Copy Tabbed List: Name, Email) is designed to make it relatively easy to generate an email merge letter using Word or an inexpensive program like FletMail (http://pancho.dk/fletmail), LiteMail (http://www.sprika.com/litemail2.htm), or WorldMerge (http://www.coloradosoft.com). If you choose this option, then create a new text document in NotePad or WordPad, paste the names and email addresses into the text document, and save it, the resulting document can be used as the "data source" for your mail merge.

If you have a very large email list, it might be wise to use a third-party service such as Constantcontact.com or a high-volume mailing software program like Phplist to do mass mailings.

Printing. The printing feature on the main menu allows you to print the group of chosen records in nine different ways. You only need to print what you want to print. If you have chosen ten records, the Print form makes it easy to print records 7 through 9, for example.

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You can print records in ten different formats:

• detailed info (three per page w/donation info)
• address listing of records (45 per page)
• phone calling sheet (20 per page)
• 2-Line Voter List (21 per page)
• mailing labels (three different options)
• thank-you note (merged with donor data)
• donation slips (three per page, customized to match renewal status and giving level)
• envelopes (directly onto standard, #10)

The mailing label options are 30 per sheet (Avery 5160 format), 20 per sheet (Avery 5161 format), or older style, tractor-fed, dot matrix 1" x 4" labels.

If you need another printing format, the easiest thing to do is to export the data you want to print, and then use the mail merge feature of any word processing program (MS-Word, OpenOffice, etc.) to generate a custom form.

The dot matrix labels feature is carefully implemented to make it easy for you to line up the tractor on your printer so that the labels will print properly, and to let you resume printing midway through the list in case of a printer jam. Dot matrix labels cost about $15 for a box of 5,000 – about one-third the cost of laser printer labels when all factors are considered.

The program is able to print to a fax modem or a PDF (Adobe Acrobat) file, if the proper drivers are installed. This way, you can fax or email nicely formatted contact lists to your volunteers or fellow organizers. The printing screen will be titled "Printing and Fax Menu" if a fax modem is installed. Many versions of Windows include fax software and free PDF software is now available at: http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator for those who cannot afford to purchase Adobe's "Acrobat Distiller."

Labels and envelopes will automatically print the title, first, middle, last, and suffix. Thank you notes will include the salutation if you enabled this feature (For details, see section B)

For the first four printing formats you may add a custom header to the top of each report. If you select the Show Header box, the SQL query will appear and you can change it to any text you want.

For the Horizontal, Phone, and Voter List formats you may also turn on the "break at new value" feature. This is useful for printing reports sorted by fields that have a limited number of possible values, as it will include markers indicating where each section begins. Currently ODB is set up to do this when your data is sorted by any of the following fields (as the first sort key): street name, city, state, ZIP, party, vreg, nospam, region, askamount, ward, pct, cd, hd, sd.

Thank-you Notes. The thank-you note feature allows you to automatically print a letter that contains merged fields: the date and the amount of a person's last gift, full address, and salutation. You should edit the text of the sample thank-you letter to suit your organization. The thank-you notes reside in a folder called 'mergetext' that is located in the same folder where the ODB database resides.

If the database is on a Win95/Win98 system and is not shared on a network, this location is typically: c:\my documents\odb databases\mergetext\

If the database is on WinXP or Win2000, and is not shared, this location might be: c:\documents and settings\All Users\my documents\mergetext

If the database file resides on a network the location is typically something like: H:\ourserver\admin\odb databases\mergetext (or) \\Shared Docs\odb databases\mergetext

You can have many different thank-you notes, but they must all be text files (with a .txt extension) and they must all be saved in the mergetext folder. The default setting of ODB will choose the letter named thankyou.txt. Please refer to Section B for details about customizing ODB to auto select thank-you notes based on donation (payment) category.

Donation slips. The ODB membership system is based on the "annual giving" model. This means that your goal is build a base of supporters who donate at least once every year. To encourage regular giving, ODB has built-in donation slips. (The default period of 1 year may be changed.)

The donation slips printing option only applies to "people", and should be customized first with your organization's information, as explained in section B.

When printing the donation slips, ODB will automatically include the donor's contact information, print a warning line if someone's membership is about to expire, or print a friendly indication of when the membership did expire. Renewal slips are also designed to encourage a donor to upgrade their membership and give more by starting the dollar amounts on the slip at the expected donation level (the "ask amount").

Donation slips are printed three per page and will fit in a standard reply envelope ("number 9" or "number 6 ¾") after they are cut. Printing 50 donation slips (or cards, if your printer can handle thicker stock) will require seventeen sheets of paper. Colored paper and a paper cutter are highly recommended to ensure that your donation slips have a professional appearance.