Marking tasks as done

[kenneth2k1]

Hi All!

I asked this question in the "Left Brain" forum, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask here. I am making a marketing program that selects groups of people to send them insurance marketing letters. I have created a script to define the filter criteria (e.g. homeowner's policy, auto policy, smoker, age,etc), then I print the letters for them. However, in the marketing strategy I am using, I must send out four letters. Is there a way that, after each letter prints for a person, to mark that letter as "Sent Out", so I know where the person is in the marketing strategy? Does that make sense??

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[bobsmith]

There are many ways to solve this. One thought would be to have four new fields for the four letters, when you run the script to print the records you could put in a replace step to mark the field for the letter you are sending.

Depending on how you are printing this could change but if you find a set of records say ones where letter # 1 field is blank you could print the letters and add Replace field Letter #1 with "Yes" in the found set.

[LiveOak]

Please don't post the same question to multiple forums. I'm deleting the multiple posts.

-bd

[kenneth2k1]

Another question:

Is there a way, once they have been marked, to exclude them from other campaigns I might run if I want to? For example, I select a group of prospects, and print an introductory letter, then I add more prospects to my database. When I print intro letters for the new prospects, I do NOT want to print repeat intro letters for the original group.

Any solutions would, of course, be greatly appreciated.

[bobsmith]

Yes, Do a find for Letter #1 = "yes" and check Omit and other find request that you may need. Open the script and click OK and in the selection check replace find.

Enter Browse Mode

Perform Find [ Request 1 (Omit): Letter #1 yes; Request 2: DateEntered >7/1/2001 ]

[ Restore find requests ]

Go to Layout [ Layout #1 ]

This is sample script steps that will find records entered after 7/1/01 and do not contain "Yes" in the Letter #1 field. If you do the find prior to updating script and find no matching records no problem it will still save this find criteria for the script.

[kenneth2k1]

Thank you very much, bobsmith. That is a great idea, and I will definitely use it.

Hey Administrator Liveoak: sorry bout the multiple post, but were there any replies from the other forum that were deleted along with my post?? Perhaps they might have been useful to me.

[kenneth2k1]

Thanks again, bob. Your advice is very helpful.

KV

[kenneth2k1]

Ok, bobsmith. I am going to use your sample script, but I have a few more questions.

First, I would like your advice. Right now I have it set up where, once I select a group of people by "find," I then have a script that opens another file called "Campaign." In Campaign, I import the people, and then I can send their letters. When I first started using FM Pro, I thought this might be the best way so as to prevent redundant printings and confusion. If I set up the sample script you gave me, then I could use it in the original file, without the Campaign file, right? What would you suggest? Im pretty new to FM, but you sound like a pro.

[kenneth2k1]

Basically, do you think that it is possible for me to have this program in a flat file, or would I need a relational file setup?

Thanks,

KV