emailing from filemaker database

[rory]

Hi, I'm a little confused, I have several large, but simple, databases in Filemaker 5.5. I want to begin using these as email mailing lists. They have the usual name, address, email fields, etc. etc. From these records, I want to sort them and then email the people in the sorted list. I have tried exporting the Email field as comma seperated, but I get a list that has "" around each email address instead... I am using Mac OS Mail. I have read several of the posts on this forum, and have experimented with the ScriptMaker, but I can't get it to work. I have a feeling that it is not that difficult, but I'm kind of new to Filemaker.

Your help will be greatly appreciated!!

Rory

[Reed]

comma-separated data has commas between fields, not between records.

The easiest (cheapest) way to do mass mailing in FMP is to use the send mail [] script step. If you just create a blank script, insert the send mail script step, and fill in the values in the specify.... dialog. You can just put static text in the fields except for the To: field. There you can choose the email field value, and check the "use all values in found set". If the content of each email needs to be different, then you can create a calculated body that will be different for each record, and send the emails in a looping script. Just be sure to uncheck the "use all values" in the To: field or each recipient will get all of the messages.

[rory]

Hi, thanks, this is what I tried, but when I run the script, nothing happens... It's as if it can't connect to my email app or something. Any ideas?? I've created a 3 record database to test this will, which only has Name and Email fields.

[fmp7_user_fmp7fmp7]

I had this same problem a while back when I first got my new g5. I had delted the mail app, and it would not work until I had reloaded it, then it worked fine. This is probably not what is happening to you but worth checking on.

[bsacco]

yes, but how do you validate your emails before sending them so that you can scrub your DB before sending the mass emails?