denbeste@bgsuvax.UUCP (William C. DenBesten) (03/15/88)
We are looking for a piece of software to deal with generating
customized letters and the corresponding mailing labels. We have 3
requirements:
1) very easy to use.
2) able to print on assorted labels, such as 3-up photocopier labels
in a laserwriter, or tractor fed labels in an imagewriter.
3) able to merge Names/Addresses into MacWrite documents and print
customized letters.
We don't want to use Microsoft Word, since the power of the package is
more than we want to subject our secretaries to.
-----------------------------------
We have found one package, Bulk Mailer by Staori software, that looks
like it may fit the bill. The only problems are that
1) the ad for it says that it works with word, but doesn't mention write and
2) I know nothing about it.
-----------------------------------
Any Ideas?
E-mail would be nice. I will summarize the replies.
--
William C. DenBesten | denbeste@bgsu.edu
Dept of Computer Science | CSNET denbeste%andy.bgsu.edu@relay.cs.net
Bowling Green State University | UUCP ...!cbosgd!osu-cis!bgsuvax!denbeste
Bowling Green, OH 43403-0214 |chuq@plaid.Sun.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) (03/15/88)
>1) very easy to use. >2) able to print on assorted labels, such as 3-up photocopier labels > in a laserwriter, or tractor fed labels in an imagewriter. >3) able to merge Names/Addresses into MacWrite documents and print > customized letters. One problem you'll run into is that Write doesn't support Mail Merge. Perhaps one of the other low end Word processors (writenow?) does. >Any Ideas? One possibbility is to use a file program or database. 4D would do what you want, with some programming, but it's expensive. FileMaker+ will definitely do what you want, since I use it for my mailing lists and things for OtherRealms. One nice thing about FM+ is that you can simply load the letter into FM+ as just another form, and you don't need to dump the data out and run a mail merge on it. There's enough graphic/WP power that you can probably do everything you want just in FM+. And it's inexpensive, and you can set up an arbitrary number of forms, including laser labels. It works fine, and you can automate a good part of the printing and sorting and stuff with scripts. It's not as powerful as, say, 4D, but works well enough for most reasonable sized databases. Chuq Von Rospach chuq@sun.COM Delphi: CHUQ Speed it up. Keep it Simple. Ship it on time. -- Bill Atkinson
peter@aucs.UUCP (Peter Steele) (03/17/88)
I haven't followed all the responses to this, but in case someone
hasn't mentioned it, you might look at Silicon Press by Silicon
Beach Software. It is designed specifically for making mailing
labels and name badges. It isn't expensive ($41 at MacConnection)
and it can import data from other packages. It also accepts
standard mail merge data files.
For the price, its worth looking at. Actually, Silicon Beach sent
us an evaluation copy for free, no obligations. We will buy it
if we actually decide to use it.
The only problem with this package is that they haven't upgraded
it much since its initial release. And its dying for improvements.
What it has works well. It just could use some more features, like
a graphics palette. It is reviewed in the Fall '86 BMUG Newsletter.
Hope this helps.
--
Peter Steele, Microcomputer Applications Analyst
Acadia University, Wolfville, NS, Canada B0P1X0 (902)542-2201x121
UUCP: {uunet|watmath|utai|garfield}dalcs!aucs!Peter
BITNET: Peter@Acadia Internet: Peter%Acadia.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU