Data Management and File Manipulation Tools

• Import/Export Flexibility
• Data Entry/Editing

• Database Maintenance Functions
• Duplicate Identification and Removal
• Reporting Tools
• Usability Issues

Database Maintenance Functions
Clients’ mailing lists can often be a mess when they're submitted. To deal with this, many mail-processing operations have on hand either a staff of programmers or a collection of third-party software utilities to get the data into a more manageable form.

Mail Manager 2010 includes more than 100 built-in functions and data-manipulation expressions that add structure to this “dirty” data. The Modify Selected Records function easily corrects, filters or enhances an entire file or user-specified portion of the data. (Even the file structure itself can be changed at will.) Add, remove, or modify fields in a list’s layout — at any point in the processing workflow — with intuitive point-and-click convenience.

Genders can be assigned based on an included list of more than 20,000 first names, and then those names can be parsed to individual components — including prefixes (Mr. and Mrs.), titles (Captain, Doctor), or suffixes (Jr., Esq.) — using Mail Manager 2010’s comprehensive built-in tables.

Mail Manager 2010’s extensive data-manipulation tools allow you to easily deal with the most challenging list-maintenance tasks. And because no two mailing scenarios are exactly alike, the innovative User-Defined Function capability allows non-programmers to develop customized routines to manage data in ways the programming world hasn't thought of yet.

This feature truly puts you in control of your list data. As a 2010 user posted on the BCC User Forum: “With these abilities the possibilities are limitless.” We couldn’t have put it better ourselves.

Duplicate Identification and Removal
To a mailer, few things are more frustrating or costly than accidentally sending one recipient multiple copies of the same mailpiece. Therefore, if your software can't identify and remove duplicate records, your “solution” has a problem.

Mail Manager 2010 can identify, report, or remove duplicates based on user-specified criteria that can be as vague or precise as you need. You can use any information in the data to determine which duplicate record should be kept and which discarded. Data from multiple records can even be merged into one (adding a phone number from one record to the more complete address data of another, for instance); duplicate records can be marked or removed, manually or automatically; and information from one record can be merged with the corresponding record.

For more sophisticated merge/purge operations (comparing multiple lists, and more), see Mail Manager 2010's Enhanced Merge / Purge Option.

Reporting Tools
Professional mailers are often asked to provide reports back to a client. Mail Manager 2010 provides unmatched integrated reporting capabilities, ranging from simple Quick Reports to fully customized User-Defined Reports that can include full font control, borders and shading, calculated fields, headings, subheadings, totals and subtotals. A separate Distribution Report can provide counts and sub-tallies for any field or fields in the data file.

Usability Issues
“User-friendly” has become a misused, even meaningless term when applied to software. Some mailing software packages claim ease of use by guiding the user step-by-step through every process. That's fine for beginners, but always having to check off each step in a process as it's completed will make your productivity take a dive — and turn your “user-friendly” software positively unfriendly in no time.

Usability was a top priority in the development of Mail Manager 2010: we wanted your software to be not only easy to learn, but easy to use in every mailing scenario. Users can specify individual preferences for most default operations; in areas where your mailings have a lot in common, you won’t wear out your mouse clicking the same buttons over and over. And by maximizing the use of templates for common tasks, entire setup operations can be saved and reused at will.

Speaking of the mouse: we understand its value — and also when it gets in the way. Mail processing requires considerable keyboard entry, and switching from typing to clicking can become a pain. That's why we developed keyboard shortcuts for almost every operation. It's details like those that lead to loyal users — the kind who call us after switching jobs to order a 2010 subscription for their new employer.

Making the Right Choice

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Data Management and File Manipulation Tools

Production-Enhanced Features