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Copyright © 2011 CapeSoft Software
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Contents

General Information

 

Installation & Setup

    Introduction & Features       Installation Instructions
    Screen Shots      
         

Buying & Downloads

 

Support

    No longer for sale      
    Download Now  

Future & History

    Free Upgrade Policy      Future Plans & Ideas
    Copyright & Licensing      Version History

 

Introduction and Features

Introduction

Some time ago we developed an in-house Mail App to distribute our various newsletters to our clients.  We maintained a text file which contained all our clients' email addresses, which we then imported into the Mail App.  Each email was created using Outlook or a similar tool, and the html was "copied and pasted" into the Mail App.  From there it was a single click to send the html (email) to each address in the text file.

Like us, many of our newsletter Subscribers had attempted to use inadequate software to handle mail distribution, and were looking for alternatives.  Our in-house system was serving us well and getting the job done (more or less), but had certainly never been developed to be sold as a commercial product, evolving over time to do what we needed done.  So we started rewriting it as a commercial product, and called it CapeSoft Mailer.  The original spec was to accomplish similar functionality and performance to our existing app, with some cool extras (multiple mailing groups, importing email addresses in a range of formats, handling duplicate addresses etc etc).

That was were we started...  CapeSoft Mailer now does (or will do within the near future) everything we (and our customers) have thought to be useful and realistic.  The design is still simple and should feel easy and familiar, but the feature list has grown immensely since we released the product in May 2001;  See the next section for a rough list of the current features.

Happy mailing...

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Features

Although the overall feel and design still feels straight-forward and easy to use, the features list has grown to the point where there are too many features to list each one, but here's a rough idea.  Bear in two things in mind when you read through this list; firstly the list is still growing (although it is slowing down at last <g>), and secondly the primary thought when designing is to keep things clean, familiar, and straight-forward.  The simple tasks are easy to set up and use, with a very low learning curve, but the more complex, powerful functionality is there if you open the other eye <g>...

  • Client data (email address, first name, last name, plus five other fields which you can customize) is kept in Mailing Groups - no limit to how many addresses / groups you set up.
  • Emails can be created using the WYSIWYG editor, collected from a mail server, imported from an html file, or using the old "copy and paste" technique.
  • Create any number of emails, and store them in any number of Email Folders (see screenshots).
  • Each email address can be set to "not receive attachments", "disable", "exclude", "flag", or receive "text only (no html)".
  • If you have loads of email addresses to administer, use the "Maintain Addresses" tool to quickly scan all Mailing Groups for any given address, and maintain the address in all the groups at the same time (easier than it sounds)...
  • CapeSoft Mailer picks up duplicated addresses, problematic addresses, etc etc
  • Easily scan Mailing Groups for all the analysis data you could want...
  • Full logging is kept or all activity; easily establish which mails have gone to which Groups or to which individual addresses, analyzing by Group, by email address, or by email!
  • Sending mail is as easy as selecting an email, selecting a Mailing Group, telling the system what logic to apply (Send to all addresses, send to selected addresses, etc etc), and clicking the "Send" button...  A single email is sent to each address (no "CC" or "BCC" shortcuts are used).
  • Network support!  Any Mailing Group can be shared across your LAN, so users on running CapeSoft Mailer on different PCs can access the same data!
  • Addresses can be imported or exported from Mailing Groups to / from a number of file formats, with all the functionality you would expect
  • Addresses can be flagged using a Wizard, where you can easily flag addresses which match any criteria which you stipulate.  So sending an email to all the clients in a 10,000 email Mailing Group, based on who lives in a certain area, owns a certain product or whatever, is very easy.  Supports heaps of options / functionality here...  You can even use the five extra fields per Mailing Group in these rules, so you're not limited in any way...
  • Send personalized email, "Dear Fred", "Dear Stan", "Thanks for purchasing product X", etc etc.  Use any fields from the client's data which Mailer will fill in on a per email basis as it sends emails.
  • Supports all typical email functionality: attachments, embedding images etc etc.
  • And much more!
  • ...Add to all that:
  • A really good quality program,
  • Great support,
  • Easy to understand "help" documents,
  • An easy to use, easy to learn interface,
  • Free, regular updates, available from our website

Screenshots

 

Main Window

The Main Window provides access to all the program options and features, as well as display your mail messages, groups and the currently selected mail message.

CapeSoft Mailer Screenshot!

Editing Mailing Groups

The Mailing Group window allows Mailing Groups to be maintained. Addresses can be added, edited and deleted. Addresses can also be tagged in order to modify sending (send to specific addresses, exclude certain addresses, mark addresses to receive text only etc.). This window also provides access to the mailing history of each address; an IntelliTagging facility for automatically marking entries based on conditions that you specify; Mail analysis for checking addresses messages were sent to, customisation of the extra fields stored for each address; as well as the ability to send an entire list to an MS Excel spreadsheet, MS Word File, CSV file, HTML file, PDF, or to email the contents of the list (support for copying directly to the clipboard and sending to an XML is coming soon).

Editing Mailing Groups

Edit Mail Tool

The email editing window lets you edit your email like you would in a standard mail client. It also allows you to edit the HTML of the message and to create a text only version of the message. It also provides access to the Mail Personalisation's, which let you enter text in the email which is replaced with the information

Edit Mail Tool

Mail Analysis

Displays the list of addresses that emails were sent to, the date that the email was sent, and the number of addresses that it was sent to. Mailer also allow the history for each address to be viewed (the list of all emails sent to a particular address).

Mail Analysis

Database Import Wizard

Easily import your addresses for any other program that can export them to a CSV (comma separated variables) file, or a standard text file.

Database Import Wizard

 

Downloads



CapeSoft Mailer: No longer for sale


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(Optional) Source code download.

This download is an encrypted SAF file for those who have purchased the source code for CapeSoft Mailer. You do not need this file to use CapeSoft Mailer.

 
     

Once you have downloaded the file, please run it and the install program will guide you through the installation. For further information please consult the Installation section in this documentation.

Free Upgrade Policy

CapeSoft products have always had a free upgrade policy. i.e. You pay for the product once and then all the new upgrades and features are free. At the moment this is policy for CapeSoft Mailer. It could change in future, but this has been the case for the past 10 years.

License & Copyright

This program is protected by copyright law and international treaties.

Copyright & Licensing

This software is copyright. This means that after the 30 days evaluation you should only use this software if you have paid for it. One license is required for each copy that you run. i.e. If you are running this program on three machines you need to purchase three licenses.

License Agreement

CapeSoft Software cc, employees of CapeSoft Software cc and Dealers of CapeSoft Software cc products explicitly accept no liability for any loss or damages which may occur from using this package. This package is used entirely at your own risk.

Use of this package constitutes agreement with this license.

Source Code License

The source code ships under the following license agreement:  You may add this code to your own applications, and ship those applications without paying any royalty to CapeSoft, as long as the primary function of the application you are shipping is not Mail Distribution.  If Mail Distribution is the primary purpose of your application, then you need to pay a $49 royalty fee to CapeSoft, per copy of your application that you distribute.

The source code requires Clarion6.1 in addition to the following CapeSoft accessories:  NetTalk, File Explorer, File Manager 2 and Winevent. IN addition the following accessories are used to provide additional functionality: Secwin, SendTo, xFiles, and CapeSoft MessageBox  and KeepingTabs. The price of $499 does not include these products. To purchase CapeSoft Mailer Bundle, go here.

Please contact should you have any queries.

CapeSoft Contact Details
 

Email:

sales at capesoft dot com

 

Telephone:

+27 21 715 4000

Fax:

+27 21 715 2535

Web:

www.capesoft.com

Mail:

PO Box 511, Plumstead, 7801, Cape Town, South Africa


 

Installation, Support and FAQ

Installation

1) Run the supplied installation file. The installation will prompt you as to where you want to install CapeSoft Mailer.

Important Notes for Upgrading from version 2

  • When upgrading from a previous version it is advisable to back up all your data (All the .TPS files in your Mailer directory and the Lists directory).
  • After upgrading from Version 2 to Version 3 you will need to reactivate Mailer:
    • From the Help menu choose "Register Software". This will display the activation window.
    • Enter the Company Name that Mailer was purchased under and the Serial Number that was provided for Mailer.
    • Press the Get Activation button to get your new activation code,
    • Once the new code has been retrieved press the "Activate" button to complete activation.

    No details other than those provided on the screen (the Company name and Serial number) are sent to the Activation server.

Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently asked questions are now published in the help document that ships with CapeSoft Mailer.  The latest version of the help document can be downloaded by clicking here.

To upgrade your existing help file with the latest one, we recommend downloading the latest version of CapeSoft Mailer (which will also provide all the new features and fixes that have been added).

Support

Your questions, comments and suggestions are welcome. You can contact us in one of the following ways.

CapeSoft Contact Details
 

Email:

sales at capesoft dot com

 

Telephone:

+27 21 715 4000

Fax:

+27 21 715 2535

Web:

www.capesoft.com

Mail:

PO Box 511, Plumstead, 7801, Cape Town, South Africa

     

Future Plans & Ideas

  • Completed replaced File Import with support for importing from text, CSV, Outlook, FeMail, Excel etc.
  • Improved Documentation and Help system, training video etc.
  • Automated Mailing List handling (automated subscription and unsubscription, handling of bounced mails etc.)
  • Ability to access external mailing groups such as Excel files or SQL databases (mailing group data can be imported or accessed from any ODBC data source).
  • Server version - runs on a single machine and allows all authorised users to send newsletters etc. using a central set of mailing lists simply by emailing the message to be sent to the server.
  • And much more (see the full documentation section entitled "Ideas for Future Releases".

 

 


History

 

history header

For Version of Mailer prior to Version 3 please see the Previous History Page

Version 3.7.0 - 21 April 2011

  • Update the Auto-upgrade functionality.
  • Update of all internal libraries.

 

Version 3.6.2 Beta (14 October 2010)

  • Fixed
    • Registration problems when registering a new installer of Mailer that had not had a previously loaded license (registration via drag and drop of the XML registration file worked correctly, but not manual entry of the details).

 

Version 3.6.1 Beta (30 September 2009)

  • Fixed
    • Mail Default. The From Name field was still disabled by default, and hence skipped when tabbing.
    • The CHM documentation (Help) file was not correctly updated for builds and the version history was out of date
    • The Help shortcut in the Start menu pointed to the HTML file and not the CHM Help file.
  • Added
    • Vista, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 compatibility.
    • New data storage in the Microsoft specified data directories
    • New installer system allows installation for all users (shared), the current user only, or for data share on a network (LAN)
    • New automatic intelligent data migration system
    • Updated the HTML editor, streamlined the toolbar and removed extraneous options.
    • Improved the preview display and the information displayed by the information bar.

 

Version 3.5.5 (16 September 2009)

  • Fixed
    • Embedding of images for display in Microsoft Outlook.
    • Embedding of images where a number of images where used one after the other with long files names (the last name was not being correctly embedded).
  • Added
    • Support for additional mail formats and encoding/decode
    • Small updates to the docs and FAQ
    • Improved compatibility of mail with Microsoft Outlook

 

Version 3.5.4 (7 September 2009)

  • Fixed
    • When filling in the mail defaults filling in the default from address and then tabbing to the next field select the From Name, rather than skipping it. The same applies to the Reply To address and name.
    • Fixed the "Text Only/Html and Text" button on the editor window moving incorrectly when the window was resized.
    • Blurred Cleartype when editing mailing groups entries in the listbox.
    • The Tickboxes in the Mailing Group window not working correctly.
    • Spelling mistake on the Settings window ("Category")
  • Changed/Improved
    • When saving the Text log after performing a send, the '.txt' extension is now automatically added if it not extension has been specified.
    • In the Mailing Group list the checkboxes for Tagged, Excluded etc. can now be enabled or disabled by single clicking on them, without having to edit the record.
    • Improved compatibility with Outlook for embedded images.

 

Version 3.5.2 (14 July 2009)

  • New/Added
    • Text Only option to the editor, which allows messages to be switched between Text Only and Text/HTML mode. Switching to Text Only will ignore the HTML part of the email, but no delete it (if it has already been created).
    • If a mail is set to Text Only in the editor it will display as text in the preview and will be sent as Text Only, with no HTML part (even if an HTML part has previously been created).
    • If the HTML editor is left empty and the option to automatically update the text part of the email from the HTML is enabled, the application now does not overwrite the text (the HTML is only auto converted to update the text part if it is not blank).
    • If the HTML editor is left empty then the standard empty HTML file code generated is treated the same as an empty HTML part, rather than be treated as an HTML message.
    • If no HTML is added or the message is set to Text Only, then the message is displayed as Text in the previewer.
    • Auto formating for Text previews using the specified maximim line width for text message sending.
    • A new "Information Bar" is displayed above the previewer on the main window and displays information related to the current message. For example if the message is Text Only mode this is displayed, if the message cannot be displayed a warning is displayed here etc. This bar will be used for useful information messages and warnings.
    • Improved resizing on the Main window.
    • Added a new Footer Editor window to allow the HTML version of the footer to be fully customised.
    • Added a new "Update Text" option on the mail editing window. This option allows the Text version of the mail message to be updated from the HTML version. By default this is done automatically, however the option to do so can be turned off. From the Tools menu on the main window select Program Options->Send & Receive. The untick the "Automatically update 'plain text' component when updating HTML". The Text version can then be modified independantly, and updated manually using the provided button.
    • Double clicking on a Personalisation from the list now inserts it into the message being edited. Use the buttons or right click menu to add, edit or remove entries from the Personalisation list.
  • Changed/Improved
    • "Demo" mode, which was defaulting to limited functionality, to be fully functional.
    • New permanent Capesoft Software Ltd code signing certificate.
    • Important: The automatic update may report an error with the certificate because the details have changed. This can safely be ignored.
  • Fixed
    • Fixed: Licensing to ensure that after the demo expires the application remains fully accessible (only the send functionality is disabled).
    • Fixed: Installer not installing all the required editor files, resulting in the HTML editor displaying a "page not found" error.
    • Fixed: The Cancel button on the Mailer Editor window not actually closing the window.
    • Fixed: In Windows 7, with UAC enabled an "unable to open UPG file" error was displayed if the application was not run as an Administrator. This has been resolved and Windows Vista/Windows 7 will correctly virtualise the data for the application. The next release (3.6.0) will add full native Vista and Windows 7 compatibility.
    • Fixed compatibility issue in OfficeInside (source code users should ensure that they are using OfficeInside 2.75 or later, especially if Mailer is being compiled with Clarion 7).
    • HTML Footer is now correctly saved and loaded, and editable using the new HTML editor (compatible with all versions of Windows and without dependancies on additional components).

 

Version 3.5.0 (08 July 2009)

  • Numerous Interface adjustments and improvements.
  • Removed the "Test" button for sending test messages, as this provided incompleted functionality. To send a test message add a Test group with one or more test addresses and perform a standard Send to that group. This allows the full functionality to be tested, including Personalisation (Mail Merge) to be done.
  • Complete replaced registration and activation system. Provides easy registration options including:
    • Drag and drop of a provided XML activation file for fully automatic activation.
    • Automatic retrieval of the the activation code from the online server when the Company name and Serial Number are entered.
    • Simple copy and paste of activation details from the regisration email.
  • New and improved HTML editor provides a fast, robust and feature rich editor. A few of the features of the new editor:
    • Compatible with all version of Windows, including Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.
    • Requires only Internet Explorer 5.5 or later on the machine, there are no other dependencies.
    • Generates HTML with Internet Explorer 5, 6, 7 and Gecko browser (Mozilla / Firefox / Netscape) compatibility.
    •  XHTML 1.0 support (generates clean, standard compliant XHTML code).
    • Font formatting: type, size, color, style, bold, italic, etc.
    • Text formatting: alignment, indentation, bullets list, etc.
    • CSS (cascading style sheets) support for a better integration with web sites, and cleaner, faster, small code with better consistency.
    • What You See Really Is What You Get. Pages are rendered by IE as you edit them, so the rendering is very accurate.
    • Cut, Paste and Past as Plain Text, Undo and Redo.
    • Paste from MS Word cleanup with auto detection.
    • Link creation.
    • Anchors support.
    • Image insertion.
    • Table creation and editing (add, delete rows, etc) - one of the best systems in the market.
    • Table cells editing (size, colours, etc).
    • Form fields.
    • Right click context menus support.
    • Complete toolbar customisation.
    • Easy menu customization and skins (add your own styles, font-formats, etc ...).
    • Skins support.
    • Plug-in support.
    • Spell checker integration via SpellerPages (additional built-in spell checking options coming soon!).
    • Multi-language support, including Right to Left scripting.
    • Complete page editing, including visually setting the overall page properties.
    • Lightweight and fast.
    • Automatic browser detection and support for IE 5.5 and upwards.
    • Much, much more!
  • Internal cleanup and optimsation to allow more rapid development of future versions.
  • Removed all demo limitations. The Demo is now fully functional for 30 days.
  • Removed all restrictions on the expired version, except for preventing sending of mail until the application is activated.
  • Fixed "blurred" fonts in entries when ClearType is enabled.
  • Closing the Mail Edit window using the window Close control now prompts before closing.
  • Fixed focus issues (the mail window opening behind the main window) and slow mail opening.
  • Fixed potential "security file corrupt" errors when upgrading or activating Mailer.

 

Version 3.3.0 (18 April 2007)

  • The SSL libraries are now shipped with Mailer
  • Added an option for StartTLS for connections that don't support SSL for the entire connection, but need to switch to secure mode using the StartTLS command.

Version 3.2.0 (13 April 2007)

  • Fixed sorting using custom fields for Mailing Groups, when the list was sorted by custom fields records where the sort field was blank no longer displayed in the list.
  • Added the ability to set the encoding (character set) for sending emails from the Program Options.
  • Added support for SSL (secure) connections for SMTP and POP.
  • Updated all component used by Mailer
  • Added support for custom HELO fields, which resolves problems with mail servers that reject connections when the HELO is set to the domain part of the email address.
  • All lists and browses now save and restore the column widths.
  • All browses and lists have a little more space between lines to make things more legible.

 

Version 3.1.0 (December 2006)

  • Fixed problem with CHM file not launching when Help was clicked on. (fixed and released as 3.03 before adding additional features to 3.1.0)
  • Added ability to set the Helo field for sending mail. This is very useful for sending to servers that do a reverse DNS lookup if the HELO contains a domain name.

 

Version 3.0.3 (13 January 2006)

  • Fixed custom fields in the Mailing Groups list not displaying correctly
  • Fix Mailing Groups list not correctly saving and restoring format
  • Add option to Program Options under Mailing Groups that allows the Mailing Group list format to be reset where upgrading from previous versions has resulted in a format where columns are not all correctly displayed or custom fields have the wrong heading etc.
  • Add checking for Personalisations to ensure that a field is selected from the dropdown (a blank field can result in the program hanging on send).
  • Fixed the error list on the Send window (the list would not scroll horizontally).

 

Version 3.01 and 3.0.2 (12 December 2005)

  • Fixed copying of Mail messages, the HTML portion was not being copied.
  • New certificate used for signing updates.

 

Version 3.01 (9 December 2005)

  • Updated all components, added new functionality:
    • NetTalk
    • Office Inside
    • File Manager
    • SendTo
    • xFiles
    • WinEvent
    • HyperActive
    • MessageBox
    • Draw
    • SafeUpdate
    • Secwin
    • GPF Reporter
    • FileExplorer
    • Progress
  • Speed increases throughout - file imports that were taking well over two hours now take 14 seconds, editing records in very large groups that took 3 seconds to being an edit and 3 second to commit it, are now instant etc.
  • Added version resource to file
  • Added and updated Tool Tips on all controls
  • All new interface, every window in the application has been completely revamped
  • File import now shows the number of records in the file, the number imported, whether duplicates were ignored and the source and destination.
  • Updated documentation, added screenshots for all features, new look and feel for all docs, added and expanded documentation,
  • Added the ability to set a specific send speed as well as selecting the send speed from the dropdown.
  • Send Speed now applies immediately without rebooting the application
  • Added option to turn on debug logging until app restarts in the Options
  • Fixed issues with Configuration wizard when run with existing mailboxes, redid wizard interface.
  • Added SafeUpdate, enabling automatic checking for new versions of the application and downloading if so desired. New version are cryptographically signed to ensure that updating is safe and secure and comes from the correct source etc.
  • Added new activation system, activation/registration can now be done automatically simply by entering the company name, no email or manual entry etc. is needed. Activation uses Port 80 (HTTP) and so works through firewalls, proxy server etc.
  • When sending is complete if send is successful the message text displays in green, red text is only displayed for failures.
  • Fixed Delete All not working in Mailing Groups (delete all prompts and when confirmed is instant and permanent).
  • AutoUpdate domain does not run if there are no entries in the mailing list
  • New Mail Personalisation that supports all fields for personalisation. Old version is automatically upgraded without loosing settings.
  • New filtering system with a single dropdown that is also significantly faster than the old version.
  • Sped up all maintenance tasks such as updating domains etc.
  • Added sort headers to the Mailing Groups (in addition to the QuickSort bar at the top of the Mailing Group window, clicking on the title of any column in the list will sort by that column, clicking again will reverse the sort order).
  • Fixed Record Not Available error being displayed on application start
  • Fixed Log Files Too Large warning being displayed behind splash screen
  • Added option for all files that are too large to delete old records (the prompt gives the option to simply delete old records automatically).
  • Added SendTo option that allows mailing lists to be sent to Excel, Word, PDF, HTML, CSV, Email and Printer (XML and Clipboard coming soon).
  • Added new fields to the mailing group (Title, Position, Department etc.)
  • All listboxes throughout the program use "greenbar" style for increased legibility.
  • Improved resizing of all windows.
  • Sped up all bulk processing functions.
  • On the Mailing Groups window etc. the listbox "remembers" the user's settings, so resizing columns etc. is persistent every when the application is restarted.
  • Fixed sending of very large mails.
  • Removed limitation for both text and HTML mail stored, the HTML portion can now be up to 2GB in size!
  • Improved HTML to text conversion (even better conversion coming soon)
  • Improved documentation for Intellitag and added tooltips to help explain this very useful feature.
  • Added a Mail Personalisation section to the Edit Mail window, the personalisation section can be show or hidden, personalistions can be added, and simply pressing the insert button will insert the Personalisation into the current format (HTML, HTML source or text).
  • HTML importing no longer has a file size limitation and the import speed is improved.
  • Sending a test mail now supports using Personalisations automatically.
  • Optimised Intellitagging (much faster)
  • Changed default encoding for HTML, better support for extended ASCII characters.
  • Fixed potential problem with sending embedded images.
  • Removed incorrect and changed sections of the docs.
  • Fixed focus on the main window moving off the Mail Folders list when a Mail Message is selected.
  • More "internal" fixes and tweaks than can be listed here...

 

 




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