Introduction

Welcome to the Handymailer Quick Start Tutorial. This tutorial is written for users who are new to Handymailer and want to learn the basic functions and tools of this application. This article will quickly get you up and running with Handymailer. It is a great starting point for learning how to use Handymailer.

Please note, this guide is far from covering all aspects of the Handymailer or even most of them. It will only describe some of the most basic ways to accomplish a few of the most common tasks. You can always go to the Handymailer User's Manual for more detailed information about all of Handymailer's different functions.

Handymailer Overview

Handymailer is the best-in-class email marketing software that empowers you to design and send personalized HTML messages, email marketing campaigns, announcements, newsletters, e-zines and promotions quickly and easily. Handymailer provides organizations and individuals with a flexible, cost-effective and valuable means of reaching subscribers, customers and prospects. It also helps you boost sales, generate leads, increase website traffic, build trust and strong customer relationships.

Launching Handymailer

The first step in getting started with Handymailer is to install and launch Handymailer. During the installation process, the installation program will create a shortcut to launch Handymailer for you. Once installed you can start the application by going to Start -> Programs -> Bladesoft Corporation -> Handymailer -> Run Handymailer.

And it will display the user name / password dialog box:

Simply enter your user name and password, then press the "OK" button, you will be taken to the Main window of Handymailer. If you are not a registered user and just want to try Handymailer to see how it can help you, you can click on the "Trial" button to login as a trial user.

Please Note: For your convenience, Handymailer can remember your password so you won't have to keep re-typing your username and password each time you logging into Handymailer. Please note, if you are sharing the computer you are using to access Handymailer and check "Remember my password", anyone else who uses the computer will also be able to login with your username and password.

Main Window

Once logged in, you will be taken to the main window of Handymailer:

The Main window is the starting point for everything you wish to do in Handymailer. It contains some common command buttons, software version information and your existing mailings, etc. You can select one mailing to view its status, or you can click the "New" button to create a brand new mailing.

Configuring Handymailer

If this is the first time you launch Handymailer, please click Menu Tools -> Options to configure the application. Handymailer will open the "Options" window, please click the "Delivery Method Tab" to select your favorite delivery method from the three different delivery methods.

Handymailer supports three different message delivery modes for sending out messages.

a) Send directly without SMTP servers
Handymailer has a built-in SMTP server which can deliver emails directly to recipients' mailboxes, bypassing your ISP's SMTP servers. If you don't have access to an SMTP server, or your SMTP server is unable to handle large volume of emails, you can select this delivery mode.

b) Send via SMTP servers
You can also use one or more of your SMTP servers to deliver your messages. This delivery mode supports multiple SMTP servers and can automatically balance the load between these SMTP servers.

c) Send directly with backup SMTP servers (recommended)
This delivery mode sends messages directly at first, if direct sending fails, then use the backup SMTP servers to send the message again. With this delivery mode, you can avoid overloading your SMTP servers as well as improve the sending success ratio dramatically.

Please note, you need to add at least one SMTP server before you can select delivery mode b or c. To add SMTP servers, please click on the "Add" button, Handymailer will open the "Add SMTP Server" dialogue box,

Name
Enter a name for this SMTP server different from others.

SMTP Server
The IP address or domain name of this SMTP server, such as: smtp.yourcompany.com.

Port
Port of the SMTP server, which commonly is 25. Don't modify it if you don't know how to set.

If this smtp server need authentication, please check the "This SMTP server requires authentication" box.

User Name
user name of this email account, used to log in the SMTP server. If your email address is jack@yourdomain.com, the user name commonly should be: jack.

Password
Password of this email account.

Relevant Email Addess
Enter the email address which is relevant to this SMTP account.

Creating New Mailing

To create a new mailing, please click menu: File -> New Mailing, Handymailer will open the "New Mailing" window,

Please click the "Select Mailing List" to specify the mailing list file for your new mailing, your message will be sent to the recipients in this maling list. At this time, Handymailer supports plain text (*.TXT) and CSV (*.CSV) mailing lists delimited by commas, tabs, semicolons, etc.

Please note, the first line of your mailing list file should contain header information/field names.

Once you've selected the mailing list file, please choose the delimiter character and which column/field contains the email addresses, then click the "Next" button, this will bring up the visual HTML email composer.

Composing Message

The Outlook-like visual (WYSIWYG) html message composer makes it easy for non-technical users to create eye-catching, professional-looking HTML messages. You may also import html files directly into Handymailer (File -> Open HTML File), including those built using Dreamweaver, FrontPage, or other web-design tools or even from the internet (File -> Import Web Page).

Once you've finished composing your message, You may now,

a) Send a Test Email by clicking menu: File -> Send Test Email. Handymailer allows you to send a test copy of your message to yourself to ensure it looks the way you want.

b) Save the message as a draft by clicking menu: File -> Save as a Draft. You may launch or edit the mailing sometime in the future.

c) Lanuch the mailing immediately by clicking menu: File -> Send.

Conclusion

This Quick Start guide highlights just a few of the things you can do with Handymailer. The purpose of this guide is to get your list up and running as quickly as possible. If these instructions are not clear, you can always go to the Handymailer User's Manual for more detailed information.