Mailings

Labels Lists

Click on the ‘Label Lists’ icon.

This option allows you to setup lists of players, that you want to send mailings to. Sometimes you will want to send mailings to the same players over, and over again. Sometimes that group of players cannot be filtered, using any standard criteria. An example is a mailing list, to send invitations for a tournament. Although some of these same things can be done with Microsoft Word, and other word processors, since we have the player profile in HSMaster, it makes sense to do it within the program. When you actually print labels, ‘Label Lists’ is just one of several criteria that you can use to configure your label printing.

In the upper left-hand section of the screen is a ‘List Name’ grid. This is the name of the mailing list. To add a list, type the name of the list into the ‘AddNew’ row of the grid. Press <Enter> to enter the list into the database.

Now that you have a list, you will want to assign players to the list. Find the list that you just entered, and press <Enter> or double click to select the list and enable the ‘Master player List’. Select players from the master list, and add them to your mailing list by double clicking, or pressing <Enter> on the player’s name. An edit check is performed to insure that the player is not already in the list. The ‘Master List’ has a ‘FastFind’ attached, so that you can type in part of the players ‘LastName’ to find within the list.

If you need to delete a ‘Label List’, with the correct row highlighted, press the <Delete> key. Remember you must be in ‘ColumnZeroMode’ to delete. Always press the left arrow to get into this mode. If you need to delete a player from the list, select the correct player in the right-hand grid and press <Delete>. This does not delete the player’s profile information from the database, it just removes the player from the list. To navigate between the ‘Master List’ grid and the ‘
Players in List’ grid, you can use <Tab> and <Shift Tab> or <Tab> and <Esc>.

Click on the ‘Labels’ icon.

This option will allow you to print your labels. In the ‘Source’ frame along the left-hand side of the screen are five radio buttons. These radio buttons enumerate the five different criteria that you can use to select the players for which you are going to print labels.

Note the ‘Build’ and ‘Append’ buttons in the center of the screen. If you want to combine two lists, then press ‘Append’ instead of ‘Build’ to create the ‘Print List
’. Use the ‘Clear’ button to undo your ‘Print List’. If you combine two lists, if a player is in both lists, he will not be duplicated in the ‘Print List’.

Label List radio button

Click on the ‘Label List’ radio button if you want to print from a list. Now the combo box beside the button will be enabled. Select the correct list from the combo box. When you have selected the list, click the ‘Build’ button to load the right-hand ‘Print List’ grid.

Tournament Entries radio button

Click on the ‘Tournament Entries’ radio button if you want to print labels for all of the entrants in a tournament. Now the combo box beside the button will be enabled. Select the correct tournament from the combo box. When you have selected the tournament, click the ‘Build’ button to load the right-hand ‘Print List’ grid. Remember you could combine two tournaments by clicking the ‘Append’ instead of ‘Build’.

League Members radio button

Click on the ‘League Members’ radio button if you want to print labels for all of the members in a league. Now the combo box beside the button will be enabled. Select the correct league from the combo box. When you have selected the league, click the ‘Build’ button to load the right-hand ‘Print List’ grid.

All (Filtered) radio button

This option will allow you to read thru the entire HSMaster database, and retrieve players based on several criteria. The first criteria that you can use, is the state. The default value for ‘State’ is ‘ALL’. If you want to print for a specific state, pick the state from the available combo box. Also available are two combos, which allow you to put in a range of NHPA card years. I find this very useful if I am sending out correspondence state wide, and I want to get it to everyone that currently has a card, or had a card last year.

All (Unchecked) radio button

This option will allow you to read thru the entire HSMaster database, and put all players into the ‘Print List’ grid. The major difference, is that the small check box beside the players name is not checked. Now you can go thru the list that was generated, and pick the players that you want to print labels for. This is handy if you want to print labels for just one of two players.

Now that you have a list, note that the checkbox beside the player. It indicates that he will receive a label. If you do not want the player to receive a label, double click, or press the spacebar, to uncheck that player.

Style

In the ‘Style’ combo select the type of labels that you want to print. There are four styles currently available. If more are required, we will need to enhance the software to correctly handle those styles. The first one listed in the combo, is the popular 1” X 2 5/8” label, 3 rows wide, and 10 rows high. I didn’t bother to find out what the standard Avery number was. The second is a 4” X 6” postcard. I use these to send out invitations to tournaments, as well as time of play. The third is a standard 8 ½” X 11” page. This allows you to tri-fold standard copier paper, and mail without an envelope. The fourth option, assumes you are going to run standard business envelopes thru your printer.

If you are not using an HP printer, I cannot guarantee that the postcards, and envelopes will work correctly, since they are not standard paper sizes. You will have to try them to see what results you get.

Return Address

Type the return address that you want to print on your mailing. Whatever you place in this textbox will print on all styles, except the 1” X 2 5/8” label. I think there might be a small bug in this text box: be sure to hit <Enter> after the last line of your return address or it may not print correctly.

Margin

If for some you are not satisfied with the placement of your print, you can use these margin fields to adjust. If you need to move your print up, or to the left, use negative whole numbers. To move it down, or to the right, use positive whole numbers.

Copies

The default is one label for each player in your list. If you need more than one label adjust this textbox as required. If you choose to print two, then the two labels for that player, would print back-to-back.

Font Settings Button

The default font is an 11pt. Arial font. If you wish to override the font, click on the ‘Font Settings’ button. A list of installed fonts is available to pick from. This is the standard Microsoft font window, that allows you to pick the sizes, styles, and attributes.

Print

Load the correct paper into your printer, and click ‘Print’ to get your labels.

Mailings\Invitations

This option probably has the least value, so I guess it is good it gets documented last. Also it doesn’t work real smoothly, so if you are comfortable with Microsoft Word or some other word processor, you may want to use that instead.

I use it to create invitations, or do other mailings, that I can do on a 4” X 6” postcard. It allows you to keep these invitations within the HSMaster database in a rich text format. So I use this option to create the invitation, then I use the ‘Mailings\Label’ option to address the postcard to the player. If you are using a word processor, to do your invitations on postcards, I would still recommend using the ‘Label’ option to address them.

My initial goal for this screen, was to allow you to place fields in brackets such as {TimeOfPlay}, then I would parse out those fields, and replace it with the players actual time of play, which was entered in ‘Tournament\Setup’. If I would ever get that finished, this screen would probably have more merit. One thing that screwed that concept up, was when I send time of play for two tournaments, in the same mailing. It appeared that it was going to be hard to handle that situation.

In the upper left-hand corner, in the ‘AddNew’ row enter the name of your invitation. This would equate to naming your file in Word. Press <Enter> to enter the invitation name into the database. Now find the invitation, and double click, or press <Enter> to select the invitation. Now with focus in the right hand window, you can enter the text of your invitation.

Format

There are four format buttons available to allow you limited formatting of your invitation. They are ‘Bold’, ‘Italics’, ‘Underline’, and ‘Bullets’. I guess they are pretty much self explanatory. I believe that you will need to highlight the text that you wish to apply the format to. Also available is a ‘Set Font’ button that will allow you to select various fonts from your computers installed font list.

Copies

This represents the number of copies of the invitation that you wish to print.

Print

When you are finished formatting your invitation, click ‘Print’ to send the invitation to your printer.

Invitation