Integration with Third-Party Databases and Contact Managers

- General Information
- External Contact Managers
- Importing Data from Text and MS Excel Files
- Importing Addresses from vCard Files
- Importing Data from a FileMaker Database

General Information

Mail Factory can use addresses stored in Apple Address Book, Microsoft Entourage, Microsoft Excel, Now Contact, Eudora and FileMaker. If you have any of these programs installed on your computer, you will be able to select them as the source of your contacts. Besides, Mail Factory can take addresses from tab-delimited text files and vCard files.

The person's details are displayed in the Contacts Window. They can be also used for filling out the embedded databases of Senders, Recipients and Print Lists.

Mail Factory uses AppleScript to pull information from external contact managers (except Apple Address Book, to which the program has direct access). When you select, for instance, Entourage or Now Contact as the source in the Contacts window for the first time, this program will be launched so that Mail Factory can access information stored in it. This may take a while, until Mail Factory imports the addresses into its internal database. If Mail Factory can't launch the external program or calls the wrong version of the required program, please check the path settings in Preferences Dialog.

The next time you select Entourage or Now Contact from the Source pop-up menu, the Contacts window will display the list of the previously imported contacts. You may update the list by clicking the Update button - Mail Factory will import the contacts from the corresponding contact manager.

Note: To use Mail Factory with Now Contact, the contact file must be the primary file. You can make a contact file "primary" when you open the file with Now Contact (enable the Make this file primary box in the Open dialog). The primary file is the file that opens automatically when you launch Now Contact.

Note: If you need to import the data from another contact manager, which is not directly supported by Mail Factory - it isn't a problem. Your contact manager program probably has the option to store contacts in the form of vCard or tab-delimited text files. Read below how to read the information from such files.

Importing Data from Text and MS Excel Files

A powerful feature of Mail Factory is its ability to syphon information from tab- and comma-delimited text files, as well as from Excel files. A tab delimited file is a text file that contains fields and records. Tab delimited files can be created by most applications - contact managers.

To import contacts from a text file or an Excel file:

1. Call the Contacts window (menu Window/Show Contacts).
2. Choose "To" tab; in the Source pop-up menu choose Text File if importing from a text file, or MS Excel to import an Excel workbook.
3. If it's your first import, the File Open dialog will come up. Navigate to the needed file on your computer, select it and click OK. If you imported contacts from a file before, you'll see the results of the last import in the list. To choose another file, click the Update button.
4. The Import dialog will come up. In the first column of the dialog, you'll see the first record of the imported text or Excel file. If the first row in the imported file is header, check the First Row is Header box above.
5. Now you need to associate the fields in your source file with the fields in Mail Factory address panel. Look at the fields in the Contact Data column, and, opposite the fields you need imported, click on the corresponding cell in the Map To column. A pop-up list will appear. In the list, choose the appropriate field name. For instance, if the first cell in Contact Data column contains "Peter", choose "First Name" in the corresponding Map To cell.
   You don't need to map each and every field. For instance, if your tab-delimited file contains phone numbers, and you don't need them in Mail Factory, just leave the corresponding cells in the Map To column blank.
6. Additional options:
   - If the file has other kinds of delimiters rather than tab ones, you need to choose the required sign in the drop-down list of Delimiters.
   - You can select correct encoding for the text files with special symbols (for example German contacts with umlauts).
7. Once you're through, click the Import button.

Mail Factory will import the contacts from the text or Excel file, and they will appear in the Contacts window. The imported contacts will be stored in Mail Factory until you import them from a new file. To import data from another file, just click on the Update button at the bottom of the Contacts window and repeat the above steps.

Note: use plain text format files for importing.
If you have a text file in Rich Text Format or in any other, open this file with text editor and save it as plain text for further use.

Importing Addresses from vCard Files

Mail Factory supports the vCard format - a popular format for exchanging contacts, used by many contact managers, handheld devices and mobile phones. Both individual and group vCards are supported.

In the Contacts window ("To" tab), select vCard Data Source from the Source pop-up menu. If you haven't imported any vCards yet, the file dialog will come up, allowing you to navigate to the vCard file on your computer. Choose the vCard file, click OK and the contacts in the vCard file will display in the window. If you already imported a vCard before, you will see its contents in the Contacts window. To choose another vCard file, click the Update button and choose the file in the file dialog.

Importing Data from a FileMaker Database

Apart from importing information from tab- and comma-delimited text files, Mail Factory can pull data directly from FileMaker database files. It uses AppleScript to communicate to FileMaker, so FileMaker Pro must be installed on your computer.

To import contacts from a FileMaker file:

1. Call the Contacts window (menu Window/Show Contacts).
2. Choose "To" tab; in the Source pop-up menu, choose FileMaker Pro.
3. If it's your first import, the File Open dialog will come up. Navigate to the needed FileMaker file on your computer, select it and click OK. If you imported contacts from a file before, you'll see the results of the last import in the list. To choose another file, click the Update button.
4. FileMaker Pro will be launched and activated.
5. Switch back to Mail Factory. The Import dialog will come up. In the first column of the dialog, you'll see the first record of the FileMaker file. If the first row in the imported file is header, check the First Row is Header box above.
6. Now you need to associate the fields in your source file with the fields in Mail Factory address panel. Look at the fields in the Contact Data column, and, opposite the fields you need imported, click on the corresponding cell in the Map To column. A pop-up list will appear. In the list, choose the appropriate field name. For instance, if the first cell in Contact Data column contains "Peter", choose "First Name" in the corresponding Map To cell.
7. You don't need to map each and every field. For instance, if your FileMaker database contains phone numbers, and you don't need them in Mail Factory, just leave the corresponding cells in the Map To column blank.
8. Once you're through, click the Import button.

Mail Factory will import the contacts from the FileMaker file, and they will appear in the Contacts window. The imported contacts will be stored in Mail Factory until you import them from a new file. To import data from another file, just click on the Update button at the bottom of the Contacts window and repeat the above steps.