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Home > Support > Modules > Lists
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This page provides support and answers about the Willco Lists Module.
To read about the full list of features, click here.
Line Wrapping
When you send out a plain text mailing, it is best to put a hard carriage return on every line at the 70 character position (or less, depending on word wrapping) to ensure that the message displays properly in the recipient's email client.
If you don't force the wrapping in this way, then you'll find that in some email programs the text will just run straight off the right-hand side of the page.
To quickly add hard carriage returns to all lines, we use a program called Textpad, available to try and then purchase from http://www.textpad.com
Textpad has many great features and we would recommend putting text mailings together using this or another product with similar functionality.
To reformat lines in Textpad and add in hard carriage returns, use the 'Edit, Reformat' menu. You configure the reformatting width in the menu 'Configure, Preferences, Document Classes, Text'. Change the option 'Word break at column number' to 70.
View this short movie to see how to do this in Textpad:
http://www.willco.com/support/movies/textpad_reformat_movie.gif
[Use your BACK button to return to this page when the movie finishes]
One piece of advice though: if you put URLs in your mailing inside angled bracket (for instance like this: <http://www.willco.com>) then check that Textpad hasn't added a carriage return inside one of the angled brackets.
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HTML Mailings
Here are instructions on sending HTML messages using the Willco system, both 'new' and 'old':
New 'Willco Lists Module' System:
1. Create HTML message as a Web page (including graphics, etc.)
2. View the page in the Internet Explorer browser
3. Click File, Save As, and save the file as 'Web page, HTML only (*.htm, *.html)'
Then when sending out your message as usual, attach the HTML file. Choose the second option (to send as an HTML message) and upload the images one at a time.
Old 'Willco/FreePint' System:
To send an HTML mailing using the old Willco system (including a text element for non-HTML-compatible email clients), please use the following procedure:
1. Create your HTML message as a Web page (including graphics, etc.)
2. View the page in the Internet Explorer browser
3. Click File, Save As, and save the file as an .MHT file (Web page complete)
4. Open the file in a text editor (such as WordPad or Textpad) and remove the first line (beginning 'From:'), and save the file
You then go in to post your message in the system as usual, put the text element in the box (for non-compatible email clients), and then attach the MHT file using the 'Attach ...' button. If you cannot see this button then contact us as we need to activate the ability to send attachments.
To see how it will look, test it first by sending to 'Owners Only'.
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Plain Text Checker
Have you ever sent out a plain text mailing to find that either it's converted the whole mailing to an attachment, or changed some characters to codes?
The reason is because some of the characters in your mailing aren't plain ASCII text, or 'seven bit safe'.
To use this free service from Willco to check your mailing: copy and paste the text into the box on this page http://www.willco.com/support/sevenbit and hit the 'Check' button. Any characters that are not seven-bit safe (i.e. not plain ASCII text) will be highlighted in red.
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Viewing bounced addresses
If you're wondering how to view a list of bounced email addresses after each mailing, view this quick demonstration:
http://www.willco.com/support/movies/failed_addresses_movie.gif
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Removal of persistently bouncing addresses
As you know, you can remove bouncing email addresses using the 'Bounce Handler' at 'Admin / List subscriptions / Progress'.
However, this facility only shows you *all* addresses that have bounced in *any* of the selected mailings. You might want a list of just those addresses which have bounced regularly -- i.e. appear in the bounce list for *all* of the selected mailings.
We can now process this for you offline.
So, if you wish us to produce a list of bounced addresses across a number of mailings, then simply email support@willco.com and tell us the ID numbers of the mailings to analyse. We'll then provide the list of email addresses that have bounced in for all of those mailings and ask for your confirmation of their removal. We'll then do this for you too.
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HTML subscription code for your site
We have upgraded the HTML Code Generator, the interactive facility to help you create the subscription code for your Web site.
To use the enhanced Generator, login to your community and choose 'Administration, Lists Subscriptions, HTML Code'.
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Description for each list
By popular demand, we have added the ability to enter descriptive text for each of your lists.
This means that when a member of your community logs in to their account and views their list subscriptions, then will see a description of each list, rather than just the list name.
To enter list descriptions, go to 'Administration', 'List Subscriptions', 'List Descriptions'.
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Shortening long Web addresses
Many of you make use of the free DigBig service to shorten long Web addresses, but we're constantly surprised about the new ways that DigBig is being used.
A recent addition to the DigBig Testimonials page http://www.DigBig.com/testimonial.html tells how DigBig addresses are used in spreadsheets to keep the column width standard. What a great idea.
Why not tell us how *you* use DigBig, and if you don't use it then maybe it's time to check it out?
http://www.DigBig.com/
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Tick Box for HTML Mailings
You may have spotted it already, but there is a new tick box on the posting page which needs to be checked if you're attaching an HTML file to be sent as an HTML email.
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Validating email addresses
If subscribers submit blank email addresses or ones without an '@' sign, this added feature will redirect them to a page on your web site that will prompt them to resolve the problem.
Follow these steps to incorporate this feature:
1) Add a page to your web site which says "Sorry, there seems to be a problem with your email address. Please use your BACK button to return to the subscription form."
2) Log in to your Willco account and go to:
Admin > Action Management > Redirects > Add new redirect
3) Add a new redirect titled 'Invalid' and enter the URL of your new web page.
4) Use the HTML Code function to create subscription code incorporating the redirect; go to:
Admin > Lists Module > HTML Code
Set the parameters for your HTML code as before, and include the new redirect in the field entitled 'redirect_error'.
5) Replace the HTML subscription code on your site with the new code.
If any of this is unclear or if you require additional assistance, then please contact us so that we can talk you through the changes.
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Displaying the Registered Email Address
When you send out a mailing, it is important to include the recipient's email address within the text of the mailing.
This is because they receive emails to one address, but send emails from a different address. If you don't know what the original email address was, then you will not be able to remove them from the list.
Therefore, we would strongly recommend including the following code '{EMAIL}' (in upper case; no quotes) in all your text mailings, thus:
"You have received this email to <{EMAIL}>. To unsubscribe, please forward a copy of this email to us."
The recipient's email address will then be subsituted for the code {EMAIL}.
Note how we have added angle brackets around the code so that the period/full-stop at the end of the sentence doesn't get confused as part of the email address.
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