Database software & email integration
 

I'm trying to find database software that's not Microsoft that will allow me to send e-mail to groups of people. I'm using Lotus Approach for my database, which I like a lot but can't e-mail from, and Eudora.

I have a copy of Act! 2000 and can import files from Approach to send e-mail via Eudora. However, I can't set up separate groups of names for e-mailing without deleting the previous group I imported. QuickBooks, newer versions of Act!, and other programs let me e-mail from them, but I can't find one that uses Eudora; they all integrate with Outlook.

Any suggestions other than changing to Outlook or buying MS Office?

If you're sending e-mail via SMTP (I assume so since you're talking about Eudora) then you can do it with any database software that can export a text file. There are tools out there for sending mail from the command line, similar to the sendmail utility on Unix (I think there's even a sendmail for Windows). All you would need to do is use your database program to generate a command line script that you could then save to a text file and execute from the OS.

I have POP3 mail; will that still work? I don't know anything about writing scripts though.

If you use POP3 then you use SMTP as well -- POP3 is for incoming mail only, and then SMTP is for outgoing. You'd need to get someone to help you with the scripting of this, but it is extremely simple. I'm available at an hourly rate. :D

Wordmerge is $59 and works with any exported data file

http://www.coloradosoft.com/worldmrg/index.htm

Mail Merge mania from Northwoods reads act 2000 directly, and sends without without any add ons, $80

http://www.nwoods.com/ACT/MailMerge.htm


e-campaign for $99, again no other programs needed, but you would have to export

http://www.lmhsoft.com/ecamp/


if you go over to download.com there are dozens of others (search for email merge) that you can test drive before buying, but there are lots of options available for you.

Thanks for the help. I'll check out all these suggestions.