WD2000: DMM: Frequently Asked Questions About Direct Mail Manager

ID: Q241364

The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Word 2000

SUMMARY

This article gives a brief overview and answers some of the more frequently asked questions about Microsoft Direct Mail Manager.


MORE INFORMATION

  1. What is Direct Mail Manager?

    Direct Mail Manager is a supplemental product available on disc 2 of the Microsoft Office 2000 Premium, Microsoft Office 2000 Professional, and Microsoft Office 2000 Small Business CD-ROMs.

    Direct Mail Manager is a program that can interact with Microsoft Word 2000 or Microsoft Publisher 2000 to help you create mail-merge documents. Direct Mail Manager can verify your address list (data source) for possible errors by connecting to an Internet site (ZIP-Station), and it can also supply Word with templates and wizards used to create mail merge main documents.


  2. What can Direct Mail Manager do for me?

    Direct Mail Manager can help you do the following:


    • Prepare a mailing list.


    • Sort for bulk mailing discounts.


    • Print envelopes, labels, postcards, and form letters.


    • Use a mailing service.


  3. Who should use Direct Mail Manager?


    4. Direct Mail Manager can best benefit the following individuals and companies:

    • Those with at least 200 and fewer than 3,500 verified addresses.


    • Those that have received Discounted Mailing certification from the United States Postal Service (USPS).


    With Direct Mail Manager, in order to receive discount mailing benefits, you must have a verified address list of at least 200 addresses. If you have fewer than this, you do not qualify for discount mailing.

    Direct Mail Manager helps you with the simple mailing discounts that you can receive from your local post office. Greater savings are available from the USPS for direct mailings that are not supported by Direct Mail Manager. In most cases, to receive these additional discounts, you must take your mailing to a specific post office in your area.

    PLEASE NOTE! To receive a bulk mailing discount, you must obtain a bulk mailing permit from the USPS. For more information about bulk mailing and the forms needed, contact the USPS in your area, or connect to the following Web site:
    http://www.usps.gov
  4. What if I have more than 3,500 addresses?

    The verification process that Direct Mail Manager uses has a limit of 3,500 addresses. If you have more than 3,500 addresses in your mailing list, the verification process goes through only the first 3,500 and does not verify the rest. To have Direct Mail Manager verify all the addresses, you need to upgrade to the enhanced version of Direct Mail Manager (named DAZzle Express), created by Envelope Manager Software.

    DAZzle Express has features that can handle very large mailings, discount first-class mail, and nonprofit permit mailings. Information about obtaining the DAZzle Express is available at the following Web site:
    http://www.dial-a-zip.com


  5. What are the main steps for using Direct Mail Manager?


    6. Before starting Direct Mail Manager, you must do the following:

    • Obtain a bulk-mailing permit from the USPS.


    • Locate a mailing list in a format accepted by Direct Mail Manager.


    Direct Mail Manager helps you with the following tasks:

    • Import your list or acquire one from the Internet.


    • Verify the list automatically by means of the Internet.


    • Make manual corrections to your list and remove any duplicates.


    • Choose Discount Mailing as the mailing type.


    • Enter information necessary for the USPS.


    • Calculate the costs of your direct mailing.


    • Design the mail piece.


    • Sort the list according to bulk mailing rules.


    • Print the mail pieces and forms.


    • Print form letters to send in the mailing (optional).


    After you finish working with Direct Mail Manager, you must do one of the following:

    • Submit your mailing documents to a mailing service.

      -or-


    • Do the following steps yourself:


      1. Stuff the envelopes.


      2. Assemble the mailing (sometimes called traying).


      3. Submit the mailing to the USPS.


  6. What are the system requirements for installing DMM?

    In addition to the system requirements for Office 2000, you need the following hardware resources:


    • An additional 8 MB of memory (recommended).


    • Approximately 16 MB of hard drive space for Direct Mail Manager.


    NOTE: Microsoft Word, Microsoft Publisher, and Microsoft Outlook are not required to be installed on your computer system to use Direct Mail Manager.

    For additional information about system requirements for Office 2000, please click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
    Q217883 OFF2000: System Requirements for Office

  7. What type of address list files can I use with DMM?

    Direct Mail Manager can use the following file types for an address list:


    • Microsoft Access database (.mdb, .mdw, .mda)


    • dBASE III or dBASE IV file (.dbf)


    • Microsoft Excel Worksheet (.xls)


    • Microsoft Word Document (.doc)


    • Paradox 5.x Database (.db, .dbf)


    • Delimited Text File (.txt, .csv, .tab, .asc)


    • Microsoft Outlook Contacts file


    • Many database formats by means of Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) interface


    For additional information about the types of file formats and extensions that can be used as an address list in Direct Mail Manager, please click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
    Q220160 WD2000: DMM: Supported Address List File Formats and Extensions
  8. The post office specifies that the business address needs to be in all capital letters. Why doesn't Direct Mail Manager format my address the way the post office wants the address?

    The USPS recommends the following business address formatting:

    • Uniform left margin
    • All Caps (all uppercase characters)
    • Two-letter state abbreviation
    • Zip+4

    • A simple sans serif style font

    • Character size of 8 points to 18 points

    These are general recommendations that make it easier for the USPS OCR equipment to scan and apply a bar code your letters. However, when you are doing a mass mailing and receiving a discount for doing this for the USPS, the OCR readers do not read your mailing address. Instead, they read the postal bar code that Direct Mail Manager prints.

    By default, Direct Mail manager formats your address in 10-point Arial (a sans serif font). If you want your addresses to print in all uppercase characters, as the USPS suggests, your address list must contain the addresses in all uppercase characters.

    For more information about business address formatting, please refer to Publication 25 and Publication 28, which can be obtained from the USPS at the following Web site:


    9. http://www.usps.gov/cpim/buspubs.htm
  9. The permit box should say "PRESORTED." Why doesn't Direct Mail Manager print this instead of the old "BULK-RATE" permit box?

    The USPS recently changed the text of the envelope permit box to include the text "PRESORTED". However, until January 10, 2001, the permit box on an envelope can include the old text of BULK-RATE. A future release of Direct Mail Manager will change the envelope permit box to conform to the new "PRESORTED" text specified by the USPS.


  10. Where can I get more information about direct mailing?

    Use the following resources for questions about direct mailing:


Additional query words: barcode

Keywords : kbdta wd2000
Version : WINDOWS:2000
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbinfo


Last Reviewed: September 30, 1999
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