Emailing a Report

There are two basics steps in sending an email report. One of these steps, once completed, will not have to be repeated each time. That is the Server Setup. It is critical that this be correct or you will not be able to send email reports.

The Email Server Setup - Very Important

Setting up your email server information correctly is the most important aspect of using the email capability of your Love Cards Reporter program. Your email server is the internet host that sends all of your emails. Every ISP, including AOL, MSN, Charter Communications, Mindspring, Roadrunner, Cox and others, all have their individual email servers. You need the exact information in order for your program to send emailed reports for you. Most errors you may encounter while sending an email will be because your server information is not correct. When in doubt, call your ISP!

SMTP Server: this is critical. Usually, this address begins with smtp, such as smtp.charter.net or smtp.verizon.net or smtp.mindspring.com. You may think you know it, and you don't. Usually, you can get this information from your email program. If you are using Outlook or Outlook Express, it is usually found under Accounts / Properties. It is usually listed as the SMTP server or the Outgoing Mail Server. However, some ISPs, such as AOL and MSN, will not have this information readily available. You will have to call them. Tell them you have an application that needs the smtp server information so that it can send emails for you.

Username: This is your login name for your email server, usually found in the same place as your SMTP server information. This is usually your email address but sometimes it is different so it is better to check.

Password: You will only need this if you have the Use Authentication? checked. 99% of the time, this will NOT be necessary so you can leave this blank for now. If you do need, it you may have to call your ISP to get it, unless you know it by heart.

Your Email Address and Your Name: These are self explanatory.

Use Authentication: This is rarely used and can cause an error if you select it and your server does not require it. In general, leave this unselected and the Password field blank. If , by chance, your email server does require authentication, you will have to take the time to find out what the login password is and put it in its field.

Done: Press this button when you are done filling in your email server information.

Now that you are done with that important step, you are ready to send an email report. When selected from the Report setup screen, this screen appears:

The From and Email Address fields, as well as the Subject and the Body of Message fields, should all be filled in for you. You can edit them, if you wish, for any emailed report you are sending. For example, you can write in any text you want in the Body of Message memo field, if you wanted to personalize the message more for a particular client.

To fill in the To: and Email Address: fields, just click on the To: field and your database will come up, from where you can select a person to send it to. However, you can just type in a name and email address if you like.

The Email Report is a PDF file attached to an email. If you want the program to delete this PDF after sending, click on the Remove the report file after sending checkbox. This way, you do not get a huge backlog of PDF files on your computer.

You can customize the text in your message and save it so that it becomes the default that is used each time you send an email. This is accomplished with the Save button. Whatever is written in the Body of Message memo field will now be the default that will be used.

Once all the fields are filled in to your satisfaction, you can press the OK button. That will begin the report creation process.

Once the report has been generated, the PDF file will be created. And then, you will see the following:

This is a separate program called Emailer. It will send your report to the person you specified. Just click on the Send Report button to begin that process. When you do, the screen will change to this:

Now, the report is being sent. The report will usually be between 1 and 3 megabytes in size. On a modem connection, this could take up to 30 minutes to send. When the report is completely sent, you will get this message:

Then, when you press the OK button, the emailer program will close.