E-Mail Settings - Document Design Manager


Datafile Software

E-Mail Settings - Document Design Manager

The E-Mail Settings option allows you to configure default message details if the document is printed to E-Mail.

Data item containing e-mail address

Select data item from WOH database that contains the email address the document to be sent to.

Send Automatically

Controls whether the message is to be displayed for confirmation/amendment before sending. See notes on Microsoft Outlook / Outlook Express below.

HTML e-mail

Only applicable if using Microsoft Outlook 2007/2010 as your email client this option allows you to compose, via the HTML button below, the email template as a HTML message allow greater formatting control of the email output.

Filename to Save As

The document is saved as an attachment to the email with a filename of the document title. You may want to save with a more relevant name. You only enter the filename not the path or suffix and you can use ‘!nnn’ to pick up a value from the main file record (where nnn is a three-digit data item number – 002 etc.). Data Items available can be viewed by clicking the LIST button at the foot of the parameter screen. You would normally include a reference such as the order number or document build reference within the filename via the !nnn controls.

Address

This option asks for a ‘hard-coded’ email address to which to send the email to. You may use to (say) send the document to the warehouse.

Subject

Enter the subject of the email. Again you can use !nnn to pick up a value from the main file record and in addition to the standard 160 fields available from the database you can use special items to pick up:

161 – Document Date

162 – User Name

163 – Document Reference

164 – Document Balance

Message

Enter the message detail as required. Again you can use !nnn to pick up items from the main file or include the extra 161+ items above. If set for HTML email this option is suppressed and the message template is configured via the HTML button below.

Wordwrap

When you send a message the text is output as entered above but the use of !nnn items may cause one line entered in the message to overflow into two lines on the email. Setting the option to word wrap outputs the message text as paragraphs, a new paragraph starting after a blank line. You can also force a new paragraph by entering ‘%%’ at the start of the line.

HTML

The HTML editor works along the lines of a basic word processing program – you can block text and change the font, type in additional message detail, insert horizontal lines and so on. To insert pictures or logos you can select the Insert pull-down and select the ‘Picture’ option and browse for the image required (we would recommend storing these images in the DocImage folder – remember that all operators who print the email / document need to have the images in the same location)

As with the standard email text options you can use ‘!nnn’commands and so on to insert data from the current record and ‘<<name,option>> text to add file attachments.

$SIGNATURE – existing special ‘data’ items allow you to imbed the user name of the user who created the email using the !H162 (or !162) item – the user name being picked up from the user name recorded against the user id in the MASTER sign-on options. This option allows for, on print of the email, the facility to replace the $SIGNATURE text with a jpg or bitmap image of the senders signature. In use you would have, for example:

Kind regards,

$SIGNATURE

!H162

Accounts Manager

To set the jpg/bitmap file to use as a user’s signature you need to select the ‘Window’ pulldown whilst in the main system and select the ‘Email Settings’ option and set the image file. Images are held per user by company – so if more than one company you need to select the appropriate signature image per company.

Once you have created your email template select the SAVE button to return to the Document Design. The ‘plain text’ email body is now ‘greyed out’ as it has been succeeded by the HTML email body. Exit from the Document Design Manager to complete your document layout.

Automatic Emails and Outlook Express / Microsoft Outlook

Security developments in later versions of Outlook Express and Microsoft Outlook mean that, by default, you cannot send emails automatically – a message is displayed warning that a program (i.e. Datafile) is trying to send an email message and asks whether you wish to proceed with the send (and you can’t respond Yes for a number of seconds). This feature was introduced to prevent viruses spreading themselves to everyone in your address book. This feature cannot be disabled by Datafile.

Outlook Express can be set to disable this warning via the Tools / Options menu and the Security tab. Disabling ‘Warn me when other applications try to send mail as me’ will prevent the warning message. If you do this you must ensure that your virus checker and firewalls are currently up-to-date and are kept up-to-date.

Microsoft Outlook 2003 does not have an equivalent option to this. Microsoft Support does notify that if using Outlook on top of Exchange Server then you can set via ‘Administer Outlook Security’ tools trusted programs that are allowed to send emails automatically.

Finally, Outlook Express can be set to send mail immediately on creation. When this is set the email message is sent after each document is produced in Datafile, and Datafile cannot continue to the next document until Outlook Express has sent the message. As you might imagine even on a broadband connection this can take some time.Within Outlook Express selecting Tools / Options and the ‘Send’ tab allows you to disable the option to send mail immediately.

Automatic Email and Anti-Virus Software

As with the security checking introduced by Microsoft, anti-virus checkers can also look for several e-mail messages being sent in a short period of time. Anti-virus checkers generally warn when more than one message is sent with the same subject (which could be avoided by using the !nnn function to pick up a value from the main data item record), and also warn if a number of messages are sent within a number of seconds (these details depend on the virus software). Generally the Anti-virus software will pause the sending of the email message(s) and ask you to confirm it is OK to send.


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Article ID: 1650
Created On: Wed, Jul 4, 2012 at 3:03 PM
Last Updated On: Wed, Jun 14, 2023 at 4:30 PM

Online URL: https://kb.datafile.co.uk/article/e-mail-settings-document-design-manager-1650.html