Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!husc6!think!ames!amdcad!sun!plaid!chuq
From: chuq@plaid.Sun.COM (Chuq Von Rospach)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: How would you maintain a mailing list?
Message-ID: <42646@sun.uucp>
Date: 21 Feb 88 03:07:47 GMT
References: <913@PT.CS.CMU.EDU>
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Reply-To: chuq@sun.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach)
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In article <913@PT.CS.CMU.EDU> tgl@ZOG.CS.CMU.EDU (Tom Lane) writes:
>I need to maintain a newsletter mailing list (of a couple hundred names).
>What kind of Mac software would people recommend for this task?

>Aside from adding, deleting, finding, and changing entries, I'd like to
>print the list directly on sheets of peel-off labels.  It might be useful if
>the list could be sorted in zip-code order for printing the labels.

>Is it time to buy Hypercard, or is there something else that would handle
>this better?

This is one case where HyperCard doesn't cut it. Theprinting facilities are
still too primitive, although with Reports! that might change. the only way
I'd do this in HC is if I had some program (like Word 3.0) that did mail
merge and could handle labels. 

I currently do it in Filemaker Plus, which works fine, if a little
underpowered for my tastes. I'm currently designing a standalone system in
4th Dimension, which for a cople of hundred names is almost definitely
overkill, but wonderful fun nonetheless. 

My guess is you need some kind of low level file-handler or database
program. To me, this means either Filemaker Plus or Reflex Plus, both of
which are relatively cheap (under $200) and will do the job. Both, not so
coincidentally, have lots of fans as users, which says something about their
quality and usefulness.

Chuq Von Rospach			chuq@sun.COM		Delphi: CHUQ

                       What do you mean 'You don't really want to hurt her?'
                                    I'm a Super-Villain! That's my Schtick!