TntMPD 3.0 Feature: Managing Paper/Email Newsletters

I'm really digging this feature, Troy!  I had basically this same behavior via a couple user fields and complicated hand-written custom lookup.  It worked, but it wasn't nearly as slick as what you've produced here, and I didn't even bother trying to recommend my system to non-techies.

Well done!

Troy, I am anxiously trying to implement this feature too! It looks excellent. I have read this guide and I am trying to figure out how to implement my situation.

I have developed a paper newsletter list of 92 contacts and then a saved group which includes all of the 92 except for a few in a list for my email newsletter.

So first I took the 92 and changed a mass field from paper with back up to Paper only. I did this because I didn't think changing it to Paper and Email would work.

Now how do I change the larger list of 300+ contacts that includes the 92 Paper only newsletter list to have all get the email newsletter?

I  am probably missing something simple but I can't figure out how to proceed.

Nick

Troy,

I am very excited about this feature too!

I have a paper newsletter list of 92 contacts and a larger list in a saved group of 358 contact for email newsletter.

How do I make it so the 92 get the Paper and email and the rest get email only?

Nick

Thank you Troy for your response. I just ended up making a group for the paper list and the email list.

In using the Mass change field feature to change the Newsletter Media option, I have noticed that several of the MPD Phases cannot be marked with a Active Newsletter option. So for example, people whom I have marked as "Ask in Future" don't receive a "Email Only" Newsletter Media option. Is that on purpose?

I was using this scenario so that I can send our newsletter to people I might approach in the future to join our team so they can be connected to the ministry.

I also noticed this with all the MPD phases "greater than" Partner-Pray".

Nick

I am on 3.02. So I'll upgrade to 3.04 and report back.

Sorry. I am running on a couple different computers and I forgot to update this one.

Nick

Okay. I did upgrade and it still seems  to be acting the same.

So first I went to a saved group and selected "Email Newsletter". It has 358 contacts in it. So I wanted to make all of them have the Newsletter Media Preference of Email Only so I did that.

After I noticed there were several that were not showing the symbol for the email Only.

So a did a lookup using MPD phase to ferret out which they were.

I used a lookup of MPD Phase is less than Partner-Financial. And noticed that the 89 left did not have any newsletter preference selected.

Does that help?

Do you want me to send you the database?

Nick

One further observation is that the field did change to Email Only for Newsletter Media but the True/False check box did not change.

So now I understand the problem. My mass change only affected the Newsletter Media preference and not the checkbox for Send Newsletter.

If I change that, I will get the results I am looking for.

Some further explanation / help for the Advanced Newsletter features.  I thought this was a bus originally, but after looking at the syntax of the lookup I realized it performed correctly.  Thought I would share though to possibly help others or to use in any "Help" areas.

I chose to do use one of the new newsletter lookups, "Lookup... Newsletter Recipients... Advanced" menu.

I selected the "Paper Newsletter (currently a backup for invalid email)" option from the "Advanced" menu.  This resulted in a message saying "This lookup resulted in zero contacts" - which is what I expected.  I have none of my "Newsletter recipients" set to this new option, "Email (w/ paper backup)".

Along w/ the information error, a box gives you the option to "Edit Last Lookup Filter...".

Select that option. A new "Lookup" window appears, which gives several options.  Here's the thing to note, all of the available 'radio' buttons in the 'Filter' area will only affect the last part of the lookup.  Also, take note the top of the form has the "Lookup within the current group" selected.

The "Receives PAPER newsletter" option was selected.

No matter which of the seven options in the "Filter" area that I selected, my results were always 'zero contacts'.  Which is absolutely correct because of the starting point option I had selected, "Paper Newsletter (currently a backup for invalid email"

Very powerful feature, you just need to pay attention to th full lookup formula you use.

This is nitpicky, I know, but... thinking of the "Paper and Email" option...

What if the wife wants the paper letter and the husband wants the email newsletter? :)

While I don't think it's a problem to address the paper newsletter to both, if I do "paper and email", then both spouses will get the email newsletter in addition to the paper one. I'm not recommending a change (or solution), but I thought of it because I actually have a partner couple in this situation.

Bob,

I have not tried it, but what if you only set the husband's email as preferred?  Will it then just send it to his email and not the wife's.

Actually, there are some instances in the past where the 'preferred' option caused me fits because I want all of the emails to work and this little check box prevented it from working that way.  That's way I suggested it might work for your scenario.

That's a great idea--setting the husband's email as preferred and the wife's not. I'll test that. But then she won't get the non-newsletter prayer updates. Hmmm...

Bob,

Yes, you're correct.  I had a similar issue happen when trying to send out a general email.  When I did some experimenting at the time, I discovered that the 'preferred' check box needed to be checked in order to send emails of any type.  Unless I 'hand' copied the address.

Troy, would be a nice future update.  Or potentially, an option to override the 'preferred' email switch?  Which might have other problems, but a thought.