Activities is a generic term used for all your conferences, lectures, openings, etc.

Step 1) Assign a Filter Code to all Contacts that you will be inviting. This places a Contact on a list, i.e. /CON/ could be a Filter Code for your conferece. This means that all Contacts with a Filter Code of /CON/ will receive conference invites.

Step 2) Via the Switchboard, select Activity Central to complete details about your activity. Note the tick box on the bottom right which you can tick for a Current Activity, or untick to archive it. You can also click the Bulk Options tab to assign the activity to all Contracts according to a Filter Code. This avoids the task of individually assigning an activity to each Contact.

Setp 3) You are now ready to export all Current Activities to a file (contacts_upload.mdb) that is uploaded to your website / Intranet. This is available via the Internet Options tab. Once you click the Go button you will be presented with a form showing your current activities prior to exporting. IMPORTANT: once Current Activities are exported, they are locked on the ContactMD until imported again. This is because information is being changed via your website / Intranet.

Step 4) Upload the contacts_upload.mdb file to your website using FTP (File Transfer Protocol). You will need FTP software (see link below) and access details - host, username and password. If uploading to an Intranet you will copy the file to an assigned folder on your network. You can use ContactMD Activities to monitor online registrations and various totals (i.e. all RSVP, etc.).

Step 5) You then invite everyone to the activity. You can use the ContactMD to create envelope labels or print to envelopes directly. You can also use a bulk messaging product (like GroupMail) to bulk send your invite. This is done by interacting with the contacts_upload.mdb (located in c:\DataFlow\Address\Export folder. You will need to be familar with connecting to a database to do this. Alternatively, you can use the Export Spreadsheet option (via Activity Central > Internet Options) to create a spreadsheet.

Step 6) When the online registration is complete the activity data is imported back into the ContactMD. To do this download the contacts_upload.mdb file to the c:\DataFlow\Address\Import folder. Then go to Activity Central > Internet Options and choose the Import Current Activities option. This will update the ContactMD with all the registration details that were completed online by all the people invited.

» ContactMD Activities demo - the online module to manage Activities

» Download FTP Commander (Freeware) via Tucows website

» See also: Working with Contacts Upload