DESIGNING NEWSLETTERS Q  Can I use javascript in my newsletters? No. Javascript is not allowed in emails. Most email browser see this as a security alert and will block any scripts in your newsletter. Q  Can I use content from a MS Word document? Yes, exporting and filtering of Microsoft Word documents can prevent problems from occurring. If you see strange strings such as while viewing your Newsletter it's due to proprietary HTML tags created by Microsoft Word or another Microsoft application. Outlook hides these tags so somebody mainly using Microsoft software may not be aware of the problem they're causing. You can avoid this problem by saving the HTML file as filtered HTML in Microsoft Word. Q  Can I use embedded objects like flash or movie clips? We do not recommend to use these objects in your newsletters because some email browsers will block any activeX objects. These kinds of objects are seen as a security risks. Some browsers will display these objects with no problems. Q  Does the system have free templates? Yes. You choose your templates and can adapt them for your organization, as required. It is also easy to design your own templates in the online editor. Q  Can I add (Flash) animations to a newsletter? Yes. The PowerMail Editor enables you to place a range of visual objects, such as Flash files and animated GIFs, as well as the usual range of pictures. Q  How do I place images next to a text paragraph? In the PowerMail Editor, click the Table button and click Create Table. The default table has one row divided into two columns. Place your image in one cell and the text in another. In Edit Table, set the table border to 1 for a 1pt rule around the table, or zero to make the table invisible. Alternatively, select the image and choose the 'make absolute' button on the editor button bar. You can now drag and drop it wherever you like. Q  What kind of universal settings can I get for my newsletters in PowerMail? Our Profile and Settings have a range of useful features, including "Create text version with HTML version", "Enable password on subscribe form for users with additional data", "Display 'Subscribe' link on all emails", "Display 'Forward to friend' link on all emails", and "Append the address (in Profile) to the footer of all emails sent out." (Obligatory, by the US CAN-SPAM act, for emails to US resident recipients) You can also set your date format and the Time Zone you operate in. You can even set the Start page for each section to save you time. Q  How do I place and upload images? To insert an image from your computer on to a newsletter page in the PowerMail Editor; click on the image icon (similar to the same icon in Microsoft Word). Browse for it on your hard drive and click Upload. Once it has uploaded, it will appear in the Pictures folder below. Click Select next to the image and click Insert at the bottom. You can give the picture a border by selecting clicking the Image Border dropdown menu and selecting a number - 1 represents a 1 point border with thickness increasing the higher you go to a maximum of 5. If you are not in the Editor but wish to upload an image from your computer into your PowerMail pictures folder, go to Enhanced Mode. Click Manage Images. Select Upload Images. You can use an image that is elsewhere on the Web, in other words, on another website by inserting the URL path to the image into your PowerMail newsletter's code. One way to do this would be to insert a dummy image (any small image) into your newsletter. Click View HTML in the bottom left-hand corner in the PowerMail Editor. Type Ctrl F, which calls up the Find popup, and type in the name of the image. Click Find Next and it will take you to the IMG tag in the code that points to your dummy image. The code will have a URL path to the dummy image in your PowerMail folder, opening with the characters <IMG and including a src tag similar to this: src="http://www.PowerMail.com/members/69/ftp/Pictures/dummy.gif" width=100 border=0>. Replace the URL between the quotation marks with the URL path to the image you wish to use. Be sure to delete any references to Width or Height in the IMG tag, otherwise the new image will be forced into the attributes of the dummy image, in this case 100 pixels wide. Just delete width=100. Q  I have imported an HTML document into PowerMail but I can’t see the images when I open my newsletter in the GM Editor. How can I get my images to show? The code of the newsletter is pointing to images that are not where the code thinks they are. This may be because you selected the wrong option when you imported the HTML file into PowerMail. If you used the ‘Get HTML from this file’ option, make sure you upload the images to your PowerMail images folder as well. An HTML file does not have images embedded in it - the images are separate to the HTML file, which is merely 'pointing' to the location of the images. These must be imported separately. PowerMail will automatically insert the correct path in the code to the images you have uploaded to your PowerMail images folder. For the ‘Get HTML from this URL’ option, you must make sure that the images are on the website you are importing the HTML from. Q  Can I create templates in PowerMail? Yes. You can save your newsletters as templates for use later, along with the variety of pre-designed PowerMail templates. GM provides a growing range of templates for different audiences: press releases, invitations, product launches, newsletters, quotes, memos, letters, travelogues, announcements and a series of e-cards relating to holidays or religious holidays. You can also create newsletters based on other newsletters, which is useful when you want your newsletter to comprise other pages with the same look and feel. It's easy to cross-link to these pages. For customers who need help in designing templates, a PowerMail designer can create one for you. Q  How do I make a newsletter come first in the dropdown list of my newsletters? Newsletters that have been named with an underscore preceding the title will appear at the top of the list. The next sorting format would be alphabetical, in other words, _abc would come before _bbc. However, if you want to ensure that a newsletter appears right at the top, place a double underscore at the start of the title, for example __abc Q  How do I create a newsletter that links to other Web pages? Highlight the text that you wish to hyperlink. Click the External Link button. Select http:// in the top dropdown and insert the rest of the URL in the space below. Q  How do I create a newsletter that links to other Web pages? Highlight the text that you wish to hyperlink. Click the External Link button. Select http:// in the top dropdown and insert the rest of the URL in the space below. Q  How do I change line spacing in the editor? Shift Enter = single spacing Enter = double spacing Q  How do I put internal links (bookmarks) within my newsletter? When you are in the Editor, highlight the text you want to link to a later section of your newsletter, click on the external link button, in the URL field type “#” followed by what you want to name this link (ie. #link1) – do not enter anything into any of the other fields, then press the insert button. Next go to the text you want the link you created to link to and highlight that text, again click on the external link button, enter the name of the above link in to the name field (ie. link1) and press insert. Otherwise, try inserting the relevant ‘bookmark’ and ‘hyperlink to bookmark’ code into your newsletter’s HTML code. You need a word that you can associate with each hyperlink, such as head1 for the first headline. Now click View HTML (bottom left in the Editor). Insert the following bookmark code at the beginning of the section you wish to hyperlink to: Now go back up to your list of headlines. Find the first headline (still in View HTML mode) and make sure the words you wish to hyperlink (in this case THE FIRST HEADLINE) are between the Open and Close tags like so: THE FIRST HEADLINE Q  How do I know if e-mails that I sent out were actually opened? PowerMail provides statistics of sent newsletters and reports the percentage of e-mails opened per mailshot, how many were sent, how many website click-throughs were generated, and who clicked on what links and who actually opened the email. We even enable you to generate or export these addresses as a separate list so that you can target your users based on their click behavior. Q  How do I edit an image in my PowerMail newsletter? While working on your newsletter in the PowerMail Editor, click on the image and click on the image button in the toolbar. This button is similar to the picture icon in Microsoft Word. A popup window appears with the attributes and current settings of your picture. It contains a list of pictures in your pictures folder, with a preview of the image you selected showing in the left-hand pane. It tells you the Image Source (the URL path to the image in your PowerMail folder), the alternative text (text that appears when you move the mouse over an image in your newsletter), as well as Height, Width, Alignment (the abs in absBottom stands for absolute), Image Border (thickness of the rule used as a border) and Vertical Spacing. You can change any of these attributes to change the way the image is presented. Click Update to complete the process. The image popup window includes other features, such as the functionality to upload images from your hard drive and insert them into your newsletter, or to insert pictures straight from your PowerMail image folder. Q  Can my PowerMail newsletters contain PDF files? Yes - a download link to the file from your email will be almost the same thing as an attachment. It is also much more likely to get through corporate firewalls. In the editor position your cursor and then choose the Internal Link button (next to the table symbol). Upload your attachment to the Pictures folder - now select it in the list by clicking the 'Select'. Enter your link text (e.g. Download it here) and click OK. Q  Can I edit images when working in PowerMail? Yes. The PowerMail Editor includes an image button on the toolbar similar to the picture icon in Microsoft Word. A popup window appears with the attributes and current settings of your picture. It contains a list of pictures in your pictures folder, with a preview of the image you selected showing in the left-hand pane. It tells you the Image Source (the URL path to the image in your PowerMail folder), the alternative text (text that appears you move the mouse over an image in your newsletter), as well as Height, Width, Alignment (the abs in absBottom stands for absolute), Image Border (thickness of the rule used as a border) and Vertical Spacing. You can change any of these attributes to change the way the image is presented. The image popup window includes other features, such as the functionality to upload images from your hard drive and insert them into your newsletter, or to insert pictures straight from your PowerMail image folder. Q  Can I import HTML files into PowerMail? Yes. You can import HTML Web pages from your computer into your PowerMail account. When you upload the HTML file's images to your PowerMail images folder, your PowerMail newsletter will automatically insert the correct path in the code to the images you have uploaded. You can also import an HTML Web page from another URL. Q  How do I use an image that is elsewhere on the Web? You can use an image that is elsewhere on the Web, in other words, on another website by inserting the URL path to the image into your PowerMail newsletter's code. One way to do this would be to insert a dummy image (any small image) into your newsletter. Click View HTML in the bottom left-hand corner in the PowerMail Editor. Type Ctrl F, which calls up the Find popup, and type in the name of the image. Click Find Next and it will take you to the IMG tag in the code that points to your dummy image. The code will have a URL path to the dummy image in your PowerMail folder, opening with the characters <IMG and including a src tag similar to this: src="http://www.PowerMail.com/members/69/ftp/Pictures/dummy.gif" width=100 border=0>. Replace the URL between the quotation marks with the URL path to the image you wish to use. Be sure to delete any references to Width or Height in the IMG tag, otherwise the new image will be forced into the attributes of the dummy image, in this case 100 pixels wide. Just delete width=100. Q  Do you cater for power users? PowerMail has a Basic Mode and an Enhanced Mode, which offers advanced functionality around the management of your newsletters, mailing lists, subscriber data, subscription methodology and more. The power of PowerMail lies in the flexibility of the product. You can design your own subscriber forms and select - even customize - the type of data you wish to collect from subscribers to your mailing list. In the PowerMail Editor, power users often prefer to cut and paste their own HTML code into a newsletter, especially when working with embedded Flash files and other objects. The HTML View takes you right into the code, where you can, for instance, use CTRL F to find the tag you wish to work on. Most Windows shortcut keys work in PowerMail. Q  Can I have my own branding at the footer of my e-mails? Yes. Get the PowerMail footers removed or replaced with your own branding for a one-time fee of US$250. Please contact us if you’re interested in this option. The branding effect of the PowerMail footers allows us to minimize our advertising spend and therefore maintain our low price structure. Q  How do I add (Flash) animations to a newsletter? Before you load your Flash file in your HTML design software, add the HTML code manually after you have set it up in your HTML design software. You can edit the HTML by ticking the 'View HTML' option on the status bar in the online editor. Q  How do I set up PowerMail to automatically send the correct version (HTML or text) to recipients? To create a text version make sure you have the "Create a text version" box ticked. When you finish designing the HTML version in the Editor a second editor will appear where you will need to place the text for the text version. Q  Can I create templates in PowerMail? Yes. You can save your newsletters as templates for use later, along with the variety of pre-designed PowerMail templates. GM provides a growing range of templates for different audiences: press releases, invitations, product launches, newsletters, quotes, memos, letters, travelogues, announcements and a series of e-cards relating to holidays or religious holidays. You can also create newsletters based on other newsletters, which is useful when you want your newsletter to comprise other pages with the same look and feel. It's easy to cross-link to these pages. For customers who need help in designing templates, a PowerMail designer can create one for you. Q  Does PowerMail automatically send the correct version (HTML or text) to recipients? Yes, PowerMail is reverse MIME compliant and will automatically determine whether an e-mail client can read HTML. If it cannot, PowerMail will deliver the text version (a setting that can be turned on or off in your PowerMail account). To create a text version make sure you have the "Create a text version" box ticked. When you finish designing the HTML version in the Editor a second editor will appear where you will need to place the text for the text version. Q  How can I get personalization to work with plain text newsletters? You can't. At this time personalization only works in HTML and not in text-only emails. HTML contains code that communicates with our server to register these stats, whereas text-only e-mails do not. However, a work-around is to design a text-only e-mail using HTML, choosing a plain text font such as Times Roman and a simple table structure that replicates the look of a text-only e-mail. This way, you can personalize the e-mail as well as track useful statistics, such as click-throughs and open rates. Q  Can I create newsletters that link to other pages in PowerMail? Yes. Because you can use a newsletter as a template, you can repeat the look and feel to create 'pages' of a newsletter, and cross-link to them from your main page. Q  How do I set up universal settings for my newsletters in PowerMail? In Profile and Settings (bottom left of your screen after logging in), go to Settings. You have the option to check the "Create text version with HTML version", "Enable password on subscribe form for users with additional data", "Display 'Subscribe' link on all emails", "Display 'Forward to friend' link on all emails", and "Append the address (in Profile) to the footer of all emails sent out." (Obligatory, by the US CAN-SPAM act, for emails to US resident recipients) You can also set your date format and the Time Zone you operate in. You can even set the Start page for each section to save you time. Q  How does PowerMail manage images? You can upload and insert images from your computer hard drive into your PowerMail newsletter, or use images that are elsewhere on the Web. PowerMail stores your images in a folder for convenient access at any time. PowerMail enables you to either upload images straight into your pictures folder to be inserted into a newsletter later, or you can upload and insert an image at the same time while working in the PowerMail Editor. Q  When I have euro signs (€), pound signs (£) or sometimes quotation marks (') in my newsletter they often do not display correctly in the email. How do I fix this? The problem here is with character sets. All web pages, and therefore PowerMails, have either a default character set specified or is opened by the browser or email client with the default character set for that program. Unfortunately character sets differ. Q  Can I add attachments to my email newsletters? Yes - a download link to the file from your email will be almost the same thing as an attachment. It is also much more likely to get through corporate firewalls. In the editor position your cursor and then choose the Internal Link button (next to the table symbol). Upload your attachment to the Pictures folder - now select it in the list by clicking the 'Select'. Enter your link text (e.g. Download it here) and click OK. Q  Is it possible to personalize links within the Newsletter? Yes, add 2 more fields in the dataset: Link1 - Default = <a href='http://www.yoursite.com/?id= Link2 - Default = '>Click here</a> Then in your newsletter add these data fields and remove the spaces in between: Link1 PersonalID Link2 This will produce: <a href='http://www.yoursite.com/?id=123'>Click here</a> Q  Do you have any guidelines/suggestions for people creating their own templates for GM? Max width 750pix Don't use .css files but rather put the CSS code directly in the newsletter code. Use UTF-8 charset if possible, else iso-8859-1 Use small images. Keep the HTML as simple as possible. Avoid pasting from MS Word. SENDING NEWSLETTERS Q  Can PowerMail be used for unsolicited bulk e-mail (spamming)? To send one million e-mails using PowerMail would cost $20,000. PowerMail was not designed as a SPAM tool, and it would be illogical for it to be used as such. PowerMail has been designed as an online, value added service for a range of functions, including personalized opt-in marketing to clients and in-house communication with colleagues, as well as private use. Q  What is PowerMail used for? The PowerMail tool is mostly used by corporations, associations, clubs, small businesses and private individuals. The uses are endless, but most people use PowerMail to communicate with clients, staff, members, colleagues and relatives or friends. Private use would include invites, announcements, travelogues and family albums. Small businesses might use PowerMail for press releases, newsletters, product launches, quotes, letters, proposals and more. Corporations, on the other hand, might have an in-house communications department that wants to send out internal newsletters, reports, memos and directives to other offices, as well as a range of opt-in or other marketing functions. Q  Does PowerMail CC (carbon copy) or BCC (blind carbon copy) e-mails sent to multiple recipients? No, when sending, each newsletter is addressed and sent individually. This is much more effective. When people see a single stock phrase in the "To" field of the received e-mail, they usually associate it with SPAM. Q  Can I personalize the e-mails or use different subject lines? Yes, we offer a range of personalization functions. You can address the emails to individuals, based on fields you set up in datasets managed in the Manage Subscriber Info area. You can also personalize the subject with a data field representing each individual recipient, such as their name. Q  Can I do scheduled sends with PowerMail, choosing the time I wish my newsletter to be sent out? Yes, scheduled sends are part of PowerMail's functionality. They can be sent by hours and days, up to one month ahead. Q  My newsletter was sent out successfully, why hasn’t anyone received it yet? This could mean that our servers are busy and you are in a queue of messages to be delivered. Alternatively, it could mean your emails are such large files that sending takes longer. Please check back in an hour, if it's still not sent, please contact us. Q  Why do my subscribers get blank emails? This is usually as a result of using absolute layers when designing a PowerMail using either the editor or another HTML program. Absolute positioning doesn't work well in emails, because you're not sure of the mail size that will be appearing in your subscribers email client. We advise you not to use absolute position when designing your PowerMails. If you have in order to fix it you will need to click the edit HTML code at the bottom left hand corner of the editor and go through and delete all instances of the word <ABSOLUTE>. You may have to redesign your PowerMail after these deletions. Q  Why do the images not show up in my emails? The images are not embedded in the emails. The email contains HTML code that calls the image up from our server. For the images to load you need to be online and the images must have been loaded onto the PowerMail server. For instructions on how to load images please view the help menu in the Manage Images Menu. Q  Can the recipient's name appear in the ‘To’ field? The TO field has to contain an email address. If you want to add the recipient’s name, use our personalization tool. Q  Can I send out personalized emails? Yes, PowerMail allows you to personalize your emails and set up subscribe forms where your users fill in their details to populate sets of data that you can set up, with a choice in the type of information you wish to get from them. Go to Manage Subscriber Info and Create New (dataset). Full instructions are available in the help files. A small icon next to the subject line in the SEND area enables you to personalize the subject line. Q  Can you cancel an email once it is sitting in the queue to be sent? No, only scheduled emails can be cancelled. If an email is sent immediately then the sending cannot be cancelled. Make sure your email is correct before sending it. Q  How do I set up the auto-responder – the automatic email that clients receive when subscribing to my newsletter - to go out with an attachment? This functionality is not available as yet. We are working on it. However, you can set up auto-responder text that your clients receive when they subscribe to your email, and when they unsubscribe. Q  Is there a limit to the size of my newsletter when sending? Some email software freezes up when an email is too big. The limit, more a practical maximum, is 200 kilobytes. This is a very large file anyway, and we advise against sending so much data. 200 kb is 200,000 bytes, or about 25,000 words and 3,000 lines. This is without the pictures - remember that images are not embedded in the email, but exist externally, either in your PowerMail folder or in a folder on a website. This means that your recipient must not only download 200 kb of (words and code) data, but also all the images. You are unlikely to endear customer to you or your product if you're subjecting them to that ordeal. We recommend that the size of a newsletter (words and code) does not exceed 70 kb, and that the newsletter links to a minimum number of small, carefully compressed images. There are many image editors on the market. Some, such as IrfanView (Tucows gives it a five cow rating) are freeware or shareware and are free or cheap to use. Q  Can PowerMail deliver statistics (such as open rates and clicks) on text e-mails sent instead of HTML messages? No. Our reports depend on an action being taken (such as a image being downloaded) or a click through. One way around it is to design the newsletter in HTML but make it resemble straight text by using only text in a simple table structure (in a font such as Courier New). Q  Does personalization work with plain text newsletters? At this time personalization only works in HTML and not in text-only emails. However, a work-around is to design a text-only e-mail using HTML, but choose a plain text font such as Times Roman. This way, you can personalize the e-mail as well as track clicks and other useful statistics. HTML contains code that communicates with our server to register these stats, whereas text-only e-mails do not. Q  How does personalization work? Under Enhanced mode – Manage subscriber info, you can create your datasets there. Help files are available. You can personalize your TO field and the SUBJECT, as well as a range of other options. Q  Is there a cost involved in personalizing emails? Personalization is one of many useful features that come free with PowerMail. Q  Does PowerMail automatically send the correct version (HTML or text) to recipients? Yes, PowerMail is reverse MIME compliant and will automatically determine whether an e-mail client can read HTML. If it cannot, PowerMail will deliver the text version (a setting that can be turned on or off in your PowerMail account). Q  Can you cancel an email once you have sent it? Once an email has sent, it cannot be cancelled. To eliminate this possibility (discovering a mistake or sending to the wrong list) send a Test email to yourself, and double check that the mailing list, subject line and content are correct. Q  Can I cancel a scheduled send? How? A Scheduled Send can be cancelled before it is sent, but not after! Go to the Reports and Statistics Menu, put a check in the delete box next to the scheduled send you would like to delete and click the 'Delete Selected Reports' button. This will delete your scheduled send from the queue. Q  My newsletter was sent successfully, but no-one has received it? This could mean that either our servers are busy, or you have a big file so downloading takes a bit longer. Q  My newsletter was sent successfully, but no-one has received it? This could mean that either our servers are busy, or you have a big file so downloading takes a bit longer. Q  Why do my subscribers get blank emails? You probably used layers with absolute positioning. Absolute positioning doesn't work well in emails, because you're not sure of the height of your body. To fix this in the future, simply go into HTML mode, and search for the word absolute. The delete all instances of this word. MANAGE MAILING LISTS Q  How does double opt-in work? PowerMail supports double opt-in on subscriptions. If this feature is enabled (on Subscription form setup), when someone subscribes to your newsletter they will receive a generic email asking them to click a link to confirm their subscription. If you have double opt-in enabled then a SP code will display next to their email address if they've subscribed, but not yet clicked the email opt-in link. A S2 will be next to their email address once they've clicked the email opt-in link. Q  How do subscribers unsubscribe? Each e-mail you send using PowerMail has an unsubscribe link appended to it. If you have only one general subscriber list it will say 'Unsubscribe from this mailing list'. If you have several categories of subscriptions active on your subscribe form, the link will be 'Manage my subscription'. Q  How do I get new subscribers? The PowerMail subscription form builder (available under the Manage Mailing Lists section) enables you to collect new subscriptions from a subscribe link on your website. The website link enables users to subscribe to specific mailing lists (which you can set up to correspond to your newsletter categories). You can design your subscription form with logos, fonts and colors. After you have set up the subscription form, PowerMail generates the HTML code for you (or your webmaster) to insert into your existing website code. Q  Will I receive bounced return e-mails from (newly) invalid addresses? No! This is where PowerMail saves you time and removes the headache of hundreds of undelivered e-mails bouncing back and clogging your inbox. PowerMail automatically flags invalid e-mail addresses ('hard bounces') so that they are excluded from future mailshots. 'Soft bounces' (addresses that are temporarily unavailable), go through a series of checks before they become a 'hard bounce'. E-mail addresses are being checked for validity on a continual basis, even when you are not logged in. SUBSCRIBE & UNSUBSCRIBE Q  Will I know when there are new subscribers (and 'un'subscribers)? Yes. In the PowerMail reporting tool, the number of un/subscribers are available per week, month and year, as well as per mailshot sent. Q  How can I delete old e-mail send statistics? In the Reports and Statistics menu, to the far right of each Send there is a column headed “delete”. Place a check next to each send statistic you wish to delete and press the “Delete Selected Events” button. Q  Why does my subscribe/unsubscribe form not list an “unsubscribe” option at the bottom when more than one list is selected? If your client is subscribed to more than one list then the subscribe list will show which lists they’re subscribed to. If they wish to unsubscribe from one of those lists they must uncheck that list and then click on the “Update” link. If they wish to unsubscribe from all you lists they must click on the “Unsubscribe All” link. Q  How do I set-up a subscription Form? There are tutorials on setting up a Subscription Form in the Support area. Preview the form to see the default version. In page set-up (click on the [+] you can select the language, background color Size of the Form by changing it's width and height. For the headers and footers you need to replace the text in the windows with the text you want. On the form header you can replace the image with your own, by first uploading your image to the pictures folder and then replacing subscription_logo.gif with your image name. Form fields allows you to collect additional information, but you first need to create the dataset for the information you want to collect in subscriber info. Mailing list lets you choose what lists can be subscribe to from the form if you have more than one. SECURITY & PRIVACY Q  Is my credit card data secure? Credit card payment is processed by WorldPay. WorldPay is one of the most established companies in eCommerce world-wide today. All transactions are encrypted using 128-bit Secure Socket Layer (SSL) architecture (dependent on browser support), and are signed using Thawte digital certificates. Q  Do you sell e-mail address lists? No. Your address lists, or your login e-mail address lists will never be disclosed to third parties. PowerMail does not sell lists of targeted e-mail addresses. Read our Privacy policy for full details. Q  Are stored newsletters, images and mailing lists secure? PowerMail is hosted at a large data center in Texas, USA. Our hosting provider has a state-of-the-art network operation center providing full security, firewalling, backup, and multi-tier, redundant high-speed network connections. Our Privacy Policy strictly precludes us from providing personal data to any third party. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS Q  Can I download the PowerMail program and install it? No, PowerMail is a hosted application, like Hotmail. It is used online, by logging in with a username (e-mail address) and password at www.PowerMail.com. Q  What software do I need to use PowerMail? Any Windows PC with Microsoft Internet Explorer version 5, or higher. No downloads or plug-ins are required. Some advanced editor functions will only be available when running Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher. Internet Explorer 7 can be downloaded free from www.microsoft.com or www.tucows.com. In Internet Explorer you can check the version of your browser under the Help > About menu. Q  I have a Macintosh. Can I use PowerMail? Yes. PowerMail is compatible with Mozilla Firefox browsers on Mac OS X platforms. NOTE: You must use the New Edit function when editing or designing emails. PRICING & BILLING Q  Can I pay with Paypal? No. Presently you can pay by credit card through the secure WorldPay payment gateway which is accessible on the 'Sign up here' menu link on the PowerMail homepage. Q  If I cancel my subscription, how long will my account be active? If you sign up for a monthly or annual subscription, your account with PowerMail will run to the end of the agreed period. If you sign up today and cancel tomorrow, your account will remain active for another 30 days (or 365 days if you subscribed for the annual plan). Q  How do I know when my account has been debited? WorldPay will confirm each debit by e-mail. More information is available on the WorldPay website at www.worldpay.com. Q  Which credit cards does PowerMail accept? Credit card payment is processed by WorldPay. WorldPay accepts Visa, MasterCard, Eurocard, Switch, Delta, Solo and JCB. WorldPay is one of the most established companies in eCommerce world-wide today. All transactions are encrypted using 128-bit Secure Socket Layer (SSL) architecture (dependent on browser support), and are signed using Thawte digital certificates. Q  Why can't I make a payment through Worldpay? WorldPay uses Pop-up windows during its payment process. If you have a popup blocker in place please switch it to off and you’ll be able to make your WorldPay payment. Q  How does the price structure for PowerMail work? PowerMail is working on "send credit" system. One send credit is for sending out one email. For example, if you have 2000 send credits, you can send out to a mailing list with 2000 email addresses once, or a mailing list with 500 email addresses 4 times. TROUBLESHOOTING Q  I can't navigate properly between menus after I have logged in? Please turn off Popup Blockers installed on your machine. Also check the settings of firewalls set up on your machine or machines on your network that communicate with the Internet. These may interfere when trying to navigate around your personalized PowerMail backend area. MSN, AOL and Google all have plugin software that helps users screen out unwanted content while browsing the Internet. Modern anti-virus software, such as Nortons 2004 Internet Security also have facilities that block popups and screen any data transfer between the host machine and other machines on the Internet. You will need to temporarily turn off these processes. Q  I can't log in to my PowerMail account. Please turn off Popup Blockers installed on your machine. Also check the settings of firewalls set up on your machine or machines on your network that communicate with the Internet. These may interfere when trying to log in to PowerMail. MSN, AOL and Google all have plugin software that helps users screen out unwanted content while browsing the Internet. Modern anti-virus software, such as Nortons 2004 Internet Security also have facilities that block popups and screen any data transfer between the host machine and other machines on the Internet. You will need to temporarily turn off these processes. Q  While working in the Editor, the PowerMail I am working on won't save. Please turn off Popup Blockers installed on your machine. Also check the settings of firewalls set up on your machine or machines on your network that communicate with the Internet. These may interfere when trying to save a PowerMail. MSN, AOL and Google all have plugin software that helps users screen out unwanted content while browsing the Internet. Modern anti-virus software, such as Nortons 2004 Internet Security also have facilities that block popups and screen any data transfer between the host machine and other machines on the Internet. You will need to temporarily turn off these processes. Q  After saving a PowerMail, the system logs me out and I have to log in again. Will my changes be lost? For security purposes, PowerMail has a time-out that is set for 30 minutes. If you have not saved anything during this period, the timeout will log you out when you save the PowerMail you are working on. However, it will ensure that your latest version is saved before automatically logging you out. Q  When I try to import mailing lists or datasets, I get an error. This is probably caused by commas or single quote marks in the data that are confusing the system. When creating your import file, make sure you have double quotation marks around your data fields, such as "Jack","Smith","33 Penny Lane, Manhattan" instead of Jack Smith,33 Penny Lane,Manhattan. For instance, in the latter, the system does not know that the first and last name are two separate data fields. Q  Why are apostrophes in the editor appearing as question marks when I send or preview emails? This occurs because you have used MS Word to create your content. Word's apostrophes are not standard UTF-8 characters and display as question marks in html. To resolve this you can either change the appostrophes in the editor or change the charset from UTF-8 to ISO-8859-1 in the HTML. Although the best way around is not to use MS Word, but rather Notepad or similar to create your content. MISCELLANEOUS Q  Why can't I get into Enhanced Mode? Because of java code in PowerMail, some firewalls block entry to the enhanced mode. In order to see the Enhanced mode, simply add PowerMail.com to your firewall settings. Q  Are you a company that encourages or condones SPAM in any way? PowerMail was one of the first e-mail services to adopt the regulations of the CAN-SPAM law. We enforce the Unsubscribe option and inclusion of a physical address (for US recipients) in the footer of e-mails sent by our clients. Most of our IPs are white-listed with most major ISPs and none are blacklisted. In our business, encouraging SPAM is a surefire way of going out of business. Q  Do your statistics give me enough information to enable me to sell advertising space in my newsletter? Yes, impressions and click-throughs are tracked – this information can be exported out of your account and presented in proposals or reports to your clients. Q  How do I remove the PowerMail logo at the footer of my e-mails? The branding effect of the PowerMail footers allows us to minimize our advertising spend and therefore maintain our low price structure. You can have the PowerMail footers removed or replaced with your own branding for a one-time fee of $250. Please contact us if you’re interested in this option. Q  How do I set the PowerMail logo at the footer of my emails to the left, centre or right? Log into your account. Click on the Profile and Settings button in the bottom left-hand corner of your screen. Under Footer Settings, you can select the position of your footer. It also allows you to display a button that says Subscribe and Forward to a Friend. The unsubscribe button is compulsory as per the CAN-SPAM law. Q  Is PowerMail compliant with the CAM SPAM act? If so where do I input my address to adhere to the CAN SPAM law in the United States? Yes, PowerMail is in compliance with the CAN-SPAM act because each PowerMail contains an Unsubscribe link and your businesses physical address. Before you are able to send out a PowerMail you will be prompted to input your complete address. Your address is entered into the “Proifle” section of the Profile and Settings Menu entered through a button in the bottom left corner of PowerMail. Your physical address is then automatically to each outgoing email. Q  If I send a text mail rather than HTML, is Graphic Mail still able to give me statistics on messages being opened or links being clicked? No, only HTML-based emails can carry the code necessary to communicate with the PowerMail server when recipients perform actions such as clicking the email to read it, forwarding to a friend or clicking on hyperlinks in the content. However, PowerMail can still track basic statistics in text-only versions, such as unsubscribes and subscribes. EDITOR Q  Why is my Editor not saving my changes? This is most likely caused by a pop-up blocker preventing the save window from opening. To rectify this problem, add PowerMail.com to the safe list of your pop-up blocker. Q  How do I set the background color of my newsletter? To do this, you'll have to manually edit the HTML code of your newsletter by doing the following: 1. In the Editor, click the 'View/Edit Source' button on the top line of your editor menu. It looks similar to this <>. 2. Find the tag. It should be within the first 10 lines of code. 3. Add the following code to it: style="background:white;" to make it look like this: 4. Click the OK button. Your page should now be red. To change to another color, simple replace the 'red' in your code with any color or HTML color code.