# Gossamer Links Help

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Email Help

Gossamer Links provides you with a powerful and versatile Mass Mailer that can be used to send email to all or select groups of users. The Mass Mailer can also create custom emails updating users on the status of their links, and create and edit templates for commonly sent emails. The "Custom Lists" tools allow you to create and manage mailing lists of specific addresses, while the "Current Mailings" menu provides a simple yet effective tool for reviewing and sending all mailings.

The Mass Mail options allow you to write and send email to whichever users you choose. There are four ways in which mass mails can be composed: "All Users", "All Links", "Selected Users" and "Selected Links" (remember to send mailings composed in these menus from the "Current Mailings" menu). The "Newsletter" option lets you customize and send automatically generated updates to your users informing them of new additions to your directory. To personalize mailings being sent to more than one recipient, you can insert any of the fields in the Users Table into the mailing by using tags. For example: typing <%username%> or <%email%> in the body of the mailing will insert each user's username or email address into their individual copy of the mailing. Ensure that the field actually does exist in the database and that you've properly copied the spelling and casing, or an unknown tag error will appear.

All Users: The "All Users" option allows you to send email to all users who have agreed to accept email from your directory, as directed by the "ReceiveMail" column in the Users Table. You can see the complete list of these users by clicking the link displaying the number of email recipients at the top of the email composition form.

All Links: The "All Links" option allows you to send email to all link owners who have agreed to accept email from your directory. You can see the complete list of these users by clicking the link displaying the number of email recipients at the top of the email composition form. Since an "All Links" email will be sent to each link, users who own more than one link will receive multiple emails.

Selected Users: The option to mail a list of Selected Users will display a Search Form that will help you select a specific list of Users with specific attributes. A short cut has been provided to you here with the pull-down menu for the Status field. You can choose to email all the users registered as Editors here and only those users. Alternatively, you can also email all the non-validated users who may be neglected for a period of time while your site is down for maintenance possibly. You can also use any of the other search fields to help you narrow down your search for selected users to email.

Selected Links: The "Selected Links" option allows you to send email to link owners who fit the results of a search. A "Selected Links" email will be sent for each selected link, so users who own more than one of the selected links will receive multiple emails.

Newsletter: The "Newsletter" option allows you to create, edit and send a newsletter informing users who have agreed to receive it of developments within your directory. To view the users designated to receive the newsletter, click the link displaying the number of email recipients at the top of the newsletter form. The default newsletter template is a list of all links in the "What's New" index (to change the number of days that a link will be kept in the "What's New" index, change the "build_new_cutoff" field in the "Build Options" section of the "Setup" menu). The list of links will be compiled in chronological order, with the most recently added links appearing at the bottom of the list. You can alter the way in which the newsletter's list of new links is compiled, as well as the name and email address the newsletter will be sent from by clicking the "Edit newsletter template" link.

Custom Lists: The Custom Lists options will allow you to create, modify and delete mailing lists, as well as send mail to those lists.

Current Mailings: Clicking "View" displays the "View Mailings" menu, which displays current and recently completed mailings. Click the "Start Mailing" link next to an unsent mailing to send it. Click the "Details" link next to a mailing to review its recipients and content. Click the "Cancel mailing" link next to an unsent mailing if you wish to cancel the mailing. You will be presented with the option of either confirming or aborting the cancellation of the mailing, as well as the details of the mailing. Click the "Delete mailing" link next to a completed mailing if you wish to permanently delete it from the "View Mailings" menu. You can also delete all completed mailings and cancel/delete all current mailings from the "View Mailings" menu by clicking on the appropriate links at the bottom of the menu. You will be prompted to either confirm or abort all deletions and cancellations.

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