Importing Data

Bringing data into Publicity Assistant from Bacon's involves two basic steps: exporting a record or list from Bacon's and importing that into PA.

In Bacon's:

1. Build or Open a MAIL LIST

To build a new mail list in Bacon's, choose File -- Mail Lists from the pull down menu, then press the NEW LIST button. With either an old or new list, the next step is to press the OPEN LIST button. If the list is new you will need to use the BUILD LIST pull down menu to select your search criteria, then press the BUILD MEDIA LIST button.

2. FOR NEWLY CREATED LISTS ONLY: Bacon's asks you to type in a description for your search and to save it. It will then pull up your contacts with a check mark beside each. You can export the entire list, or selected entries from the list. It is best to have contacts of just one type and category (e.g.: PRINT/Art) in any Bacon's export. If you only want to export certain contacts you may UNSELECT ALL, and then just click on the check mark beside the contacts you want. Finally press SAVE TO LIST.
3. At this point you have opened a mail list. Bacon's says something like MEDIA LIST: MYLIST -- 20 EDITORS at the top of the screen and you have check marks next to the records you want to export. From the pull-down menu choose FILE--EXPORT. Enter a destination file for the export (for example: C:\MYDATA.TXT). Due to a bug in Bacon's, you cannot just type into the destination file field, but you have to press the button with three dots (...). Now, you can type the filename in the box marked SELECT (your cursor is already there). By default, Bacon's saves these files in its own export folder, which is a bit hard to navigate to. This is why I included the "C:\" in the filename, which makes it easy to remember exactly where your export file is stored. Click on the SAVE button.
4. Click the double right arrow (>>) to include all fields in the export. Pick anything in the SORT BY pull down (CIRCULATION will do -- we don't care, but Bacon's complains if you don't give it a sort order). Click on the OK button and you are done with the export.

On the Tools page of the main Publicity Assistant 2000 window, press IMPORT DATA. Select the file to import (you will be able to just type the name of the list: e.g. C:\MYDATA.TXT, or you can use normal windows navigation tools to find the list and click on it). Pick a type of media and a common category if you wish to have these records pre-coded for you. Market coding will happen automatically if Bacon's has assigned a market. You will be now be able to see and edit (if you wish) your imported data. Press the CLOSE button and Publicity Assistant will ask you if you wish to add the data to the main PA database, discard the data, or save it to work on later, before adding it to the main data.