My Mail Manager [MMM] is a program for printing various forms used for addresses; it is based on an underlying name/address database. The software is a 32bit Win95 program at a list price of $79.95; there is also a 16bit Win3.x version called My Mail List at the same price. MMM comes with a 30 day money-back guarantee and two excellent hefty manuals: a users manual and a bulk-mail text. Also included are 100 True Type fonts and 1,800 clip-art images. 8M of Ram and 16M of hard-drive are required for running this program.

The database is, in essence, a file containing addressee and annotation information. It can be manipulated to print and format bar-coded labels, envelopes, pages for address-type booklets, cards, and some form letters. The software will also perform Bulk Mail Presorts for letter and card-sized mail for First-class Mail and for Standard Mail; a set of detailed instructions is furnished for using this feature.

Direct dialing from any particular address record is another available operation. Upon trying this feature however, I found the software did not send telephone speech through the sound card (a hands-free operation) but instead required use of the telephone handset.

When MMM is activated, one gets to a display that allows an easy access to any of the MMM features. These are divided into three main sections, each having its own display: Data Entry, Data Table and Layouts. The Data Entry display is a nicely laid out graphic for a simple entry, or access to a name/address/phone-number record, and includes a graphic of alphabet tabs for quick access to any name and its corresponding record. The Data Table is merely a tabular rather than a graphical form of the records.

The Layouts window allows one to display any of the various forms (envelopes, cards, labels, etc.) which can be printed and allows appropriate data to be entered. For example, if one selects to produce a Label, one will first be presented with a graphic showing a basic layout. One can then change every aspect of the basic label. For any given format, one can choose to print the Label -- in any of about 18 different brands, in any of the different sizes of this brand, with any of over 50 different backgrounds, with any chosen clip art or drawings, with added text, with any available font, with bar code, with added fields, etc. etc. Thus MMM allows one to draw upon an extensive set of variables for creating labels that suit one's individual tastes and needs.

All current word-processing programs, worthy of the name, come with address programs (labels, etc.). Why then get a program like MMM? I think the answer lies in one's objective for formatting addresses. For casual mailings, using basic, standard, address formats, a word processor will do. But if one has a need for large, uniquely designed and formatted addresses, MMM serves the purpose well and expedites the job tremendously.