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2. How to add, edit and delete entries in your online phonebook

2.1. Add, edit and delete individual members in your online phonebook

2.1.1. Add an individual

2.1.2. Search for an individual

2.1.3. Edit or delete an individual

2.1.4. Quick delete an individual

2.2. Add, edit and delete groups in your online phonebook

2.2.1. Add groups

2.2.2. Edit group details

2.2.3. Edit group members

2.2.4. Delete phonebook groups

2.2.5. Upload a database

2.2.6. Download a database

2.1. How to add, edit and delete individual members in your online phonebook

2.1.1. Add an individual

To add an individual or a mobile number to your BulkSMS online phonebook:

Step 1: Log in and go to the ‘My Account’ page

Step 2: Click 'Phonebook Individuals' in the 'Online Phonebook' section

Step 3: Click on ‘Add new individual’

Step 4: Enter 'First name' (must contain at least one character).

Step 5: Enter 'Surname' (must contain at least one character).

Step 6: Enter ‘Mobile number' - (country code and number with no spaces or leading zero, e.g. 27820010001 for South Africa or 44123123456 for the UK)

Step 7: If you would like to add the individual to a predefined group, tick the ‘Group’ that you would like to add the individual to. Please note that you do NOT have to tick any group. To set up a group, see ‘Adding Groups'.

Step 8: Double check the details and Click 'Add individual'. The individual will now appear in your BulkSMS phonebook.

Step 9: Enter new customer details and ‘Add individual’ to add a customer to your online phonebook,

OR

Step 9: Click ‘Continue’ to return to your list of individual customers.

If you are adding individuals to a group, it is recommended that you load the group first. To set up a group, see ‘Adding Groups' This is so that when you add the individuals, you can add them to the relevant group at the same time. Groups can be used when targeting specific customers. They can be divided by, for example, age, sex, location etc.

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2.1.2. Search for an individual

This feature allows you to search for individuals by Surname, First Name or Cellphone Number. You can then edit or delete the relevant phonebook entries. The page will display the first 100 individuals in your phonebook, sorted by Surname.

Step 1: Log in and go to the ‘My Account’ page

Step 2: Click 'Phonebook Individuals' in the 'Online Phonebook' section

Step 3: Enter the relevant information (i.e. name, surname or mobile number) in the 'Search for' field

Step 4: Select the field you are using to search for from the drop down list. i.e. is it Surname, First Name or mobile number

Step 5: Click 'Go' to start the search. The requested records will be displayed.

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2.1.3. Edit or delete an individual

Follow steps 1 to 5 of 2.1.2 above.

Step 6: To EDIT the relevant individual, Click the mobile number of that individual. The ‘Edit individual’ page will then be displayed.

Step 7: Enter the details to be updated. (i.e. First Name, Surname or Mobile Number).

Step 8: You can add the individual to a group by Ticking the relevant groups.

Step 9: Click 'Update' to update the individual or ‘Delete’ to delete the individual from the phonebook entirely.

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2.1.4. Quick delete individuals

You can use this when you have a lot of individuals that need to be deleted as quickly as possible. You would do this by uploading a TEXT file with the relevant cellphone numbers of the individuals to your BulkSMS account.

Step 1: Create the Text File with one mobile number per line. (No more then 700 lines can be uploaded at any one time). Save the file as a *.txt to an easily accessible place.

Step 2: Log in to your BulkSMS account, go to the ‘My Accounts’ page, Click 'Phonebook Individuals' in the 'Online Phonebook' section

Step 3: Click 'Quick Delete'

Step 4: Click 'Browse' to select the relevant Text File to upload from your computer. Once you have located the file select it and Click OK/OPEN.

Step 5: 'Default country code for numbers starting with zero' should be changed from the default if there are mobile numbers in your file that start with a zero. If you would like these numbers to remain, leave the drop down list as it is. To insert the country code automatically in the file, choose the relevant country from the drop down list. If, for example, you chose South Africa, all cellphone numbers in the file starting with 0 will be changed to start with 27. I.e. 0820010001 will be changed to 27820010001 or, if you chose United Kingdom, all cellphone numbers in the file starting with 0 will be changed to start with 44. I.e. 0123123456 will be changed to 44123123456.

Step 6: Click 'Upload' to begin uploading the file and deleting the records.

PLEASE NOTE: Each number found will be completely deleted. This means that they will be deleted from ALL your of your BulkSMS phonebook groups. The system will look for the mobile number and delete it from the BulkSMS phonebook.

Step 7: View the status of the file upload. The status will show you that the upload has been complete, and the mobile numbers have been deleted out of your phonebook. Click the 'My Account' link at the top of the page to return to your account home page.

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2.2. Add, edit and delete groups in your online phonebook

Why use groups? Having groups in your phonebook allows you to specify which sets of customers/clients you would like your SMS to go to. For example, in a school situation, the parents of the Grade 8 students could be in one group and the parents of the Grade 9 students could be in another. In a corporate environment, the members of various loyalty groups may be segmented into the different groups to enable you to send them targeted messages.

2.2.1. Add a group

To add a group to your BulkSMS online phonebook, all you need to do is:

Step 1: Log in to your BulkSMS account and go to the ‘My Account’ page

Step 2: Click 'Phonebook Groups’ in the 'Online Phonebook' section

Step 3: In the 'New Group' field replace "your_group_name" with the desired name of the new group , e.g. “June Workshop” or “Grade 8 Parents”.

Step 4: Click 'Add'. The new group you have created will now be listed under ‘Group Name’

Repeat the steps above to create more groups.

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2.2.2. Edit group details

When editing the actual details of the group, you can change the group name, upload new group members or download existing group members.

Step 1: Log in to your BulkSMS account and go to the ‘My Account’ page

Step 2: Click 'Phonebook Groups’ in the 'Online Phonebook' section

Step 3: Click the group you want to edit

Step 4: EDIT the 'Name' field to change the name of the group.

‘Group Members’ lists the current individuals in the group. You can edit the individual members by selecting the mobile number, or you can delete selected members by ticking the relevant boxes and clicking ‘Remove selected’.

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2.2.3. Add or delete group members

This is where you can add or delete group members. It allows you to choose a group and then displays the individuals not in that group or the individuals not in any group.

To edit a group:

Step 1: Log in and go to the ‘My Account’ page

Step 2: Click 'Phonebook Groups in the 'Online Phonebook' section

Step 3: Click ‘Quickedit’

Step 4: Choose 'Display all individuals not in the current group' or 'Display only individuals who are not in group'

Step 5: Select the 'Group' from the drop down list that you want to add to or delete from.

Step 6: Click 'Go' to display requested information

Step 7: first select the individual, use the Shift key to select multiple individuals adjacent to each other or use the Ctrl key to select individuals not adjecent.

Step 8: Click '>>' to add to, or '<<' to delete from the group.

Individuals can also be completely deleted from this page. To do this, Click 'Delete selected' to remove the selected individual from ALL groups and ENTIRELY from the phonebook.

2.2.4. Delete phonebook groups

Step 1: Log in and go to the ‘My Account’ page

Step 2: Click 'Phonebook Groups in the 'Online Phonebook' section

Step 3: Click the group you want to delete

Step 4: Click 'Delete this group'

Step 5: 'Group name' displays the name of the group to be deleted.

Step 6: If you want to remove the individuals from your online phonebook completely, tick this box, if not, leave it unticked. PLEASE NOTE: PLEASE USE CAREFULLY - this option will remove individuals COMPLETELY - even if they are in multiple groups.

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2.2.5. Upload a database

When uploading multiple individuals to your BulkSMS phonebook, you will need to use a Text (Tab delimited) File. Please note that there may not be more than 20,000 lines/entries in the text file. Should you have a group larger than this, you will need to split it up into units of 20,000, alternatively, you can use the BulkSMS Text Messenger a desktop messaging program which offers you the facility to upload groups of up to 100,000 contacts at a time.

Your 'Group Text (Tab delimited) File' is flexible but must contain Mobile number, First name and Surname. This is the default field order, but a different order can be selected to match the file if it was previously set up and doesn’t follow these conventions.

It is recommended to enter cellphone or moblie numbers with country code and number with no spaces or leading zero, e.g. 27820010001. If the number starts with zero, not a country code, the default country code can be added during the upload. The First name and Surname must contain at least one character.

The default file will be format as follows:

cell_number(TAB)first_name(TAB)Surname(TAB) - one record per row.

To upload a file from your computer to your online phonebook:

Step 1: Log in to your BulkSMS account and go to the ‘My Account’ page

Step 2: Click 'Phonebook Groups under the 'Online Phonebook' section

Step 3: Click the group you want to add the database to. If you would like to add the database to a new group, you will need to Add the group first.

Step 4: Click ‘Upload’ group members

Step 5: Click 'Browse' to select the 'Group Text (Tab delimited) File’ to upload from your Personal Computer. Once you have located the file select it and Click Enter.

Step 6: Click 'Upload' to begin uploading the file.

Step 7: A status of the file upload will be displayed. Check that the numbers shown match the expected numbers in the file that you are uploading.

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2.2.6. Download a database

To download an online phonebook group that you have previously set-up to a Text (Tab delimited) File. (ie. save a phonebook group to your computer)

Step 1: Log in and go to the ‘My Account’ page

Step 2: Click 'Phonebook Groups’ under the 'Online Phonebook' section

Step 3: Click the group you want to download

Step 4: Click 'Download group members'.

Step 5: Click ‘Please click here to begin your download’.

If the group is large you will see a message along the lines of: "This is a large group, with (xxxx) members - please be patient. Do not stop the download process if it takes a long time." It will tell you that: ‘The file you are going to download is in the following format: mobile number (TAB) first name (TAB) surname (with one such record per line).

Step 6: Click Open to open and view the file, or Save to save it.

Step 7: When clicking Save to save the file, a dialog box will appear. Choose where you want to save the file and verify the file name. Click Save/Enter. The file will be saved as a .csv. You will be able to open this file using either Notepad or Microsoft Excel.

Step 8: Click on ‘My Account’ to go back to your accounts page.

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