This option involves a trial-and-error approach, on a case-by-case basis, so your patience will be appreciated. If you have a database of your events, you should try to take advantage of this option. It will save you time, once we figure out the nuts and bolts for your particular case, and assuming the way your database is used will not change. If you use database software like Access or Filemaker, you should export your data into a .txt file, and then convert that file to a Word table in which the columns are fields and the rows are events, and add a top row with the names of your fields. Who should use this option? Anybody who uses a database to manage their listings (this implies a certain number of events) >> universities, conservatories >> they usually have >50 events each month major orchestras major opera companies major music festivals opera broadcast live at the cinema >> ex. 75 venues, 10 operas, 2 screenings each = 75 x 10 x 2 = 1500 listings in one shot !!! major in the sense "many events" You definitely have a database if your website has an interactive calendar of your events one webpage per concert, with pages generated dynamically (.php, .asp, etc.) In some websites, the calendar will contain only the variable data (date, time, series, concert title, works, performers), and non-varying data (phone number, ticket price, venue) will be displayed separately (ex. in a "purchase your ticket" page). In those cases, you could write the non-varying data in the body of your email. However, if all your concerts have different prices, the price would have to be included in each listing within the database. If the price varies according to the series, you can put the single-ticket price for each series in the body of the email, but the database would have to list the series for each concert. Suggestion >> In real databases, you can manage the chronology of your data by using a "date created" and "date modified" field. These markers allow the user to better manage the info s/he sends us. This is how universities or touring companies could send us a first batch of listings during the summer and the rest each month throughout the season, without ever sending the same listing twice. All this is basic stuff for database users, such as web calendar programmers. The part that might not be basic for database users is the conversion to a Word table. If you have trouble, we can help you. databases >> basic notions The term "database" is very broad. It means any text in which the data is in a regular structure and format. It has nothing to do with the number of events, you can have a database of 1 item, in theory. In a database, data is organized in fields and records (field is synonymous with variable, and for concert listings, record is synonymous with concert) fields are always in the same order separators between fields or records are always the same, but may vary from one database to another: it can be simple returns, or in some cases, special codes that you do not see. Our Word table format is a database. Our "one column" format is almost a database, easily converted into a clean table, which is a real database. Excel spreadsheets can be considered databases if they are used in a certain way (i.e. as a matrix).

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