In FlexMail, you can link to different databases, spreadsheets, and text file formats. To do this, FlexMail uses either a built-in driver or an ODBC driver. FlexMail contains built-in drivers that enable to link the following types of data: Microsoft Access databases, Excel worksheets, fixed-width and delimited text files, and HTML and XML files. Also older formats like dBase, Paradox and Lotus 1-2-3 are supported. For databases in other formats you can link through ODBC drivers.
Some text files, e.g. exported tables by Microsoft Word, contain multiple lines per record. FlexMail cannot link to those files directly. However, the with the Convert function in FlexMail you can convert such a multiple line text file to one of the normal database formats FlexMail supports (see Converting files).
Although it is not a database, FlexMail is also capable of opening multi-page PDF-files. For this file type FlexMail will display the pages in the designer and one record per page with the file name in the Datasheet. For more information see Working with PDF-files.
When you connect to a database and select a database table you want to use, FlexMail will display all records the database contains. FlexMail automatically creates a data table with columns for each field and rows for each record in your database.
The general process for linking data is as follows:
On the Datasources tab, click the type of data that you want to link to in the Link External Data group. For example, if your source data is in a Microsoft Excel workbook, click Excel.
In the Link Data dialog box, in the File name box, specify the name of the source file and click Open.
Depending on the database type FlexMail will now directly link to the data in the selected database or a window will open where you can specify additional settings:
Access. When the database contains multiple data tables, a dialog will appear where you can select the table you want to open. Also, when a password is required, you will be prompted your password.
Excel. The Link spreadsheet window will open were you can select a data range to link to and some other options (see Linking to Excel data).
Text. The Link Text File wizard will start that will guide you through the process of linking text files (see Linking to text files).