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General
Online Counts
List Orders
Previous Orders
Registering
- If you are not a registered user, go to the log in page (click the LOG IN button under the left column menu).
- Click the "Sign Up Now" button.
- Fill in the required information and click SUBMIT.
- A confirmation email will be sent to you. Please allow 48 hours for us to activate your account.
- Please safeguard and remember your user id and password.
Editing your user information
- Please help us keep your contact information up-to-date.
- Click the "user info" link in the left column if you want to view your current user contact information, or if you would like to edit your settings.
- On the User Information page, you will see the same information that you supplied when you first registered with A-List.
- Make any desired changes and click the "Save Changes" button.
Forgot your password?
- If you have forgotten your password, click the "Forgot your password?" link on the login page.
- You will be prompted to enter your user id.
- If your user id is recognized, you will be prompted to enter the secret answer to the secret question that you selected when you first registered with us.
- If the system agrees with your secret answer, your password will be emailed to you.
Creating an online count
- Click the "online count" link in the left hand column menu.
- Click the "Start an Online Count" link.
- The Online Count application will open:
Geographical selects
- The following geographic entities can be selected by clicking the appropriate link in the left hand column:
- State - select any state
- County - select any county of any state
- City - select any city of any state
- SCF - select one of the US Postal Service Sectional Center Facilities (an SCF is the first three digits of a ZIP Code)
- ZIP Code - standard US Postal Service 5 digit ZIP Code. Example: 23464
- Geocode - a geocode is a ZIP Code plus a carrier route. Example: 23464C020
- Radius - establish a radius of .1 miles, .2 miles, 5 miles, etc., around a street address or geocode.
- Some notes about Online Counts:
- Selecting some geographic entities will result in extremely large counts; i.e. selecting the state of Alabama will yield a count of over 2 million.
- Each time you click "Add to Count" on one of the geographic select screens, the particular selection will be added to the count selection box.
- The system won't allow you to add duplicate geographical selections to the count selection box.
- Each individual line in the count selection box has no relationship with any other lines.
- When you eventually view the count results for this Online Count session, you will see that the counts for each line are returned individually.
- You can delete any specific count selection by clicking the "delete" link next to the selection.
- Bulk Inserting ZIP Codes and Geocodes:
- The ZIP Code and geocode screens allow the user to type or paste several ZIP Codes or geocodes and process the entire lot.
- The system will check for the validity of each entry:
- The ZIP Code or geocode must be correctly formatted (5 numbers for ZIP Code, 9 numbers and letters for geocodes).
- The ZIP Code or geocode must exist in our current count database which is updated every two months from US Postal Service records.
- Actual ZIP Codes and geocodes will be added to the count; incorrect ZIP Codes and geocodes will be rejected.
Demographic selects
- There are three demographics categories: Age, Education, and Income.
- You can select a demographic and append it to one or all of your geographic selects.
Viewing count results
- Once you have one or more geographic selects in your count (and demographics if you want them), you can view your count results.
- Click the "Get Count Results" link and you will see the counts for each line of geographic and demographic selects.
Viewing the map
- Click the map link and a new window will open showing the map.
Converting your online count to a list order
- While you are at the Count Results page, you have the option of turning this count into a list order.
- Click the "Create Order using this Count" link and the system will take you to the List Wizard Step 1, with your preselected geographical and demographic selects.
- Since you have already made selections, you can move quickly through the List Wizard Steps 3, 4, & 5 - but you can always use this opportunity to keep refining your selections.
Starting a new list
- To start a new list, click "start my list" in the left hand column menu.
- Enter your count file name, and enter any descriptive notes that you would like in Job Description #1 and #2.
- Click "NEXT>>" to continue, and you will be taken to the List Wizard Step 2. Keep reading below for more information on the List Wizard.
Work in Progress
- Click "work in progress" in the left hand column menu.
- Your list of all current count files (any count file that has not yet been ordered) will appear.
- Once a count file has been ordered, it will no longer appear here but will appear under "previous orders".
- Click the "Edit" link next to your count file name to start editing your count file.
- If your count file currently has a count of zero, when you click "Edit", you will start in List Wizard Step 1.
- If your count file currently has a count greater than zero, when you click "Edit", you will start in List Wizard Step 7. Why? Because:
- In List Wizard Step 7, you have the ability to delete individual routes and ZIP codes. When you do this, you depart from the original geographic selects and demographic selects that you originally chose in List Wizard Steps 3, 4, & 5.
- The system saves the new settings, so each time you re-edit your count file, you are taken back to Step 7.
- If you moved backwards in the List Wizard to Step 6 (or before 6), the system would regenerate your ZIP codes and routes based on your original geographic and demographic selects.
- This isn't a disaster, but you will lose the changes you may have made in Step 7 (deleting routes and ZIP codes).
- Click the "Delete" link next to your count file name to delete this particular count file.
The List Wizard
- The List Wizard looks like it has a lot of steps, but it is - in reality - very simple.
If you have an idea about the geographical location and demographics of the list you
want to generate, you can get through the list wizard in a few minutes.
- Step 1
- If you click "Edit" next to your count file on the "work in progress" page, and IF you currently have a zero count, you will start editing your file here. If you have a count greater than 0, you will start in Step 7. Why? Because:
- In List Wizard Step 7, you have the ability to delete individual routes and ZIP codes. When you do this, you depart from the original geographic selects and demographic selects that you originally chose in List Wizard Steps 3, 4, & 5.
- The system saves the new settings, so each time you re-edit your count file, you are taken back to Step 7.
- If you moved backwards in the List Wizard to Step 6 (or before 6), the system would regenerate your ZIP codes and routes based on your original geographic and demographic selects.
- This isn't a disaster, but you will lose the changes you may have made in Step 7 (deleting routes and ZIP codes).
- Edit your count file name, and enter any descriptive notes that you would like in Job Description #1 and #2.
- Step 2
- Select the type of resident list that you want.
- Step 3
- The following geographic entities can be selected by clicking the appropriate box in the Step 3 page. These are the same type pages found in the Online Counts application:
- State - select any state
- County - select any county of any state
- City - select any city of any state
- SCF - select one of the US Postal Service Sectional Center Facilities (an SCF is the first three digits of a ZIP Code)
- ZIP Code - standard US Postal Service 5 digit ZIP Code. Example: 23464
- Geocode - a geocode is a ZIP Code plus a carrier route. Example: 23464C020
- Radius - establish a radius of .1 miles, .2 miles, 5 miles, etc., around a street address or geocode.
- Some notes about Geographic Selects:
- Selecting some geographic entities will result in extremely large counts; i.e. selecting the state of Alabama will yield a count of over 2 million.
- Each time you click "Add to Count" on one of the geographic select screens, the particular selection will be added to the count selection box.
- The system won't allow you to add duplicate geographical selections to the count selection box.
- Each individual line in the count selection box has no relationship with any other lines.
- When you eventually view the count results for this editing session, you will see that the counts for each line are returned individually.
- You can delete any specific count selection by clicking the "delete" link next to the selection.
- Bulk Inserting ZIP Codes and Geocodes:
- The ZIP Code and geocode screens allow the user to type or paste several ZIP Codes or geocodes and process the entire lot.
- The system will check for the validity of each entry:
- The ZIP Code or geocode must be correctly formatted (5 numbers for ZIP Code, 9 numbers and letters for geocodes).
- The ZIP Code or geocode must exist in our current count database which is updated every two months from US Postal Service records.
- Actual ZIP Codes and geocodes will be added to the count; incorrect ZIP Codes and geocodes will be rejected.
- Step 4
- There are three demographics categories: Age, Education, and Income.
- You can select a demographic and append it to one or all of your geographic selects.
- Step 5
- Confirm that these are the selections you want, and keep going!
- Step 6
- If you know you don't want a certain category, like trailers, PO Boxes, etc, then uncheck them here and keep going!
- You can still select and de-select these categories in Step 7.
- Step 7
- See the ZIP codes in the gray horizontal lines below the column headers "Homes", "Apartments", etc?
- Click one of the ZIP codes and you will see the routes expand below.
Click the ZIP Code again and you will see the routes disappear.
- I can't see actual route codes!! It just says 1. PO Box, 2. Highway Route, etc!!!
- To minimize system abuse, we have a special user category called "POWER USER".
- Power users can see actual geocodes. Contact us to see if you qualify for our POWER USER rating and we'll have you seeing route codes in no time!
- Delete a ZIP Code
- Click the red X to the left of the ZIP Code to delete it.
- To bring it back, click the "BACK" link on the page and you will be taken to Step 6 of the List Wizard.
- Click "NEXT>>" in Step 6 and you will be back at Step 7 again; the system will have regenerated your entire count based on your original geographic and demographic selects.
- Delete a Route
- Use the same process as "Delete a Zip Code" above (except, of course, click the red X next to the route you want to delete).
- If you go back to Step 6, you will regenerate your count based on the original geographic and demographic selects, so that is a good way to bring them all back if you delete too many.
- Click the "Remove" or "Add" links under "Homes", "Apartments", etc. headings to zero out or add those categories, respectively. These links serve the same function as Step 6, but we might not want to go back there, or we will regenerate our list based on the original geographic and demographic selects.
- Step 8
- Confirm that this is the count you want, and keep going!
- Step 9
- Here is where you choose your output.
- We have already chosen some default settings for you. The only required item on this entire page is Output Type.
- If you want labels printed, make sure you make the right selections.
- Click NEXT>>
- If you chose labels, you will see the Shipping Information page. Make sure the shipping address is correct! The system needs an accurate ZIP Code, and will prompt you to correct it if it is not a real ZIP Code.
- Click NEXT>>
- If you chose labels, you will see the Shipping Method page.
- Choose the shipping method you want.
- Click NEXT>>
- Now you will see the Output Confirmation Page (if you didn't choose labels, you will come straight to this page without seeing the shipping pages.
- Make sure everything looks right here, and click NEXT>>.
- Step 10
- Here is where the system calculates the cost of the order.
- Click I Accept (you have not purchased anything yet) if it looks right to you.
- Step 11
- If you have an active billing account, click Use Account.
- If you do not have an active account, or you are over your credit limit, we will tell you on this page.
- Step 12
- Please read the List Rental Agreement.
- Click I Accept. (If you cannot click it, try scrolling through the List Rental Agreement first!!).
- Click Place your Order.
- That's it!!
- You will now see your invoice page.
- You will also get a invoice in your email.
- If you placed an order for an electronic file, keep checking your download directory (click the "downloads" link in the main left hand column of the web site).
- If you placed an order for labels, we have your order and will begin processing it immediately.
Viewing the map
- Click the map link and a new window will open showing the map.
Viewing a previous order
- Click "previous orders" in the left hand column menu.
- Your previous orders table will appear.
- Once a count file has been ordered, it will no longer appear under "work in progress" but will appear here.
- To view a summary of any particular order, click "View" next to the appropriate order in your previous orders table.
Resubmitting a previous order
- Click "Resubmit" next to the appropriate order in your previous orders table.
- A new screen will open, prompting you to enter a new list name. The new name must be unique.
- Clicking "Resubmit" will not automatically place the order again. It merely asks for a new name and automatically creates a new list count, exactly like the old one, that can be edited in the List Wizard.
- The new job is now viewable under "work in progress".
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