Gift Exchange

Gift Exchange

Version 2.6

9-15-2008

Features

Stop drawing names out of a hat for your Christmas or other occasion gift exchanges.
Participants do not have to be together to conduct the drawing. Result can be automatically emailed to each participant. This provides privacy; the operator of the program does not see the name drawn for each person. (Authentication for email server is available).
Participants in the drawing may be chosen from the Outlook/Outlook Express address book. You may change the email address for participants in Outlook. You will not have to update the email addresses in Gift Exchange each time you perform a drawing. (Outlook is not required. The email addresses may be manually entered).
People tree allows exclusions of spouses or group members from drawing a name in the same group.
Memory of previous drawing prevents people from drawing the same name as the previous drawing.
Each participant may be designated as "Gives and receives a gift in shared exchange", "Gives and receives in shared exchange, also may give to receive only participant(s)", "Does not receive gift, may give to receive only participant(s)", or "Does not give gift, receive only. For example, child".
Previous exchange information can be inserted manually to allow the memory feature to be used right away.
The result can be printed for each participant without email, or who want a printed copy immediately.
Summary display shows the name drawn and gift given for each person for previous drawings.
Various exchange files may be created and saved. For example, an exchange file can be used for your direct family. A separate file may be used for an exchange for your spouse’s family.
Email may be sent using a server requiring an SSL (secure sockets layer) connection.

Shareware license

Gift Exchange is distributed as shareware. You may download, copy and distribute the software provided it is not altered in any way. All accompanying files must be included.

The un-registered software is limited to a maximum of five participants. You may evaluate the software for up to 30 days. The software may be registered to continue to use the software, allow any number of participants, and remove popup “Please register” messages. Registered users will receive free upgrades of the software.

Installation

Download the installation file GiftEx26.EXE or GiftEx26.MSI. The MSI version is a smaller file for a quicker download and may be used for Windows XP or Windows 98 with Windows Installer installed. The EXE version may be used for Windows 98, Me, 2000, or XP and includes the Windows Installer installation.

Configuration

Click “Settings” and “Configure…” on the menu bar.

The configuration dialog box will appear.

If you have Microsoft Outlook installed and configured you may check “Enable Outlook Integration” and specify the Outlook profile name. This is usually “Outlook” (do not include the quotation marks). This will allow the Outlook address book to be used.

Check the “Use Outlook to send emails” to send the email using Outlook. If “Enable Outlook” is checked and “Use Outlook to send emails” is unchecked the Outlook address book may be used to look up the email address for participants, but the email will be sent directly using an SMTP mail server.

To allow gift exchange to send emails to the participants using an SMTP server you must specify your mail server name, port (usually 25), address from, mail login name, password and authentication. Your ISP (Internet Service Provider) should have provided this information when you signed up.

Check the “SSL” checkbox for mail servers that require an SSL connection such as Gmail. Also set the port to 465. Gmail also requires the “User Name” prompt to include the full address such as:

You may also specify additional text to appear at the bottom of the e-mails which are sent out.

Registration

Click “Settings” and “Registration…” on the menu bar.

Please type the exact information provided from Wilsonware for the registration and click “OK”.

Operation

To start the Gift Exchange program click “Start”, “Programs, (or “All Programs”), “Gift Exchange”

The Gift Exchange main window will appear. The window shows a tree view on the left side and an information display on the right side. The tree view is used to show configure the participants.

Rename the root node

The root of the tree view should be renamed to describe the exchange. Right-click the root node and select “Rename”.

Alternatively, click “Exchange” on the menu bar and then click “Rename Item”.

The cursor will appear in the tree view to allow the new name to be typed.

Type a name that is descriptive of the exchange.

Set Exchange Properties

Right-click the top item.

Click “Properties…”

Set the “Type” as “Normal secret exchange” or “Non-secret exchange”. A non-secret exchange allows the participants to the name drawn for all participants.

Set “History Limitation” as “No previous echange limitation”, “Prevent participants from drawing the same name as in the previous exchange”, or “Prevent participants from drawing the same name as in the previous two exchanges”.

When the name drawing is performed the status will automatically change from “Not yet drawn” to “Names drawn”. After the gifts have been exchanged the “Status” may be changed to “Complete”. It will then be possible to view the name drawn for each participant.

Check the “Include previous exchange results in messages” checkbox to have notifications to participants show the results of the previous exchange.

Check the “Include reply links in notifications for gift suggestions” checkbox to have reply links embedded in notification emails. When a participants receives the email notification and clicks the reply link her/his email client will appear with the “To” automatically set to the exchange organizer and the “Subject” set to the name of the participant clicked on. When the exchange organizer receives such an email she/he may update the gift suggestions for the appropriate participant. The exchange organizer may at some point send additional notifications including all of the gift suggestions received.

Set the “Default Message Format” to “HTML” or “Plain Text”. If Outlook is being used for messaging all messages will be plain text.

Adding Participants

To add a participant right-click the tree view and select “Add Person”.

Alternatively, click “Exchange” on the menu bar and select “Add Person”.

A new person will be added to the tree and the person dialog box will appear.

Type the name of the person at the “Name:” prompt. Type the e-mail address or if using Outlook click the “Address Book…” prompt to select from the Outlook address book.

Click the person to be selected in the “Name” list and then click the “To->” button. Click “OK”. The name will be inserted into the gift exchange person properties dialog box.

Select the “Type of participation”.

Gives and receives a gift in shared exchange

This is the default setting. A common exchange with all participants giving and receiving a gift would have this setting for every participant.

Gives and receives in shared exchange, also may give to receive only participant(s)

If the exchange includes any receive only participants such as children at least a couple of other participants must be specified to also give to one or more receive only participants.

Does not receive gift, may give to receive only participant(s)

Some participants may wish to be excluded from the shared exchange and only give to one or more receive only participants.

Does not give gift, receive only. For example, child

Children or others may not give a gift in the exchange, but will receive a gift.

Gift suggestions may also be typed in if available. Click “OK” when complete. If the same person name already exists in the exchange a number “1” or other number will be added to the name such as “John1” to make the name unique. It is recommended to make the name something that will be clear to the other participants.

After the exchange is set as “Complete” the “Gift Received” for each person may be entered to keep track of the history of previous drawings.

The “Format” selection may be set to “Default” to use the default format for the list, “HTML”, or “Plain Text”. For Outlook email plain text will be used.

If the “Gift Suggestions” is changed after names have been drawn a prompt will asking whether to send an updated notification to the person who has the name. Click “Yes” to send the email.

Perform the same steps to add additional names.

Adding a group

Groups may be used to prevent spouses or certain participants from drawing a name of someone in the same group.

To add a group right-click on the root of the tree and select “Add Group” or click “Exchange” on the menu bar and “Add Group”.

A group will be added to the tree.

The cursor will be flashing on the “New Group” name to allow it to be renamed. To add a person to the group right-click the group name and select “Add Person to Group” or click “Exchange” on the menu bar and select “Add Person to Group”.

The person dialog box will appear as before to specify the name, type of participation, e-mail and gift suggestions.

Repeat this operation to add an additional person to the group.

Move person

There may be occasions when you will want to move a person who is not in a group into a group, or move a person who is in a group to another group or to not be in a group. Right-click the person in the tree display.

Click “Move from/to group”.

Select the group to move the person to or “** No Group **” to move the person out of the group. Click “OK” to complete the move.

Review persons

To review the information for each person left-click the person name on the tree view. The right side of the main window will show the appropriate information.

Editing Persons

If any information needs to changed right-click the person and select “Properties…” to display the person dialog to allow the information to be changed.

Draw Names

When all participants have been entered click the “Hat” icon on the tool bar or click “Exchange” on the menu bar and click “Draw Names”.

Click “Yes” to have the computer randomly select the name for each participant to give a gift to.

Click “Yes” to have the computer automatically send an e-mail to each participant with an e-mail address specified. The e-mail will provide the name for the person to give a gift to. Click “No” if the emails are not all entered yet. In this case you may right-click each participant name and select “Send e-mail Notification” to send the e-mails one at a time.

Next Exchange

For next year, or the next exchange using the same participants open the same file. Click “Exchange” and “Copy for Next Exchange” on the menu bar.

The participants will be copied to allow new names to be drawn based on the same list of people. People may be added or removed before the drawing.

After the copy is performed the root of the list should be renamed to describe the exchange such as “Christmas 2005”. The toolbar dropdown list will allow selecting the previous drawing for review.

When names are drawn for the new drawing the each participants will get a different name from the previous drawing.

Previous Exchange

If a previous exchange was performed for the same people without using the Gift Exchange software the menu bar “Exchange” “Insert Copy before current Exchange” selection may be used.

The names drawn may then be manually typed in for the previous exchange.

Summary of Previous Exchanges

A summary view of completed exchanges is shown when the top selection of the tree such is selected. The name of each participant is shown on the left column. Columns show who the person gave a gift to for each exchange. If gift received information is entered for the person this is also included in the summary.

File Operations

The “File” menu provides a “Save As…” option to save the current exchange file and specify a file name. It is recommended to use this option to save the file with a file name to identify the exchange, such as “Smith Christmas”. The file can also be copied to a floppy disk or other media for backup. The same file can be opened each year or each time an exchange will occur based on most of the same participants.

Use the “File” “New” menu option to create a new exchange file. Exchange files can be created for your spouse’s family, friends or work occasions.

Version 2.5 new features.

This adds a logging feature to show history of various activities and results such as emails sent successfully or failed. Another feature is HTML links in email to send gift suggestions for any participants to the exchange organizer. The organizer may add any suggestions received to the list and send out emails again including the suggestions. Exchanges may also be specified to not repeat the same name for participants for the previous or previous two exchanges. A backup file is automatically created when a gift exchange file is saved.

Gift Exchange makes use of OpenSSL to provide SSL functionality.

OpenSSL License terms:

LICENSE ISSUES

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The OpenSSL toolkit stays under a dual license, i.e. both the conditions of

the OpenSSL License and the original SSLeay license apply to the toolkit.