E-Mail

20 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Clicking "Send"

Submitted by schwarz on October 16, 2009 - 1:36pm

The Test Your E-mail I.Q. post at the Grammarphobia blog offers 20 tips to consider before clicking "send"; here are some of the best:

1. Is the subject line helpful?
The reader should be able to tell at a glance what you're writing about and how urgent it is.

Email Messages Mistakenly Labeled Spam

Submitted by schwarz on September 15, 2009 - 6:05pm

Sometimes valid email messages mistakenly get marked as "spam" and get put into Outlooks's spam folder instead of the Inbox.

When this happens to you — and the subject line of the message has {Spam?} added — send an email message to Jody Cleveland cleveland@winnefox.org with the email address of the person you'd like him to whitelist.

How to Print a Single Page of an Email Message in Outlook 2007

Submitted by schwarz on August 14, 2009 - 5:02pm

I answered this question for one of our libraries a couple of days ago, and figured it might be something more of you wondered about, so will share what I found with you all...

Lori asked, "Is there a way to only print the first page of an email? I’m in Outlook 2007. If I hit the printer icon I get everything. But even if I go into File—Print, my only option is a Memo Style (which still ends up printing everything). I am able to select just the even or odd pages, but a couple of my emails have long conversations and I only need the first page."

Flag Email Messages to Get Reminders to Follow Up

Submitted by schwarz on July 15, 2009 - 4:27pm

Flags in Outlook are colorful reminders you can add to email messages that require action for followup. Outlook offers several options for setting flags to complement the way you work.

Flagged items will turn red as a visual reminder, and you can also set a flag to give you a popup reminder. They also appear in the To-Do Bar, where you can easily see what actions you need to take each day.

Edit Received Messages in Outlook

Submitted by schwarz on June 15, 2009 - 1:56pm

The statistics you receive every week are for your library & others, and wastes lots of paper when you print it out? You want to annotate a memo you just got without creating a new message? That email message you received really needs a more descriptive subject line?

Turn Off Reading Pane in Outlook to Avoid Seeing Spam Images

Submitted by schwarz on May 15, 2009 - 4:45pm

We have a very thorough email spam filter here at Winnefox, but there are still a few spam messages that slip through the gates. To avoid seeing explicit and/or not-safe-for-work images in spam email messages, turn off Outlook's reading pane.

In Outlook the reading pane is on by default. To turn it off -- in both Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007 -- here's all you need to do:

Reverse Email Writing Order for Clear Messages

Submitted by schwarz on April 15, 2009 - 5:13pm

As seen in Lifehacker, Jason Bean shared a tip he learned at a productivity seminar, where the tactic of reversing the order in which you write your email messages seems like a Good Thing.

In a nutshell, here's the order suggested:

Customize E-mail Alerts in Outlook

Submitted by schwarz on March 16, 2009 - 5:10pm

By default, Outlook displays the Desktop Alert above the system tray on the desktop. If you want to change where the Desktop Alert appears on your screen (or modify how long it appears, its transparency, etc.), follow these steps:

1. On Outlook's menu bar, click "Tools" and select "Options".

2. Under "E-mail", click the "E-mail Options" button.

3. Under "Message handling", click the "Advanced E-mail Options" button.

Get Reminded to Follow Up on a Message in Outlook

Submitted by schwarz on February 16, 2009 - 4:11pm

When you receive an email message you need to reply to, or when someone is asks you to do a task, you can have Outlook remind you to follow up. Here's how to do it:

1. Right-click on the email message

2. In the menu, mouse over "Follow Up", and click "Add Reminder"

3. You can customize it to remind you to follow up, send a reply, call, etc.

4. Click the box next to "Reminder", and set the date and time to have Outlook remind you to take action.

5. Click the OK button.

Sort Multiple Columns in Outlook

Submitted by schwarz on January 15, 2009 - 5:08pm

Sorting by a single column in Outlook is as easy as clicking on the column head. Sorting by multiple columns isn't as obvious -- but it's very easy!

Sort the first column (like "From") by clicking on the column heading.
To sort the second column (like "Received) hold the Shift key at the same time as you click on the Received column heading.

This will sort all the messages from a person in chronological order.

The Ides