Computer Chit Chat

Archive for the ‘Email’ Category

I recently learned about a site called forwardOn. The folks behind this site state their mission as trying to reward users for preventing the potential negative effects of forwarding email (wasted bandwidth and storage, viruses and scams). ForwardOn is free to join. To use forwardOn all you need to do is strip your email of all everything but the content you want forwarded and forward it to forwardOn. You’ll get a confirmation link that you can then forward to your friends.

My thoughts. I totally understand what they claim to be setting out to do. The problem is that the average person will not want to do the additional work before forwarding. Think about it. If they were going scrub their email before forwarding it they’d probably already be doing so without forwardOn. And, they’re not going to want to forward the same thing twice in order for it to get to their chosen destination.

• 10 things to consider before emailing
• Wildfire email phishing scam
• How to properly email a group of individuals

I get a lot of email. on a typical day I get no less than 100 different emails. Hating a cluttered inbox, I try to go through them and handle them appropriately right away. More than a few things aren’t relevant to me or annoy me so much that I just delete them. Here’s some of the things that annoy me (any many other people) that you should consider when you’re sending an email.

1. If I’ve emailed you first please leave the original email in there so I know what in the world you’re talking about.
2. Place replies at the top of the email. That means the oldest piece of the email will be at the bottom. Noone wants to scroll all of the way down there and then read backwards. You should have an option to set this up in your email program.
3. Only email and reply to the relevant parties. Not everyone needs to receive every email. If that is the case, set up an online group and leave your messages there.
4. Don’t use all capitals.
5. Use real sentences, not internet acronyms and abbreviations. Not everyone knows whatthey mean and there can be more than one meaning for something.
6. Don’t use stationery.
7. Don’t forward everything you like to me without considering if I’d like it. I don’t care to debate politics so why annoy me with your political cartoons when you probably know I don’t think they’re funny. If you really want to forward me something please include a note as to why you think I should see it or what your thoughts are.
8. Don’t email pictures. Post a link to them. It’s faster and saves wasting download time.
9. Use a subject in the subject line.
10. Leave your name in the email so I know who it’s from.

Got any suggestions to add?

• forwardOn
• How to properly email a group of individuals
• I Want Sandy, personal assistant

You’re wondering why someone would write a how to about sending an email, aren’t you? Here’s the deal. Anyone who works with email a lot has seen this happen. You open an email and it’s been send to you and twenty other people. Not necessarily the worst thing except you don’t know them and now they have your email address. After that, who knows who else will get your email address.

When emailing a group of individuals, be sure to be considerate to others and do it correctly. I am not referring to emailing all members of one group, such as a PTA board. I am referring to emailing multiple individuals that are unrelated, such as a bunch of your friends that don’t know each other or a bunch of different companies that you’re reaching out to.

The reason why emailing a group of unrelated individuals correctly is important is because you’re protecting them and the confidentiality they’ve shown you by giving you their email address. If you just put all of your email recipients in the to or cc field of an email, everyone will see everyone else’s email address. Not only is this giving out information that shouldn’t necessarily go out, it’s also opening all people on the list to people that collect email addresses to build databases and the needless reply all syndrome that some people have. The correct way to send a group of unrelated individuals an email is to put the addresses into the bcc field and send the email to yourself.

I don’t know about you, but I get enough spam and enough reply alls already.  I can’t recommend doing this enough, and the people in your address book will appreciate it too.

• 10 things to consider before emailing
• How to switch from Outlook to Thunderbird
• How to thank first time commenters

Have you heard about I Want Sandy? I only did recently. I Want Sandy is a personal productivity tool. On her website they call the service a personal assistant. To use the service all you need to do is sign up for a free account and then enter anything you want to be reminded of. That includes reminders, appointments, things to do, contacts, bookmarks, lists and notes. You’re then notified of all of the items in a daily email digest. Reminders can also be sent by text message and Twitter. You can also add items by emailing Sandy, so you don’t even have to be at the computer to update your schedule. I Want Sandy was voted as one of the finalists for the Webware 100 Awards. If you need to organize your life a little more, just say I Want Sandy.

• Wildfire email phishing scam
• How to switch from Outlook to Thunderbird
• Giveaway of the Day

The Internal Revenue Service recently put out a warning that there are some fake emails or phishing schemes being spread around that claim to be requesting donations to benefit victims of the California wildfires in the name of the IRS and the US government. Just in case you don’t know what phishing is, phishing is an attempt to to trick people into revealing personal and financial information in order to steal a person’s assets. If you receive a suspicious email you should not open it, particularly if it contains any attachments or links.

• How to properly email a group of individuals
• I Want Sandy, personal assistant
• forwardOn

If anyone over there at Mozilla is listening, thank you! Two days ago I blogged that I had abandoned Outlook for Thunderbird for my email, and that I use the calendar addon called Lightning. The only thing I was missing from Outlook was my todo list. This morning I turned on the computer and opened Thunderbird. Before it opened it told me there was a new update. The update installed and Thunderbird opened. What did I see before my eyes? A column with a task list in it. I’m so happy now!

• Do you keep a calendar on your computer?
• How to switch from Outlook to Thunderbird
• Toodledo

I loved Outlook. I am Microsoft certified in Outlook, as well as other programs. I used most of the built in features quite a bit especially the calendar. But I was having so many problems running it I switched to Thunderbird. I missed my calendar for a short while, but then I discovered there’s a calendar addon for Thunderbird called Lightning. It installs easily and is very similar to the Outlook calendar. Even though I wish it had a to do list, I recommend it. It can be found at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/2313

• Anyone at Mozilla listening?
• How to switch from Outlook to Thunderbird
• Firefox time tracking plugin

Since installing Thunderbird and not using Outlook and Outlook Express a couple of weeks ago, my computer has behaved a lot better.
Thunderbird is an open source email client and it runs on Windows and Mac.
If you’re interested in switching to Thunderbird, for whatever reason, here’s the instructions on how to get it going.
Go to http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird/ and download Thunderbird.
Close your other applications.
Install the download.
Go to the Tools menu and choose import.
Choose settings, and choose the program you’ve been using, click next. You should see a confirmation message. You’ve just brought over any email accounts you had configured.
Go back into Tools, choose import, choose Mail, choose the program you’ve been using and click next. You should see a confirmation message telling you how many mails were imported. You’ve just brought over all of the email you had saved in that program.
Lastly, go back into Tools, choose Import, Choose Address Books, choose the program you’ve been using and click next. You should see a confirmation message that your address book was successfully imported. You’ve just brought all of your contacts and addresses over.
That’s it!

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