Using E-Mail Like the Pros

Chapter Seven

Using E-Mail Like the Pros

You should now be able to perform most of the basic functions of e-mail such as reading, sending, and replying. Coupled with the information you learned in Lesson 5, "Understanding E-Mail," you should now be able to complete a vast majority of e-mail tasks. But what about the rest? Surely, you can do more.

In this lesson, I tell you what you need to know to take e-mail to "the next level." In this lesson, you can find answers to the following questions:

• Can I attach documents to e-mail messages?
• Do I need to sign every e-mail message by hand?
• How can I remember everyone's e-mail address?
• Can I manage e-mail effectively?
• Do I always need to be online to use e-mail?

Many of the functions I discuss in this lesson are available in most e-mail client software. What the functions are called and how they are accessed can be quite different from package to package, but the concepts are similar.

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Time Saver: If you can't find a particular function discussed here in your e-mail client, check out its Help menu. The Help menu can often help you locate a particular function within seconds.

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Attaching Documents

As I discussed in Lessons 2, "Internet Uses in the Modern World," and 5, "Understanding E-Mail," most e-mail clients enable you to attach non-text documents to standard e-mail messages. This capability is very powerful. When you use it effectively, you can save lots of time and money over transmitting documents via fax or overnight mail.

As you'll see, attaching a document doesn't always make sense, but often it is a useful alternative to other, more traditional methods for file transfer.

What Can You Attach?

The first question to answer is an obvious one: What types of documents can you attach? The answer is simple: just about anything. If you can store a file on your computer, you can attach it to an e-mail message. Such files include word processing documents, spreadsheets, multimedia presentations, graphics, and software.

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CAUTION: Just because you can attach anything, I'm not saying that you should. Be particularly careful about the size of the file you're sending. Many e-mail accounts have quotas that restrict the amount of e-mail they can have at any one time. Exceeding this quota can cause some problems. A good rule of thumb is to make sure that the files you attach are less than 500KB (1/2MB) in size.

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Sending Attachments

Sending an attachment is really quite easy. For instance, the following section explains how to attach a message in Eudora.

To Do: Creating a Signature

Just about every e-mail client has either a toolbar button or menu item that you can use to attach a document. Choosing this option generally opens a standard browsing window, like the one shown in Figure 7.1, that enables you to locate the file you want to attach. After you find the file you want, just double-click and you should see the file path and name in your message header.

Figure 7.1.

Most e-mail clients enable you to find and attach any file on your computer.

The following are a few more points to know before you go on. First, an e-mail message with an attached document takes longer to transmit because the entire file has to be sent as part of the message. Second, you need to make sure that the person to whom you're sending the file will be able to read it. Sending a Microsoft Excel file to someone without Excel doesn't do him or her a whole lot of good. Third, you need to make sure that the encoding scheme your client uses for attached documents can be read by the person to whom you're sending it. On this last point, let's take a coffee break, shall we?

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Coffee Break: As you may have already noticed, every e-mail message you send is composed of simple text. You type in a word, and that word is sent. Documents produced by other pieces of software, as well as the software itself, however, contain a lot of information that isn't simple text.
You now have a problem because you can't just copy and paste non-text characters into e-mail. Fortunately, you can encrypt, or encode, these non-text files in such a way that every non-text character is translated into a simple text character for transmission via e-mail protocol.

One downside of this great capability is the fact that, to "decode" your message, the e-mail client of the recipient must "understand" the encryption method your client uses to encode the message in the first place. Note that this type of "encryption" does not make your document secure, as it can be translated by any standard decoder out there.

Your e-mail client should enable you to choose which encoding method to use. If it doesn't have such an option, use the Help menu or your user's manual to find out what method your client uses. Three types of encryption are standard: BinHex (used on Macintoshes and the Eudora e-mail client), uuencode/uudecode (used by UNIX and some other e-mail clients), and MIME (used on the Web and by a few other e-mail clients).

Make sure that you "know the code" for your e-mail client and your recipient's e-mail client. Sending a small test attachment first is a good way to make sure that everything is working correctly before sending larger, more important files.

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Receiving Attachments

Believe it or not, receiving attachments is even easier than sending them. Almost every e-mail client that can send attachments automatically decodes attachments from others and saves them to your hard drive, provided the client can understand the encoding scheme (see the preceding "Coffee Break").

The only thing you need to know is the place where the attachment is saved. Generally, you use an Option or Preference to tell your client where to save every attachment. Picking an empty directory is a good idea, so you can quickly locate attached documents. Usually, a line in the body of the message tells you that an attached document has been converted.

Creating (and Creative) Signatures

One of the most used (and most enjoyable) functions of e-mail is the signature. You can give information, make a joke, and so on by properly using a signature.

New Term: Signature: A signature is a small text file that contains information that your
e-mail client automatically attaches to the bottom of every message you send. Most people also use their signature when sending messages to newsgroups.

Just Make It Up

Creating a signature is easy.

To Do: Creating a Signature

Now that you have finished creating a simple signature, every message you send will have this information attached to it. Figure 7.2 shows a basic signature attached to the bottom of a message.

What You Need to Know About Signatures

You need to know a few points about signatures before moving on. First, keeping your signatures to about four lines is generally good etiquette; you certainly should not use more than six or seven. By limiting the number of lines, you prevent others' mailboxes from filling up with a bunch of messages that have signatures that are longer than the message itself.

Second, create your signature in a fixed font such as Courier. This way, you can ensure that your signature will look the same on everyone's e-mail client. For this same reason, making sure that each line in your signature is no longer than about 75 characters is also a good idea.

Finally, don't be afraid to have a little fun. The following are two examples of what really creative people have done with simple text characters to create "ASCII Art" signatures. Notice that, although creative and humorous, they're both still within the four-line limit.

Figure 7.2.

A standard signature usually contains important information about the sender.

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Time Saver: With many e-mail clients, you can have two signatures. Having both a "business" and a "personal" signature to use in different situations is a good idea. Even if you don't have this option, you would be wise not to use your "make love, not war" signature when sending e-mail to a prospective employer.

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Aliases: The Three-Letter E-Mail Address

After you've used the Internet for a while (or even if you haven't), you may find yourself having a hard time remembering everyone's e-mail address. Not only that, but you may also tire of typing in your friend's 43-character address. Oh, what to do?

The solution is to use an alias or nickname. With just about any e-mail client, you can create an alias that represents a real e-mail address. Doing so can save you lots of time and effort when sending e-mail.

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Time Saver: Before you start creating aliases, decide upon a standard way of creating them. You may want to always use a person's first name and the first letter of his or her last name, for example, as an alias (johnd for John Doe, beckyt for Becky Thomas, and so on). Keeping to a standard may not seem important now, but after you create dozens of aliases, they can be just as hard to remember as the e-mail addresses if you don't follow a standard for creating them.

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To Do: Creating an Alias

Figure 7.3.

This window contains a small, standard set of nicknames.

From now on, just type the nickname in the To: field of your e-mail message. Your client automatically knows to whom you want to send the message.

Managing Mailboxes

Before long, you'll start to realize that your mailbox can get awfully full awfully fast. When you start to feel overwhelmed, you can apply some of the techniques presented in the following sections to help you manage your e-mail more effectively.

Mailbox Lower-Level Management

You can take a few steps to make your life less complicated without using any additional features of your e-mail client. The following are a few simple, common sense methods you can implement to help reduce your mailbox clutter and confusion:

• Don't procrastinate. Sometimes you have to. If at all possible, though, read a message and reply to it, if necessary, as soon as you get it. Putting it off "until later" means that you'll add it to your collection of mail to get to, or you may even forget about it altogether.
• Do something. After you take care of the message, do something with it. Either store the message in another mailbox (which I cover in the mid-level management section) or delete the message. You can even print out important messages before deleting them.
• Don't be a packrat. E-mail messages can really stack up. Before keeping a message, make sure that you really need to first.
• Live and learn. Don't feel compelled to read every line of every e-mail message you get. If you're like most people, you may get a fair amount of junk mail, as well as other assorted mail that doesn't require a lot of attention. Learn to recognize this mail so that you don't waste time on it.

Mailbox Mid-Level Management

Your best mailbox management tool is the mailbox itself. More accurately, I should say mailboxes. With most e-mail clients, you can create and organize mailboxes to help you manage your messages better. Think of mailboxes as an electronic filing cabinet.

Many clients come preconfigured with a few standard mailboxes such as the In, Out, and Trash mailboxes. For basic mail management, they are okay, but soon you'll want more. When this time comes, you may want to develop a mailbox structure that lets you do even more. The following steps show you how to create a mailbox in Eudora.

To Do: Creating Mailboxes

You may need to experiment, but you will soon have a mailbox structure that works for you. Just as with other tools I've talked about, you should organize them well and not use too many of them. Figure 7.4 shows an example of a set of mailboxes that might be useful.

Figure 7.4.

This organization of mailboxes looks effective. Notice that each folder gives you the opportunity to create yet another new mailbox.

Mailbox Upper-Level Management

Some higher-end e-mail clients, such as Eudora Pro, make use of e-mail filters. Filtering
e-mail messages can help save you the hassle of having to transfer many messages yourself. Keep in mind, however, that message filtering is really useful only if you generally have a high volume of mail or a large or complicated mailbox structure.

New Term: Filter: Filtering is really just a way any program can automatically screen data. An
e-mail client looks at e-mail message header information to determine what to do with the message. A filter might, for example, put all messages with a certain domain name in the header into a certain mailbox.

If your client offers filtering, you probably can use a Filter Rules option to tell your client specifically how to filter e-mail. Rules for filtering usually fall into one of several different categories:

• Header Information: Most filters read the e-mail message's header information to determine what to do with it. With most filters, you can identify the To:, From:, Subject:, and Reply To: headers. Others filter by looking at any header, and still other filters search the body of a message for filtering information.
• Action: Most filters are intended to perform some action. The most common actions are to change the subject of a message or to raise or lower the priority of a message you receive.
• Transfer: This filtering rule is the most common. Most often, you want e-mail messages transferred to a particular mailbox based on who the message comes from. You might want all the e-mail you receive from your work's domain name, for example, in your Work mailbox. Figure 7.5 shows such an example.

Figure 7.5.

This user wants to make sure that his sports mail goes to the right place.

Using E-Mail Offline

Unless you have a service provider that charges you a flat fee no matter how long you stay connected to the Internet, time is money. Fortunately, with most e-mail clients, you can read and compose messages without being connected. After you are ready to send and download new mail, simply connect, transmit all your messages, and then disconnect.

The process for working offline can vary widely from client to client. America Online, for example, has "Flash Sessions," whereby you can connect, download mail, send any composed messages waiting to be sent, and then disconnect. Another popular client, Eudora (both the shareware and commercial version), actually has a setting that enables you to use Eudora offline, as you can see in Figure 7.6. After you compose and read mail, you can simply connect, toggle this setting, and then check for and send your mail.

Figure 7.6.

Using e-mail clients offline can save you money.

As with several other aspects of e-mail I've covered, you may have to consult your client's Help menu or a user's manual for specifics. Usually, though, with just a little nosing around, you can find what you need.

Summary

In this lesson, you learned to use e-mail "like a pro." You learned how to send and receive
e-mail attachments as well as some of the ins and outs of how to do so most effectively. You also learned how to avoid having to sign all your e-mail manually by using signatures.

I also gave you some handy management techniques such as how to create mailboxes and use filters to organize your mail better. Finally, you learned how to save money by using your
e-mail client offline.

Workshop

The following workshop helps solidify the skills that you learned in this lesson.

Q&A

Q I've heard people say that using e-mail to attach documents really isn't worth the effort. Is it?

A Definitely, as long as you do it wisely. Again, make sure that your attachment encoding method is compatible with the person receiving or sending the message. Next, make sure that the file isn't too big. Finally, realize when a fax or other method might work better.

Q I have a dozen or so friends who I find myself sending messages to all the time. Can I send them mail without having to type in all those addresses every time?

A Certainly. You should use your client's Nickname function. Instead of creating an alias for a single name, create a group alias name (such as Friends). Then, when you're asked to provide the nickname's e-mail address, simply type in all the addresses, with each one separated by a comma. Save it and you're set. Just remember, no spaces!

Q When does using an e-mail client offline not make sense?

A If your Internet service provider charges a flat fee no matter how long you stay connected, using your e-mail client offline usually doesn't make a lot of sense.

Quiz

Take the following quiz to see how much you've learned.

Questions

Answers

Activity

Your mission for this lesson is simple. Create at least four mailboxes to help you manage your e-mail. Think about the kind of e-mail you might receive when creating them. Write down this structure. Then, in a couple of months, compare it with your mailbox structure to see how it has expanded, shrunk, or changed.