We
spend a lot of time e-mailing colleagues and friends, but are we as efficient
at creating and sending e-mail correspondence as we could be? Few of us know
how to utilise every function of our e-mail software, nor have the time to
learn. But taking time out to master a few of lesser well-known features can
considerably streamline your e-mail use. Here are six time- and labour-saving
tips to add to your armoury.
1
– If you want to pass something you’ve seen on a website on to someone else,
cut and paste the web address into the e-mail rather than taking an entire page
of text from the page. Most e-mail packages will be able to highlight the link
so the recipient simply has to click it to be taken straight to the page.
2
– If you’re repeating a piece of text regularly in e-mails, remember to use the
Signature feature of Outlook Express – you’ll find it in the Tools, then
Options menus. Create the piece of text – maybe it’s a company or product name
rather than a signature. You can then paste it in whenever you want to use it.
3
– Keep a tidy and up-to-date address book. It’s easy to put off adding names
and addresses or updating old ones, which will cost you more time in the long
run. When you want to change your e-mail address, it’ll be easier if you have
an up-to-date address to tell all your contacts in one hit.
4
– Make sure you put the correct subject in the subject field. It has been known
for important e-mails to be overlooked because the field carried an old subject
the sender hadn’t bothered to update.
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5
– Only include attachments if absolutely necessary. Unless they’re very
important, opening them is a time-stealer for the recipient and they take up
valuable space in an inbox.
6
– Remember to use the BCC (blind carbon copy) feature if you don’t want a
recipient to know to whom else you’ve sent the e-mail. You can switch it on in
Outlook Express by going to View and choosing All Headers.
