Exercise17

Ex 7.7.1 - Organize

KNOWLEDGE

TECHNIQUES

When dealing with a large number of incoming e-mails on a daily basis it is vital to ensure that mail is managed effectively. Most e-mail software allows users to manage e-mail in a similar fashion to Windows Explorer in terms of being able to:

create and name folders - large numbers of e-mails can only be managed properly by storing those of a similar nature in appropriately named folders
move messages to folders
make copies of messages - keeping copies, backups, of important e-mails ensures that accidental deletion or loss of the primary e-mail does not mean permanent loss
delete un-required messages - large numbers of e-mails
use address lists - keeping the e-mail address of incoming mail from new customers means you can mail them at a future date

Most e-mail software allows you to organise the addresses of your contacts efficiently. This includes being able to:

save the address of anyone who e-mails you automatically
select a person to e-mail from the list
select several persons to e-mail from the list
e-mail ALL persons in your address book\contacts list with the same message
remove persons from your address book\contacts list
store more details about persons in your address book\contacts list such as their full name, address, place of work, phone number, etc

You can also display the contents of your address book in a range of different ways including:

alphabetically
by category
by company
by location

The screen shot below shows a typical view of an address book\contacts list. In this case it is a view of the contacts list taken from Microsoft Outlook. Other e-mail applications operate in a similar way in terms of what you can display and how it looks.

Saving an e-mail address
E-mail address can be saved to your e-mail application in a number of different ways. Default settings on your system will probably automatically add anyone who e-mails you to your address\contacts folder without you doing anything. Clearly if you don't want this to happen you can change the setting for this not to happen. In addition you can use the New command on the File menu to add an Address\Contact. Here, you will be able to enter the e-mail address and personal details (full name, address, phone number, etc.) of your contact.

Deleting an e-mail address
Contacts can be removed from your Address\Contacts book by simply highlighting them and then selecting Edit and Delete on the menu bar.

ORGANISING MESSAGES

Most e-mail software allows you to organise your messages efficiently. This includes being able to:

search for a message by sender, subject, mail content
create a new folder for mail
move messages to a new folder for mail
sort messages by name, date
delete a message
restore a message from the mail bin/deleted items folder
empty the mail bin/deleted items folder

FURTHER INFORMATION

To read further information about the topic(s) discussed in this exercise try visiting the following web site(s): www.bbc.co.uk/webwise - Online Course/E-mail plus