Cover Your Tracks: E-mail Archiving

Do you back up your e-mails in Microsoft Outlook? What would happen if your company gets audited or your manager asks you for an e-mail from a few years ago? What if someone told you that you did something wrong, but you remember sending an e-mail with the correct information?

This happens to office workers all of the time. It even happened to me a few times, where people would create files themselves, then send it around to others to review and make changes, but never save it on the network drive. Then a new person comes in, taking over the work and wonders why they can't find the old file.

At this point, I was able to search through my old e-mails from a few years back and find the file that was e-mailed to me.

There are two ways of backing up your e-mails. One is the easier way, where you download a file; the other is the longer way. The reason I use the latter method is because our company policy is that we can't download any software that IT doesn't approve. You can read my post on 8 Steps to Archiving E-mails, if you fall into this category. You can also read my post on 4 Easy Steps to Finding Old E-mails.

To back up your e-mails in Outlook, simply download Microsoft's Outlook Add-In file here. It's compatible with any version of Outlook 2002 or later. Then just follow the instructions to installing and using the software.

Now you will have yourself covered if any issue may arise that you can prove with an e-mail or two.

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To-Do or Not To-Do? Taking Your To-Do List to the Next Level!

Do you have a to-do list, either on a piece of paper, on Microsoft Outlook or in a planner? Do you want to take it to the next level?

Having a to-do list can be very helpful in accomplishing your tasks, but also setting goals. In order to set goals, you have to write them down and then prioritize them. Then, you need to assign tasks to each goal, where you break the goal down into manageable chunks. This will help you battle procrastination in a big way. You can also apply this to your personal life, not just your professional life.

If you want to take your tasks to the next level, follow these tips:

• Make sure that you have your list in front of you and try to figure out how many tasks you can accomplish for that day. Narrow them down to the amount that you can manage (usually 3 - 5), but some people can do more or less. Move all of the other tasks to the next day or time that you can tackle them.
  


• Next, add a time frame to each task. For example, I will try to work on task A for 1 hour. Then I will work on Task B for 30 minutes and so on and so forth. This will keep your project/goal in a manageable time frame, where you know how much time will be left once you've accomplished these tasks. This will also keep you concentrated on each task and not start multi-tasking or get distracted.
  


• At the end of each task, make sure to either check off the completed task or write a note about your progress. I usually use Outlook to track my progress and add percentages of how much I feel I've accomplished for larger tasks. This way, you can see what's left and reward yourself for a job well done.

Try to use these tips in your everyday life and see how much better and easier things will get done.

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Clock In The Right Time Zone: Booking Meetings in Microsoft Outlook

Do you need to book meetings for your manager(s), but most meetings are all over the country or even internationally? Do you have trouble trying to figure out the time zone for each meeting in Microsoft Outlook?

I am currently in the process of doing this for one of my managers. I need to book meetings for him to travel to firms all over Canada. Since Outlook only allows for one time zone to be added to the person's calendar, this makes it a little difficult.

The best way I could find accomplishing this task is by having to change the time zone information each time I need to add a new meeting. I also have a time zone map open in an internet browser, so I can make sure that I am choosing the correct one.

To add or change a time zone in Outlook, follow these simple steps:

1. Right click on the area marked in the picture below, then click Change Time Zone.
   
   
   
   


2. Click on the check box for Show an additional time zone, then use the drop down arrow to select the particular time zone you wish to use. At this point, you can flip to your internet browser to see which time zone is the correct one.
   
   
   
   

Now you can see by the picture below that the new time zone has been added. You can now add in the meeting details for this time zone.

Note: Make sure to add the time in the meeting schedule (for example: Meeting with client, 1:00 pm Calgary time), so the manager knows that this is the correct time to meet with this client. There have been instances where people would get confused as to whether the meeting was booked on the manager's time zone or the client's time zone.

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Outlook Rules That Rule - Part 2

Do you have to move e-mails into particular areas of Microsoft Outlook for your manager? Do you feel that this is quite time consuming and would like an easier method of doing this?

There is hope for us all, as Microsoft Outlook and many other e-mail programs come with what's called "Rules". Once a "rule" is set up, Outlook basically scans the e-mail for the criteria set and applies the particular action(s) that you've specified.

One of my readers asks:

I am an Executive Assistant at a very large Health System. My supervisor is very easy to work with. She is the Executive Director of the entire system and she gets a lot of e-mails. Part of my job consists of making sure I keep her e-mail box from running over. Well, so far, I think I've done ok with placing certain things that require her to read it at her leisure in a task area of her Outlook. The other e-mails pertain to reports, things she should respond to etc.

My answer to this is:

Here's the way to set up rules in Outlook to get your e-mails moving along. I actually had a post on this from a fellow blogger entitled Outlook Rules That Rule.

You can either set up one folder for all the particular e-mails that your manager receives and send everything directly into there or you can set up a folder for "Reports", "Things She Should Respond To", etc. It all depends on how you want them handled.

Once you have all of the folders set up, follow these simple steps to getting the rules set up for each one:

1. Click Tools, then Rules and Alerts.
   
   
   
   
   
2. Click New Rule.
   
   
   
   
   
3. I prefer to click Start from a blank rule, as you have more functionality though this, and then click Check messages when they arrive. This way, any e-mails that come in will be actioned a certain way, depending on what you specify. Click Next.
   
   
   
   
   
4. Check the box(es) with the particular condition that you want to use for this rule. If you have e-mails coming from a specified person, check from people or distribution list. In the bottom window, click on the hyperlink and add the person's details from your address book or type in the e-mail address directly into the box. Click Next.
   
   
   
   
   
5. Here you would specify if you want to move the e-mail to a specified folder, forward it to a person, etc. In this case, you would move it to a specified folder. In the bottom window, click on the hyperlink and click on the particular folder that you want to move this e-mail into. Click Next.
   
   
   
   
   
6. In the next step, you can specify if you want to exclude any e-mails. I usually keep this blank, but it will depend on what you need. Click Next.
   
   
   
   
   
7. Now give this rule a name. You can also click Run this rule now on messages already in "Mailbox - …" if you want to automatically move all of your e-mails with these criteria. Click Finish.
   
   
   
   
   
8. Repeat these steps for each folder that you have set up.

There you have it - automation at its best! Now you can have all of your manager's e-mails going directly into the folders that you've set up.

Note: Please keep in mind that this will only work on your own Inbox. If you have more than one mailbox assigned, it will not work.

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A Great Outlook: Adding Holidays to Microsoft Outlook

Do you often wonder how you can add your country's holidays into your calendar in Microsoft Outlook? Do you follow particular religious holidays, but aren't showing up in your calendar?

Currently, I work in a large organization where we follow Canadian holidays. In this case, I don't have to worry about taking extra days off, since I don't really follow the religious holidays that I was brought up with, which in turn, are part of the regular holidays that come up each year.

However, I did work in another company where the family was of a particular religion and they were the ones that owned the entire company. Of course, the rest of us had to follow this schedule and would have to take time off during these periods.

To add your country's or any religious holidays that you follow into your Outlook calendar, follow these 3 simple steps:

1. Click Tools, Options, and then Calendar Options.


2. In the Calendar Options section, click Add Holidays.



3. Now, select the particular country that you reside in and any particular religious holidays that you follow. Then click OK.

Outlook now will install the selected items that you chose. Check your calendar to see that everything as populated.

Here's a post also on using your Microsoft Outlook calendar properly. This should help your manager as well.

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Take care - of your clutter!


Post from: Administrative Assistant Tips

Update:

Please make sure to delete the current holidays that you have in your Outlook. You can do this by clicking View, Arrange By, Current View, Events.

Now delete any holidays that you have and add the new ones in. This will avoid any duplication and/or other country's or religious holidays showing up.

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Prioritization: A Colorful Outlook

Do you receive quite a bit of e-mail in your Inbox each day, but have trouble prioritizing them? Do you feel overwhelmed with trying to figure out who you should respond to first?

 

I recently added a post called "Outlook Rules That Rule" from a fellow Administrative Assistant's blog. This basically shows you how to make your e-mails go directly into certain categories, folders, you name it.

 

There is another method to this madness though. You can further prioritize e-mails by adding color to them. No, you are not making your screen more lively - well, if that's what you are intending to do, then go ahead.

 

When e-mails come in and you have set up your colors, you will notice that you have prioritized them by color. For example, I receive an e-mail from my direct supervisor. This will show up in red, since I know I have to get to this one first, before I can even touch any other one. Then I have my faxes set up as green. I know that this would be next, since people depend on these quite a bit around my office.

 

Here are the steps to doing this:

 

1. When you receive an e-mail, click on Tools, and then Organize.

 

2. Click on Using Colors. Click on the particular color that you want to apply to all of these types of e-mails from the particular person and click Apply Color.

 

3. Repeat steps 1 - 2 for each person that you want to create a different color. 

That's it! Now you have a new prioritization system set up.

 

Tip: Make sure not to use too many colors, since you might forget to distinguish the important from the less important.

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Outlook Rules That Rule

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Patricia Robb of Laughing All The Way to Work: A Survival Blog for Today's Administrative Assistant .

I have finally taken the time to create rules for my Inbox. It was getting out of control. I knew the rules option existed, but I never took the time to check it out. What I discovered is a time saver and e-mail management tool that is a best-kept secret. Sometimes taking the time is the biggest hurdle, but this one is well worth the effort.

I have written previously that to manage my work e-mail better I asked friends and family to send e-mails to my home rather than work. This has been a great way to clear up a lot of unnecessary e-mails at work. I also subscribe to feeds to my home e-mail account. Even though they are work-related, I rarely have time to look at them so it is easier for me to do that from home. Bottom line is -- my home e-mail account is now like Grand Central Station. I get home at night and regularly find 40 new messages in my Inbox that I have to sift through. Some e-mails are useful, but I don’t always have time to deal with them right away. This is where the rules feature has come in handy.

Here is an example of some sub-folders and rules that I have set up that would work for a work e-mail or home account: 

• I now send my subscribed feeds to a sub-folder that I can look at when I have the time. They are now at my convenience, rather than being in my face every time I look in my Inbox.
   
• I have set up a folder for Google Alerts to keep me updated on what is new in my profession. With my new rule they go directly to that folder.
   
• I have set up a folder for some personal e-mails that I receive that are special and I want to keep them together. I have also set a sound to play when they pop in so I will recognize when they arrive and who they are from.
   
• I have set up another folder for a personal acquaintance who is forever sending me joke e-mails and dire warnings. I have asked this person not to send them at work, which she has done and now sends them to my home. They are just as annoying to receive at home however, but for the sake of our friendship, I have set up a folder and they are dumped in there as soon as they come in. This has helped tremendously and with little effort on my part and no offence to my friend. I can then check the sub-folder at the end of the day and delete all the e-mails I don't want to read and just read the ones that are relevant.

You can still be notified when these e-mails arrive by setting a sound rule. The sub-folders where they are sent are bolded to indicate there are new messages in it. Don’t worry, these e-mails do not get lost or are completely out of sight. They are just put out of the way until you have time to deal with them. I would recommend keeping your Inbox folder expanded so you see the sub-folders and are aware of what is happening in them.

I now only have e-mails that I need to see come directly in my Inbox. Everything else is at my convenience and that is good. You can do the same thing with your work e-mails. You will notice your Inbox will be less crowded and easier to manage. I would not recommend setting a rule to send e-mails from your boss to a sub-folder however. Some things are best coming directly in your Inbox. You will know what works best for your working situation.

I have also set up a To-do sub-folder which I drag and drop items in if I am waiting on a reply or need to do something with it. Some things you do not want to set up as a rule, but you don't want them sitting in your Inbox either. Flagging these items and setting reminders would be a good idea. I have also named the sub-folder *To-Do List to ensure it is at the top of my alphabetical listing of sub-folders. Putting the asterisk makes sure it is first on my list.

There are many other things you can do with rules so take the time to check them out and feel your way around. It will be worth the effort.

Share what you have learned with your boss. Most executives I know want the help and this would be a great way of organizing them. If you have access to their Inbox you can set them up. Always be in communication and agreement with them however on what is best before forging ahead and changing everything. Otherwise, you will have a very frazzled and frustrated executive on your hands. A simple system is best as they are normally on the move and cannot take the time to figure out elaborate filing systems. I would suggest a folder for News, and set a rule to move all their feeds into that sub-folder, and perhaps a Junk Mail folder that they can later go through to determine if they want to delete the item or unsubscribe.

Keep in mind that sub-folders are not always accessible with some wireless hand-held devices so I would be very careful about moving everything to a sub-folder, just things that are not urgent and can be looked at later. I am sure your boss would be very happy to have an uncluttered Inbox with only things that need their attention. On a semi-related matter, I read a tip on OfficeArrow.com that you should keep in mind -- setting flags on your e-mails are not visible to users on their wireless.

Normally the assistant does not have a wireless and therefore we don't realize the limitations. It is a good idea to have that discussion with your boss before trying to organize their Inbox.

My Inbox is now empty

If there is an e-mail that I haven't looked at in awhile and regularly press delete when I get it, that is my cue to unsubscribe. Wow! It feels like I just went through my closet and threw a whole bunch of clothes out that I never wear. It's great, but I am so used to having e-mails popping into my Inbox that now I am wondering, "Where have all my e-mails gone?" I am having withdrawal symptoms... I better go and check my new sub-folders, but at least now it is at my convenience.

It is simple to set up a new rule in Outlook 2007

From your Toolbar, drop down the Tools menu and click on Rules and Alerts, click on New Rule. For a simple rule to send e-mails from a particular address to a folder, do the following:

Under Step 1 Stay Organized, choose Move messages from someone to a folder and in Step 2 click on people or distribution list and highlight the e-mail address you want. Press the From button and press OK. Then while still in the Step 2 portion, click on specified and choose which folder you want it to go to. Click Finish, then Apply and OK to seal the deal. And voila it is done. Scroll through the options you have for other rules.

When e-mails are received and sent to the sub-folder, it will be bolded and the number of e-mails will be written beside the box so you will know you have new mail.

Tip:
Before creating the rule you need to put the e-mail addresses of your feeds (or whatever you want to create a rule for) in your contact list and open a sub-folder that you want things like this to go to in order to complete the process above.

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4 Steps to Setting up E-mail Distribution Lists

Do you find yourself having to write each person's e-mail address over and over again for certain e-mails? Do you wish that you could make life simpler by just entering one item that would include a list of e-mail addresses?

 

Here are 4 simple steps to creating an e-mail distribution list in Microsoft Outlook:

 

1. Make sure that you are in the "E-mail" section of your Outlook. 

2. Click on the arrow down button right beside the "New" button, then click "Distribution List"

 

 

3. Here you can either "Select Members" or "Add New". Select Members is used to find contacts that are already in your address book. Add New, of course, would be used to add a brand new contact.

 

 

4. Save the new e-mail distribution list by giving it a name that this corresponds to whatever it is being used for. For example, if I need to send out a newsletter to all clients, I would call it "Newsletter". 

At this point, you would just start up a new e-mail, click on the "To:" button and select "Newsletter" from your address book. All e-mail distribution lists are bolded.

 

You can also add e-mail distribution lists to e-mail distribution lists, using the same steps mentioned here. Just create a second e-mail distribution list and include the first one in it.

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Take care - of your clutter!
 

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Microsoft Office Poll Results

I am sure that all of you use Microsoft Office in your workplace. There really isn't a chance that you don't use it, whether you are on a PC or a Mac.

 

The results actually surprised me quite a bit, since some of you consider yourselves gurus. If you have any suggestions on how to make things run more smoothly in Microsoft Office, please let the rest of us know.

 

I was not surprised that anyone would be a novice, since in order for you to get a job these days anywhere in an office setting, you should at least have an intermediate understanding of these applications. Otherwise, you would be working somewhere else.

 

If you have any tips and tricks that you would like to offer, please click the comment link below (if you are reading this via feed or e-mail, click on the title of this post first) and inspire us.

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Write An Effective Out Of Office Assistant Message

Are you going on vacation? Are you going to be out of the office for a short or even long period of time? Don’t forget to set up and turn on your “Out of Office Assistant” on Microsoft Outlook.

It’s amazing of how many people actually forget to do this. You e-mail someone asking them a question or wanting to state an urgent matter. You wait and wait, but no response. A few hours or days later (depending on the urgency), you e-mail them back again and still no response.

It’s really important to let your fellow staff members and especially your clients know that you will be away for either a short or an extended period of time. A simple bounce back message will be e-mailed to them letting them know that you can’t help them at the present time and for them to contact someone that you’ve delegated to help out in these types of situations.

Here’s a sample message that you can use to create your “Out of Office Assistant”:

I will be out of the office from ____ until ____. I'll be checking email _______(once a week, every day, etc)________, but will have limited ability to respond. If you need immediate assistance or information about the (question/issue), please contact (delegate’s name, e-mail address, phone number).

If you work in a large corporation like me and have quite a few staff members on your team handling different areas, you should include a list of names, e-mail addresses and phone numbers corresponding to the different products/services they handle.

For example:

• Advertising inquiries, please contact John Doe at john.doe@company.com
• Billing inquiries, please contact Jane Smith at jane.smith@company.com

And so on and so forth.

And lastly, don’t forget to turn it on. Also, don’t forget to change your voice mail message to read the same information.

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The E-tiquette of E-mail

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Patricia Robb of Laughing all the Way to Work: The Ultimate Secretarial Survival Blog .

E-mail is no longer just for personal use, with all our accepted short forms: LOL, U, GB and a co-worker's favourite, OMG! With the increasing use of e-mail as the first choice for business correspondence it opens a whole new world of dos and don'ts for the assistant.

Here are Some Good-Sense E-mail Etiquette Tips

E-mail Salutations:

Although e-mail is less formal than writing a letter it is still polite to open with a greeting. Your company may have a policy on how they want you to address people in external business e-mail. Jane Watson of J. Watson Associates gives the following e-mail tips for Email Salutations in her e-bulletin Business Writing Updates:

“There are several options for starting an e-mail in North America as our business culture is not as formal as other areas. You can use “hi,” “hello,” “good day” or any other variant – including just the first name. I usually tell people to use whatever they would say when they are greeting someone face to face.

I recommend staying away from “good morning” or “good afternoon” as the person may not open the e-mail during that time frame. You could use “greetings” or “hello all” when sending a message to a group. If I didn’t know the person, and it was my first communication to him/her, I would use both names: John McDonald.

Not putting a salutation on the first message of the day to someone is often considered impolite. As you e-mail back and forth during the day, you can drop the salutation when it feels comfortable. “Dear” is considered too formal in North America for an e-mail and is reserved for letters. Note: “Dear” in an e-mail is considered appropriate in countries such as Germany, Switzerland, France, Japan and Indonesia.”1

Be Courteous With E-mail

Are you There?

Who hasn't been annoyed when you e-mail someone and are waiting for an answer, only to find out the person is on vacation, but didn't put their Out-of-Office Assistant on. It is important to let people know when you will not be in the office.

For those who are unfamiliar with Out-of-Office Assistant, go under Tools, Out of Office Assistant.

The following information should be included in your message:

1. The start and end dates of your absence.
2. A message to let your contacts know you’ll answer messages when you return.
3. The name, contact information, and office hours of someone to contact if they require immediate assistance. Of course, be sure to check with your co-worker first before providing his or her information.

Who are you?

Be sure to add your signature to your business e-mail with your coordinates. Your company may have a strict policy on what they want you to include in the signature line and what it should look like, but generally you would include your name, title, company name and address, telephone and fax number. They already know your e-mail address if they have received an e-mail from you so no need to put this in your signature line unless your company policy states you should.

To set an e-mail signature file:

1. From the Tools Menu, choose Options
2. Select Mail Format
3. Select Signatures
4. Select New and follow the instructions to add your e-mail signature. You can make more than one signature to use for different e-mails
5. If you want your signature to be applied automatically to new messages and for replies and forwards. Go back to Mail Format and you will see a drop-down menu for Signature for new message and Signature for replies and forwards. You need to select the signature you want applied to these functions or leave at None if you do not want this set.

Saying Thank you

It is always correct to be courteous, but not annoying? This is a great tip from Jane Watson of J. Watson Associates for Saying Thank You in an Email:

“In our recent poll on pet peeves regarding emails, a number of respondents expressed irritation about receiving messages that contained only the words thank you. They reasoned that opening these short messages wasted their time. They were merely doing their job and didn’t need to be thanked.

I understand their rationale; however, sending a thank you indicates the receipt of information and a close of the requested action. My suggestion – to keep the process short but to acknowledge the receipt of information and your appreciation – is to put the thank you on the subject line along with the indicator END. END on the subject line means there is no need to open the message as there is nothing in the body text…” 2

DON’T SHOUT!

Writing all in caps is a form of e-mail shouting. Is that the message you want to send to your recipient? If you are visually impaired and need to use all caps and large font and don’t want to offend the reader, my suggestion would be to state that in your opening sentence. That way the reader can relax and continue to read the email knowing you are not shouting at them.

Seeing Red

Does it matter what colour of font you use in your e-mail? Colour blindness affects a significant number of people, especially men, when it comes to distinguishing the colour red and green. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) report that, “some 10 million American men – fully 7 percent of the male population – either cannot distinguish red from green, or see red and green differently from most people. This is the commonest form of color blindness, but it affects only .4 percent of women”.3

If you want something to stand out, rather than using a colour you can always use bold or italics for emphasis. I would not recommend using underlining for emphasis in an electronic document as underlining a word usually means you are linking to something else. Because it has taken on this new meaning you may have some confused readers trying to link to another site from your underlined word.4

And what about all that pretty wallpaper that is available for your background? Be sure to check your company email policy: Having butterflies flutter across the screen on the opening of the business e-mail may not be the image your company is looking for.

Reply to all

If you are copied on an e-mail and want to respond to the sender is it really necessary to Reply to all and have every one of the recipients receive your e-mail? If your message is an answer to the sender then just pressing Reply is appropriate or if you are only copied, do you need to reply at all?

Be Angry but Send not!

It is too easy to press Send and then regret what you have written or find yourself in some legal trouble. If you need to vent, try sending yourself the e-mail you wanted to send. Take a few moments to calm down and then go to your Inbox and open your message. You will get a greater sense of what impact that e-mail will have on the recipient. But it is never a good idea to send an angry e-mail in business correspondence.

Good Grammar, Spelling and Punctuation

The rules still apply for using good grammar and punctuation in e-mail: Are you starting that new sentence using a capital letter? Are you asking a question or stating a fact? Is this a new paragraph? Your e-mail will be easier to read if you follow some basic business writing rules. Read the e-mail over for completeness and accuracy. SpellCheck never replaces proofreading your e-mail.

If you say in your e-mail you have an attachment, is the attachment actually there? And please verify to make sure the attachment is the correct attachment, it is easy to drag and drop the wrong attachment.

Check the name of the recipient and make sure they are the actual person (people) you want to send to. Some names are similar in your contact list and it is easy to choose the wrong person, which, depending on the sensitivity of the e-mail, could be embarrassing or worse.

Mixed Messages

If you are changing the subject, please do not reply to the old e-mail with the same subject line. This can get confusing for the recipient. A good rule of thumb is if you change the subject, start a new e-mail message.

In Summary

In our fast-paced society e-mail is a quick way of communicating and used properly can be a effective business tool, but e-mail can also be impersonal and is not always the best form of communication. Sometimes a better way to communicate would be picking up the phone or meeting someone face to face. So think twice before pressing Send: Is e-mail the best way to communicate your message?

Tip for filing e-mails: If it is necessary to file a hard copy of the e-mail. File e-mails chronologically by date and time. This will make it easier for the reader to follow the chain of e-mails.

1. Watson, Jane, J. Watson Associates Inc., Copyright © 2005 All rights reserved. Tel: 905-820-9909, Email Salutations, http://www.jwatsonassociates.com/newsletter/jwa_086.htm, (accessed October 22, 2007) (Used with permission)
   
2. Watson, Jane, J. Watson Associates Inc., Copyright © 2005 All rights reserved. Tel: 905-820-9909, Saying Thank you in an Email, http://www.jwatsonassociates.com/newsletter/jwa_073.htm, (accessed October 22, 2007) (Used with permission)
   
3. Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Color Blindness: More Prevalent Among Males, (1995 report) (Accessed February 2, 2008) (Used with permission)
   
4. Gaertner-Johnston, Lynn, Business Writing "Talk, tips, and Best Picks for Writers on the Job", Underling: A Bad Choice Online, http://www.businesswritingblog.com/business_writing/2008/02/underlining-a-b.html
   

A version of this article appeared in OfficePro Magazine, January/February 2008 edition.

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Take care - of your clutter!


Post from: Administrative Assistant

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Tired of Sending Recurring E-mails?

Do you find that you write the same e-mails over and over again? Do you feel that there should be an easier way of doing this?

 

Of course there is. It all depends on how you need to do this. There are two different methods that you can follow to creating recurring e-mails.

 

1. You can create a Microsoft Outlook e-mail template, which you can open and manipulate as you go along. The only downfall is that you would have to send manually each time. 

2. You can use either an online service called LetterMeLater.com or purchase SendLater for Microsoft Outlook. 

1. LetterMeLater.com allows you to send e-mails via an online application for free. You can send recurring e-mails as many or as few times as you want. 

2. SendLater for Microsoft Outlook allows you to send e-mails directly from your software on your computer (this is an add-on for Microsoft Outlook), but then there is a cost associated with it. 

All methods are quite effective, it just really depends if you want to spend a little for the convenience or use the free service, but with a little extra work.

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Until next time,

Take care - of your clutter!


Post from: Administrative Assistant

 

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Using Microsoft Office E-mail Templates

Do you wite reccurring e-mails on a regular basis? Are your hands getting tired from constantly having to retype the same e-mail over and over again? There is a simple solution to this - E-mail Templates!

 

There are certain tasks that I need to do on a daily, weekly, monthly, etc. basis and it usually involves e-mail. About 90% of my work comes in the form of e-mails, since I want to be able to track anything and everything that managers and fellow staff members send me.

 

To be a little more productive at my job, I thought I'd create e-mail templates, which save quite a bit of time in the long run.

 

Here are 9 steps to creating an e-mail template in Microsoft Outlook:

 

1. On the Tools menu, click Options, then click the Mail Format tab. 

2. Clear the Use Mircosoft Office Word 2003 to edit e-mail messages check box. 

3. Click Apply, then OK. 

4. On the File menu, point to New, then click Mail Message. 

5. When the new message opens, give it an appropriate subject and compose your content. Leave space for variable information that will be added when you send the message. 

6. On the File menu, click Save As. 

7. In the Save As type list, click Outlook Template, then click Save. 

8. To restore Word as a message editor, click Options on the Tools menu, click the Mail Format tab, then select the Use Microsoft Office Word 2003 to edit e-mail messages check box. 

9. Click Apply, then click OK.

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Until next time,

Take care - of your clutter!

 

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