By Debbie Green

For the past several months, we have been writing a series of articles Learning to Work with Computers 101, Learning to Work with Computers 101 (session 2) & Learning to Work with Computers 101 (session 3). To make sure you don't forget any of the topics we covered be sure to print all of these articles for future reference.

Managing Emails:

Email is the fastest growing form of communication; it's fast, inexpensive, provides written documentation, requires no paper, and does not take up space in a filing cabinet. Emails, however, can be overwhelming if not managed properly. They should be treated much like paper work that flows in and out of your office. Your email program should have several file folders such as Inbox, Deleted, Spam or Junk, Drafts and Sent. Consider your Inbox much like your paper mail delivered by the U. S. Postal service. Much of the paper mail can be thrown in the trash or simply deleted on a computer. Be careful, however, make sure you add clients, vendors, family and friends to your address book otherwise emails from anyone (maybe a new client has emailed you) not in your address book may not get delivered to you. If an email address is not in your email address book your email filter program may put these emails in your Spam or Junk folder instead of your Inbox. If you have a Spam or a Junk mail folder be sure to scan through it before deleting the whole folder, you might miss a very important message. You will probably want to save/file most of the email messages you receive from a client or a vendor.

If you are using Microsoft Outlook (not Outlook Express) and the client is in your database when you reply to the email, Outlook automatically saves the email and files it in the Activity tab. To locate the Activity tab double click on a contact and you will see four tabs, the third tab will be the Activity tab. You can also find this email in the Sent folder. Do not delete emails in your Sent folder, deleting them from your sent folder will also delete them from the contact's Activity tab. To reduce the number of messages that need to be managed, be sure to delete the contact's original message before sending your reply. (Make sure you have set your Reply preference to "Include Original message when replying" to allow your recipient to see their original message.) When an email message requires some thought or research, file the message and add a reminder on your To Do list to work on the task at a later date. You may want to print selected emails to keep in a client's file or to read at a later date.

Below is a summary of tips to follow to keep email correspondence under control and your Inbox clean:

1. Respond immediately to all emails that can be answered quickly.

2. Keep your Inbox clean to prevent wasting time by previewing an email multiple times.

3. When you reply to an email delete the original email from the sender.

4. Do not delete emails in your Sent folder.

5. Scan through your Junk or Spam emails folder before deleting messages.

6. Add a reminder to emails that require some thought or research. (In Outlook, highlight the email and click the red flag on the Toolbar.)