Managing e-mail using different e-mail packages In the book I discuss in general terms how to use e-mail software to manage messages efficiently. If you use Eudora and need specific instructions that relate to it, you may find what you need in this excerpt from Kaitlin Duck Sherwood's book, "Overcome e-mail Overload with Eudora 5". That author has also written a similar book on Outlook (but without free sample chapters). Outlook Express - the default email software package provided with Microsoft's Internet Explorer software and with Windows - is fairly primitive. I suggest if you have the choice using one of the many available alternatives. There are many capable e-mail packages available these days and most modern ones have all the important features - a search facility, the ability to filter messages automatically, and the ability to access multiple email accounts through the same software. While Outlook (part of Microsoft Office) does provide some very handy group calendar and contact management facilities, particularly when used alongside Exchange, using it also makes you much more vulnerable to e-mail-borne viruses, because these are generally written to target Outlook users. I use Eudora myself, which has a rich selection of features and is free of charge if you don't mind a small ad in one corner of the screen while it is in use. If you have been using an old email package and you want to transfer your old messages to a more up-to-date one, you may find Emailchemy useful - it's a kind of universal translation utility. Electronic alternatives to e-mail (p. 27) E-mail is not always the most appropriate electronic means of communication. Message boards can provide a better way of organizing and sharing information - particularly where high speed Internet access is available. E-mail tends to be person to person, can only be read by the people the sender knows (unless it is forwarded) and is organized by each individual in their own way. Message boards, by contrast, let people reach who they need to because their contents are public (either completely or within groups defined by your organization) and they can be organised into topics for easier browsing. David Wooley maintains a list of web conferencing options as does Denham Grey (though the former list contains more information about each software package). Instant messaging Tools like ICQ and AIM are most often used recreationally for chatting with friends but they may be a useful tool for quick question and answer discussions between business colleagues (and at its simplest it can be useful as a way to identify who is at their desk and available to take a phone call). They can be dangerous if people use IM instead of e-mail for in-depth discussion, however, because it is harder to index and retrieve past discussions (and of course if you find yourself using IM for a lengthy discussion it may be faster just to pick up the phone to the person you are messaging). There are several IM networks and they don't all inter-connect. This is not necessarily a problem if you are only using IM within your organization but could be if you also want to use it to communicate with customers on a different system. The most popular network is AIM from AOL and a version of AIM tailored for business is available. Lotus Instant Messaging and Web Conferencing is not cross-compatible but offers a variety of tools alongside IM. If you want to develop your own instant messaging tool, Jabber is open source and many versions of the software are available offering different capabilities and working on different types of computer. David Wooley has a long list of other options here. Groupware Advanced collaborative online environments are already evolving away from plain text. For example you can perform presentations virtually, with Powerpoint slides appearing at the same time on several people's machines alongside written or spoken commentary, with the additional opportunity to ask questions to the lecturer and to each other during the presentation. Companies providing this service include Global Crossing, Claripoint, and PresentOnline. You can also work on the same document at the same time in a common "whiteboard space" using tools like Microsoft NetMeeting (free) and Groupboard, and you can even see what is on someone else's machine and control their machine as if it was your own using tools like RealVNC (free). Most of the products available combine several of these capabilities in different combinations and with different pricing levels and levels of support. David Wooley has produced a roundup of "Virtual Group Spaces". I am a specialist in virtual community building and maintenance so if you would like to know more about any of the tools described above and how they could help your business, do get in touch. Finding and interpreting e-mail addresses (pp. 30-31) If you want to figure out where an e-mail has come from and it ends with an unfamilar code like .cr (Costa Rica) check out this list. There are several directories available of e-mail addresses - you'll find a search tool that searches several at once here but they tend to be of limited utility because spammers tend to use such directories to gather addresses and the addresses provided are often out of date. Also, of course, it is difficult to be sure you have found the right person's address unless they have a very unusual name. Doing a conventional web search for the person's name plus "e-mail" and one or two more words that you know are connected with your target person can often be more useful, or try some of the other techniques described in the book. Web-based free e-mail accounts (p. 36) There are thousands of providers of free web-based e-mail accounts. The Free e-mail Provider's Guide lets you specify what kind of features you are looking for in a free e-mail account and gives you a list of those that match. It may be worthwhile choosing a tool other than the obvious ones like Hotmail or Yahoo Mail in order a) to conceal the fact you are using free web-based e-mail and b) because the largest providers are also the biggest targets of spammers. On the other hand there is a risk that one of the smaller providers could go out of business making your address obsolete. Be aware that many e-mail providers insist that you check your account with them monthly and will eventually remove it if it is not used. Practicing Safe E-mail (pp. 40-41) The book provides many tips on how to avoid getting on spammers' e-mail lists and how to automatically remove spam before you have to read it. This report from the Center for Democracy & Technology provides further detail on how spammers can collect people's e-mail addresses. Sometimes you may want to register an e-mail address with a site that you fear may sell it on the open market to third parties. SpamMotel is an ingenious (and free of charge) solution - it allows you to generate a "disposable" e-mail address which you can give anyone and which will automatically forward to your real e-mail address. If you start getting spam, you can simply de-activate that e-mail address. SpamMotel also allows you to "tag" each incoming message so you can easily identify which companies or organizations have sold your e-mail address to a third party. Spamgourmet is a similar service - less powerful (it lacks the "tagging" feature) but easier to set up. If you put the email addresses of staff on your website, spammers can use automated web search techniques to "grab" those addresses. There are two ways you can avoid having this problem. The first - which I have used on my own contact page - is to make emailers fill out a form on a web page (Bravenet provides a way to do this without programming). This can also help you to structure the message you receive, ensuring you have all the information you need and allowing you to automatically route it to the right recipient. It can even enable you to produce a pre-written response based on the fields they fill in. However, I for one do prefer to write companies using my own email software - it makes it easier to keep track of who I have written to, for example. If you want to provide a link people can click on that will send you email using their own favourite email program (ie a "mailto:" link) I suggest you follow the directions given on the Email Protector site - a little work-around that will keep spam collectors away. The Spamotomy site provides a handy database of spam-fighting software for a variety of operating systems with reviews. I use MailWasher and have found it to be very effective. If you are trying to justify the cost of spam-reduction software in your organization, a survey conducted by a software vendor estimates a firm with 500 staff could lose £3,000/$5,000 a month due to the cost of dealing with spam. To do the necessary calculations yourself this "cost of spam" calculator may also be useful. Recognising hoax e-mails and chain letters (p. 42) The US Government has an excellent database of hoax virus warnings and bogus chain letters that you should always check before forwarding an e-mail that seems too good to be true or that asks you to send it to everyone you know. VMyths is also a good source. Dealing with a suspected virus (p. 43) There are many websites that offer advice about e-mail-borne viruses. Some of the best include TruSecure's site (which also includes warnings about fake virus warning e-mails) and Symantec's. Free basic anti-virus software is available from Grisoft or if you suspect your PC has a virus already, you can visit the HouseCall site (free) which will automatically download a small virus scanner and check your PC.