Keeping Your Email Box Organized & Ready for Business
Copyright © Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy
http://www.Home-Business.com
Learning how to get the most organization from your email software is
very likely the most important skill you can learn to conduct a successful
online home business.
There are three primary email applications on the market that folks
use to manage their incoming POP3 email. Those three are:
· Microsoft Outlook Express
· Eudora
· Netscape Mail
In order to get the most from your email software, there are three
key processes that you should learn. These processes are concerned with
data organization, saving time and email database management.
SET UP EMAIL FOLDERS
Organization is key to any emails that you intend to save. Having 2000
emails in one folder is a sure-fire road map to confusion and lost communications
and information.
You are the best judge as to how to organize your email into topics
that provide an easy method of retrieval of the information when you
need it most.
Fortunately, the primary email browsers make it easy to organize your
information. By allowing you to create folders within your email software,
you can file specific emails into folders dedicated to the topic of
the email.
To create new folders:
OUTLOOK EXPRESS: 1. Click File - Folders - New - alternatively,
you may also right click an item in the Folder window --- and then type
in the name of your new folder.
Highlight the folder above where you would like your new folder to be
placed, and then click OK.
EUDORA: Click on Mailbox - New - or right click on Eudora
in the folders window and then click on New. When the window opens,
type in the name of your new mailbox and click OK. If you want to create
a folder to place other mailboxes into, click the checkbox before clicking
OK.
NETSCAPE MAIL: Click File - New Folder. Then from the
drop-down menu, select the folder that you wish to be the folder directly
above your new folder, before clicking OK.
FILTERING EMAIL
Email filters are a tool to help you save time and frustration. Have
you ever lost an incoming email under the deluge of email coming into
your mailbox? With filters, you can direct the important email or not-so-important
email into certain pre-ordained folders.
As part of the war against spam, most ISP's use filters every day in
an attempt to keep the spam out of your mailbox. In fact, I even use
filters to sort my incoming mail trying to catch the spam my ISP missed.
Don’t be fooled into thinking you need some special software to
filter your email. Setting up filters is actually quite easy.
To setup email filters:
OUTLOOK EXPRESS: Click on Tools - Message Rules - Mail.
A wizard will open to help you create your new email filters. Just follow
the instructions provided to direct mail based on certain criteria into
certain folders.
EUDORA: Click on Special - Make Filter. Once again, just
follow the instructions in the Filter wizard.
NETSCAPE MAIL: Click on Edit - Mail Filters. Then click
on New in the wizard. Once you click on New, you will be taken to a
new wizard window. Follow the instructions here, then when you are done,
click on OK. This will return you to the first window where you will
set up the sorting order of your filter.
CLEANING AND COMPRESSING YOUR MAIL DATA
This is an important part of your email management. When you no longer
need an email, it should be deleted. When you first delete an email,
your software will send the email to the Trash Bin. Your email is not
actually deleted until you first empty your trash bin.
Emptying your trash bin compresses the mailboxes from where the email
was originally filed. This is absolutely paramount to the protection
of your email data. If you go too long between compressing your email
data, then your email data could become corrupted and you might need
assistance in recovering your email data.
Even after you have emptied your trash, Compressing Folders is a recommended
step to prevent other data corruption. Once you understand that an email
does not actually move from one folder to another until the folder is
compressed, then you can better appreciate this advice.
As an example, when Email A comes into your main Inbox, the data connected
to Email A appears in two files. One file contains the header and body
of the email. The other file contains only the email header information.
When an email is moved from one folder to the other, only the header
information is actually moved. The body information will not be deleted
from the original folder until which time the original folder is compressed.
This explains the purpose of emptying the trash AND compressing folders.
If the email was simply moved from the Inbox to another folder, then
emptying the trash is not enough. The original placement of the email
is not actually removed from the file that contains the body information
until the message has been designated for compression.
To empty your trash:
OUTLOOK EXPRESS: Click on Edit - Empty 'Deleted Items'
Folder. To compress the remaining folders, click on Tools - Options,
then click on the tab for Maintenance. Then click the button that says,
"Clean Up Now". Once the compression is completed, click OK.
EUDORA: Click Special - Empty Trash. To compress the
remaining items that need compression, then click on Special - Compact
Mailboxes.
NETSCAPE MAIL: Click on File - Empty Trash Folder. To
compress the mailboxes, click on File - Compress Folders.
I cannot stress enough how important it is that you utilize the tools
for emptying the trash and compressing the mail folders. Protecting
your email data on a regular basis is good practice for avoiding disaster
in your mailbox.
So many of us rely upon our email software to keep our online business
running smoothly. Once you master the tools provided in your email software,
your online business will run smoothly also.
Let me share one important lesson I l've learned about computer software.
One should never be afraid to try new things. Learning how to get the
most out of your software relies upon your willingness to dig in and
learn how to use it.
Once you learn how to use your software to its full potential, then
your life will be greatly simplified and your effectiveness will be
dramatically improved.
About the author:
Stone Evans owns the Home Business Resource Directory
where you can find everything you'll ever need to start, run and grow
a home based business at:
http://www.Home-Business.com
To read more articles by Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy:
http://www.home-business.com/nav/articles/
