Jan 11 2012
Good Email Practices
DO NOT mark messages as read automatically.
New emails are usually marked in bold. Those that have already been replied to or read become ‘un-bold,’ which means they require no further action. To most of us, emails in bold are those which require action. What happens if messages are marked as Read before an action has been taken?
This is exactly what happens in most email clients. It marks messages ‘Read’ immediately after you have opened an email. This overly smart feature has to be turned off.
To do it in Outlook, go to ‘Option/Mail/Reading Pane/Mark item…’. In Mac’s Mail, you need to install a plugin called TruePreview in order to disable this feature.
Mac’s Mail using TruePreview plugin
Postbox with ‘Mark message read’ disabled
After you have disabled the feature, you need to learn a new practice – to mark messages as read manually. The keyboard shortcut for Outlook is CTRL-Q. In Postbox, it is ‘m’. In Mac’s Mail, it is Command-Shirt-U (we prefer to replace it with just two buttons: ^A)
Assigning new keyboard shortcut in Mac’s Mail
Don’t just hit “Reply,” but hit “Reply all”.
Very often, the sender who sent you an email would also include other email addresses in the Cc. If you hit Reply, only the sender will get the reply. In other words, those people in the Cc’d list won’t receive your email. In order to overcome this problem, please hit “Reply all” instead of “Reply”. Make this a habit!
'Reply all' helps keep everyone informed
View “Unread” messages only.
None of us has the time to go through each email to decide which requires a response. Chances are, we are most likely to just pick those ‘Unread’ message and start working on it.
In Outlook or Outlook Express, this can be done by choosing ‘Hide Read Message only’ in the View menu.
Newer email clients such as Mac’s Mail or Postbox has a feature called Smart Folder. You can define rules in a Smart Folder in order to find only unread messages.
Mac’s Mail with a Smart Folder called ‘Unread’
Rules are defined in the Smart Folder
Sorting emails using folders is old fashioned.
Many email users create lists of folders to group their messages. Senders are sorted by company names. It is a hassle to drag each message into the correct folder.
Messages sorted by folders in company name
Newer email clients are equipped with advanced search options which eliminate the need to sort messages in folders. In other words, you can just search to find an email instead of sorting them by company names.
Searching an email with the build-in search feature
Emails sent using your phone should also appear in your Outlook.
Working on multiple devices and still keeping your emails synced is now possible. All thanks to faster Internet connections and the advancement of IMAP protocol.
IMAP allows you to view your messages directly from the server. By configuring all your devices such as notebook, smartphones or tablet to use IMAP, you can have everything in one device to be synced automatically to your other devices.
Previously, email users chose POP over IMAP. In POP, one downloads the message and works locally. Today, with improved Internet connection speeds, IMAP is an affordable option.
Configure Mac’s Mail to use IMAP
Configure iPhone to use IMAP
Signatures, Disclaimers and Email Receipts are dead.
Email isn’t dead yet, but it will die, eventually. Don’t believe us? Well, look at the fax machine. Let’s face it. Facebook email, Apple’s iMessage, Tweets and many other means of communication is pushing email out.
Soon, email features like subject, signature, disclaimers and email receipts will become a thing of the past.
Keep emails short. Ask one question at a time.
The best email client? Mac’s Mail!
I have tried Outlook Express, Outlook, Windows Mail, Thunderbird, Mulberry, Netscape Mail, Eudora and Postbox but none of them come close to Mac’s Mail. Mac’s Mail comes with Mac OS X as the default email client. What makes the difference? It has one of the greatest user interface with good IMAP support. It has accurate and fast email search features and handles plain text and HTML email better.
Email addresses are better in small letters.
Never write your email address in capital. Well, it still gets delivered but it’s just not right to write it that way. Just remember this: USE SMALL LETTERS FOR EMAIL ADDRESSES.
Example of bad email address
3 ways to send “really huge” files over the Internet.
Emails are not designed to deliver huge files (over 5MB) via the Internet, but there are a dozen other ways to do it.
Use Sendspace.com to attach files up to 300MB
Install CloudApps in Mac to deliver files up to 25MB.
Shared folder using Dropbox
This article is written by Pin. If you have any questions, please email pin@1.com.my
Pin’s company does just one thing – email hosting. In Pin’s own words, it is “the email experience” that virtually no other email provider in Malaysia cares as much about.
