OuterNotes: Archive of Past IssuesWelcome to another edition of OuterNotes. With so much time being spent sending holiday greetings, we thought it would be an especially opportune time to do a special issue on sites and programs that help optimize e-mail writing and management skills.
We'll start with a general guide to efficient communications between offices and remote workers, followed by some excellent advice from a designer and an assigning editor on the best way to compose e-mails and clips. On the OuterNotable software front, we've got primers on viruses particular to e-mail and Microsoft's latest effort to close some gaping holes in Outlook.
Once protected, you'll find out how to check POP mail from Hotmail and use multiple mail-account checkers to extend your working range and save time. We've also found software that reads your e-mail aloud, and a new program that will condense it before forwarding it your mobile device. But judging from some of the responses we've received in our latest OuterPoll on PDAs, that could confuse as many as it enthuses...
New OuterNotes Archive: I've put up a new, easy-to-browse archive of our
past issues at http://www.trottamedia.com/outernotes/index.html; it
lists all of our hitherto reviewed sites and subjects on one page. If
you're a new reader who'd like to see where we've been -- or a veteran
OuterNoter who'd like to tell us where we should be going -- try out
your newly-polished e-mail skills in a note to gtrotta@outerforce.com.
-- Gian Trotta, OuterNotes Editor
1. Monster.com: Master The Art of Virtual Presence
http://content.talentmarket.monster.com/contractor/
Monster.com's Work-at-Home Coach Alyson Preston analyzes how managers
and employees can avoid losing time to miscommunication by establishing
an environment of mutual communication, trust and clear expectations.
Two tips worth mentioning from her survey of industry experts include
spending a little more up-front time specifying deliverables, and
establishing set intervals for progress-checking via voice and e-mail.
And while the experts agree that the onus is on home-based workers to
stay in touch and avoid becoming "half noticed," one consultant suggests
that telecommuters ask to have their picture placed on a chair during
conference calls to enhance their virtual presence.
--Jennie S. Bev
http://www.fontsite.com/Pages/WritingStyle/W&S1297.html
E-mail is an inherently disposable communication, and most of its
authors don't care about typography and design. "Digital Type Design
Guide" author Sean Cavanaugh offers good advice on how a writer (or
entire office, for that matter) can implement an effective and artistic
e-mail style in the ASCII-text milieu. To avoid poorly formatted "naked"
and unedited thoughts, he advises writers to: separate paragraphs with
blank lines, indent them two spaces, avoid cyberlitter like acronyms,
emoticons, redundant quotes and signatures and use set patterns of
asterisks, hyphens or underscores to emphasize crucial text. And if you
need bullets, Cavanaugh suggests you use two colons (or two opposed
brackets) in lieu of hyphens. The excellent diagrams of actual e-mail
messages included in the article could convert you to his way of
thinking.
--Jennie S. Bev
3. How To Avoid Tripping the 'Editorial Annoyance Meter'
http://www.newsjobs.net/articles/0008.asp
A crucial communication for editors and writers is the query e-mail. Ken
Gordon, Associate Editor for 1099 (a magazine for independent
professionals), relays six of his best tips on how not to annoy an
editor beyond belief when sending along clips. His observations on the
pros and cons of e- and snail mail, links to Web-based clips, faxes,
diskettes, and Word documents are useful and humorous; he also has some
unique insights on why text cut-and-pasted into an e-mail can also raise
his "editorial aggravation meter" to new heights.
--Karin Call
4. A Quick Primer on the Latest Crop of Viruses
http://antivirus.about.com/compute/antivirus/library/weekly/aa121000a.htm
The world at large has embraced e-mail -- and so have virus writers,
About.com Antivirus Guide Mary Landesman notes in her most recent
column. A good overview on how e-mail viruses work and how they can be
tracked includes the latest on especially insidious variants that
disguise always-suspect executables as .jpg files -- or only need to
appear in the Outlook's Preview Message pane to wreak havoc. Links to
outside virus news and resource sites and her own list of links to
antivirus software make this a good first stop and future reference
center.
--Mariateresa Thiery
[Editor's OuterNote: While you're out at About, you might want to visit Email Guide Heinz Tschabitscher at http://email.about.com. He's another font of good wisdom and links -- and I've always liked writing that name.]
5. Microsoft's Eight-Minute Solution for Outlook Usershttp://office.microsoft.com/2000/downloaddetails/Out2ksec.htm
In the wake of a number of outbreaks, Microsoft has released an update
to combat e-mail viruses that target Office 2000 and Outlook 98. The
security update prevents access to several file types normally
associated with viruses, especially those that run from scripts. It also
warns users if any program is attempting to access the Outlook Address
Book -- one reason the ILOVEYOU Virus spread so quickly last year.
Downloading the update takes eight minutes on a 56kbps modem; it's a
small price for increased peace of mind. However, the security update
will also choke off your ability to read attachments in the manner
originally sent; an alternate solution might be to frequently update
virus definitions to prevent infection.
--Sudeep Arya
6. A Wizard Shows How To Check POP Mail Via Hotmail...
http://www.zdnet.com/zdhelp/stories/main/0,5594,2627195,00.html
ZDNet's Windows Wizard (aka Greg Shultz) shows you how to check your POP
e-mail accounts through Hotmail (and thus from any computer in the
world) by using a little-known "Additional Options" feature of that
program. Setup should take about 10 minutes, after which you'll be in
touch now from wherever you go; Mr. Shultz also tosses in a few other
useful general tips on using Hotmail. One disadvantage: Some third-party
ISPs such as AOL, AT&T Worldnet, Juno, Compuserve, Netcom, Prodigy ,
MSN mail and WebTV won't allow Hotmail to access their servers.
--Sudeep Arya
8. ...Or Have a Magician Read It Aloud
http://hotfiles.zdnet.com/cgi-bin/texis/swlib/hotfiles/info.html?fcode=000VN4&b=adesk
Have you ever wondered how busy executives find the time to do it all?
Maybe they've got Talking E-mail running in the background. It's a fun
little (5.5MB) program that reads your e-mail to Windows-based PC users;
when an e-mail arrives, an animated Merlin the Magician pops up and
reads your message aloud. You set the options for how often to check for
new mail, create message rules by sender and subject, and how much of
the message is to be read aloud. While the program will handle multiple
accounts, it does not work with AOL, Hotmail and MSN accounts. The free
demo is fully functional; the registered version costs $19.95 and offers
other readers besides Merlin.
--Jody Yerges
7. Two Programs Let Your Check Multiple Accounts...
http://www.cyber-info.com
http://www.eprompter.com
Checking separate Web-based and POP3 e-mail accounts is a big
time-waster, but help is on the way. Cyber-Info E-Mail Notify runs in
your system tray and will monitor e-mail accounts for any new messages
at a small cost in system resources; it also allows you to set
originators and subject lines for notification and spam blocking.
Another convenience is Notify’s Address Book, which can be used to
update all e-mail account settings from a central location. Cyber-Info
produces three versions, from the robust E-Mail Notify ($15.00) to to
the freeware E-Mail Lite. I also downloaded and installed Tiburon
Technologies' free ePrompter in 10 minutes; it offered color assignments
for different accounts, notification .wav sounds and a choice of four
screensavers that will display each e-mail account's status and new
messages. While it handles text messages very well (all messages
downloaded to ePrompter can be marked as read, keep as new or deleted),
one drawback was its inability to view HTML messages. Although it's GUI
looks a little dated, the overall functionality made ePrompter a keeper
in my book.
--Sudeep Arya
9. ...Or Forward Key Excerpts To Your Mobile Device
http://amikanow.com
http://www.amikafreedom.com/afc1/default.jsp
You've probably followed all the tips to produce concise, effective
e-mail -- but it's still clogging your PDA or cell phone's small screen
and boosting your wireless-connection charges. Ottawa-based AmikaFreedom
claims its artificial intelligence-based AmikaFreedom 2.0 program will
Outlook 98 and 2000 will automatically forward e-mail that meets your
criteria (key words, key phrases, or from certain senders) to your
text-message enabled mobile device in a quickly scrollable display. The
company's offering a free trial, and even if you don't yet own a PDA,
you can use the program on your desktop to display similarly filtered
messages.
--Mariateresa Thiery
Third-party applications like Amikanow sure have their work cut out for
them in making PDAs more palatable to mainstream folks, judging from the
last few days' responses to our ongoing "Are PDAs Really Necessary?"
OuterPoll:
PRO:
- "I love my Handspring -- I don't know how I worked witout it!"
- "I have 5,000 numbers and e-mails in my Palm V-- the only drawback is that everyone contacts me when they need somebody's number or e-mail."
- "It all depends on the screen. I almost blinded myself using LCD laptops, and I don't like looking at gray on grayer. Give me a sub-notebook computer with a wireless modem...I think buyers of this current crop are just investing in expensive paperweights."
- "It makes me look like a yuppie in the subway. And where I live, they get mugged."
- "I have a PDA that fits neatly in my wallet. It's a cellulose-based unit that measures only 2 1/2" by 3" x 1/8" thick. The innovative lead-core stylus with the rubber "erase" button I use it with gives me unlimited read-write storage for important information."
- "My brother bought me a Palm III for Christmas last year, and I still haven't taken it out of the box. I know it was expensive, but it it already obsolete?"
Copyright 2000 by OuterNotes. All rights reserved. OuterNotes is a trademark of OuterForce Systems, Inc.
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