Over the next few weeks, the weekly tip will focus on the creation of email filters with the various email packages. See last month's tip for a general description of email filters.

This week's tip describes email filters using Outlook Express and its rules based system:

1. Create mail folders for Jokes, Spam Saved mail, etc by RIGHT clicking on Local Folders from the folder list, then clicking on New Folder. Creating folders will give you a chance to really organize and sort email with this rules technique
2. Click on Tools --> Message Rules --> Mail
3. In the first box, choose a parameter like "where the subject contains specific words" (you can choose more than one parameter) OR where an email address appears in the To or CC
4. In the second box, choose an action like "delete it" or "move to specified folder"
5. In the third box, click on any underlined words to set the parameter (ex: specified words = spam or viagra)
6. In box four, name your rule something descriptive
7. Click OK
8. Click New and repeat the steps to add new rules

I still recommend that emailers save their important pictures and documents sent to them via email to a folder on their computer for easier backup (see my video tip on how to do this by clicking here), but many people also save a great deal of email and don't want to lose it. Outlook Express (Windows Mail) saves all email in files with a .dbx extension. The files are named for the folders you have created in your email, so you will see files like inbox.dbx, saved.dbx, family.dbx, etc. Whatever email folders you have created will have a corresponding .dbx file.

These files, unfortunately, are buried in the Windows files system. This week's video tip demonstrates how to locate these files on your computer so you can then copy them to flash drive (best idea) or CD/DVD.

Once you get the viewer, however, some people still can't see the slideshows without first saving the attachment to the desktop then double-clicking it from there. It works, but requires a few more steps. Today, I had a call from a customer who was in this situation and really wanted to avoid having to first save the attachment, close email, look for the file and then double-click it to view the slideshow.

I used to keep as many as many as 50 or so email stacked up in my inbox, but I always felt that I was behind in my work and consequently much of the email went unread and unanswered. A little more than a year ago, it all changed after I read an article that struck a chord with me called Email Zen. I immediately started practicing the techniques and suggestions in the article and found myself with a cleaner inbox and a better overall outlook (no pun intended) about email and my email communication. I continue to strive for the empty inbox and find that if i get more than 10, I start to get a little jumpy.

From reading that article and my own experience over the past eighteen months, here are my suggestions for reaching harmony with email:]]> http://helpmerick.com/clean-your-inbox.htm/feed 3 http://helpmerick.com/import-outlook-contacts-into-gmail-with-street-addresses.htm http://helpmerick.com/import-outlook-contacts-into-gmail-with-street-addresses.htm#comments Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:25:27 +0000 Rick http://helpmerick.com/wordpr/?p=2271

After running into this issue one to many times lately, I finally found a fast solution. Problem: Outlook users who want to export their address books (contacts) and import them into Gmail can get almost everything imported except street addresses. It's maddening. Madness be gone, the solution is now just a few steps away.

Exporting your contacts from Outlook:

1. Open Outlook (note this is NOT Outlook Express)
2. Click File --> Import/Export
3. Click Export to a file
4. Click Next
5. Click Comma Separated Values (Windows) option
6. Click Next
7. Click Contacts from the list of your]]> http://helpmerick.com/import-outlook-contacts-into-gmail-with-street-addresses.htm/feed 14 http://helpmerick.com/my-first-year-with-gmail.htm http://helpmerick.com/my-first-year-with-gmail.htm#comments Thu, 16 Oct 2008 23:51:19 +0000 Rick http://helpmerick.com/wordpr/?p=2265 I closed Outlook and started using Gmail exclusively one year ago. At first, I thought it would be a good experiment to see what Gmail was really all about, but I was also fed up with Outlook and its limitations. It took me two or three weeks to wean myself of thinking of my email in the same way that I used to with Outlook. For the experiment to work, Gmail had to satisfactorily accomplish 3 key functions of email that I handled pretty well with Outlook:
   1. Spam filtering (I used Cloudmark Desktop with Outlook for years and am convinced that for Outlook/Outlook Express or Thunderbird users there is no equal).
   2. Aggregate all of my email addresses (5) in one system.
   3. Organize my email with categories (folders) and automated filtering for shifting email to their appropriate category/folder.

   If Gmail could equal or exceed what I could do with Outlook, then I would consider it a success. Gmail's spam filtering quickly impressed me. In fact, one year later, I can say confidently that Gmail's spam filtering is superior to that of the Cloudmark system that kept me sane for years with Outlook. Feature #1, check!

   I learned to use the Accounts feature in Gmail to successfully and seamlessly pull all my email addresses (and sort them) into my Gmail account. Beautiful; Feature #2, check!

   Organizing my email, without the use of folders, proved to be the]]> http://helpmerick.com/my-first-year-with-gmail.htm/feed 0 http://helpmerick.com/create-a-permanent-email-address-for-yourself.htm http://helpmerick.com/create-a-permanent-email-address-for-yourself.htm#comments Mon, 18 Aug 2008 23:50:51 +0000 Rick http://helpmerick.com/wordpr/?p=138 Are you tired of having to change your email address when your Internet provider goes out of business or gets gobbled up by another provider, or you move, or you just want to change Internet providers?

   Informing everyone in your address book that you have changed email addresses doesn't take a great deal of time, but it is annoying nonetheless. In today's Shotgun article, I explain how you can create an address that is permanently yours regardless of who you use for an Internet provider.

   ]]> http://helpmerick.com/create-a-permanent-email-address-for-yourself.htm/feed 1 http://helpmerick.com/good-news-for-vista-users.htm http://helpmerick.com/good-news-for-vista-users.htm#comments Tue, 22 Apr 2008 09:24:59 +0000 Rick http://helpmerick.com/wordpr/?p=2091 We love Cloudmark Desktop. It is the best spam filter on the planet and that has been proved by very complicated scientific tests.

   The only problem with Cloudmark Desktop is that it only works in Outlook, Outlook Express or Thunderbird. Until now, Vista users who wanted to benefit from the powerful filtering of Cloudmark had to switch their email application over to Thunderbird or Outlook. It would not work in the free Windows Mail (Vista version of Outlook Express).

   Well, those days are gone. Cloudmark has released a beta version of Cloudmark Desktop for Windows Mail.

   ]]> http://helpmerick.com/good-news-for-vista-users.htm/feed 0