Clean your inbox

Update:  Following on the heels of Gmail’s update, I thought I would re-share this article as well that I posted nearly 4 years ago. To this day, I still follow these recommendations and email is no longer a thorn in my digital side. Give it a try! Email truly revolutionized communication. The ability to retrieve a message from anywhere in the world in a matter of seconds is mind boggling. However, judging by the size...

How to correct Send Later issue in Thunderbird ...

A client recently emailed me that he had a problem with his Thunderbird showing the Send Later icon vs. Send icon when composing mail. This is due to Thunderbird being accidentally set to Offline mode. Here’s how to correct it: On the main opening screen of Thunderbird, Click File from the menus Click Offline UNCHECK the box next to Work Offline ...

Rick Answers His Email – Episode 078 – Videocast...

This week Anita, Jane and Bill paid to have their questions answered and here they are! Questions about Thunderbird, System Restore, backup and more…take a look!

Sending email blindly (BCC) – Video Tip

Here is a tip to cut down on those hideous email headers and help take a huge bite out of email spam. If you are planning on sending an email to more than a few people, use the BCC or “blind carbon copy” function. Instead of addressing them all in the “to” section of your email, use the BCC instead. This allows you to still send the email to all the people on your list, but the recipients will not...

My first year with Gmail

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...

Create a Permanent Email Address for Yourself

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...

Good news for Vista users

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...

Gmail convertee

Three weeks ago, I switched from using Microsoft Outlook (which I had used since 1998) to Gmail. What is Gmail? Gmail is the fast, free web based email from search giant Google. Gmail offers free POP3 access (if you want to download your email into Outlook Express, Thunderbird, etc), 6.5 GB of storage (and the number continually grows), and the best web based spam filter I’ve seen so far. Why did I switch? I used...

AVG Antivirus 8.0 Upgrade Advice

The past few days calls and emails started filtering in about the new AVG 8.0 version folks have seen appear on their free versions of AVG Antivirus. The common query is, “Should I upgrade?” No, home users of AVG Antvirus do not need to upgrade at all. The current free version of AVG will continue to be updated and as it has been for years. The new 8.0 version is the newest commercial product from AVG...

Where to buy a book manual for your computer

“Why didn’t my computer come with a manual?” One of the most common complaints we hear is about how new computers don’t come with manuals. I am here to explain why this is the case. The sad answer is that if the computer company came with a manual, it would weigh more than the computer. “But my old computers used to come with manuals…,” Is the next comment. Back in the old days...

Remember to take out the trash!

If you really like saving all of your email, you might seriously consider getting a Gmail account. With today’s emails sometimes weighing in at 5 megabytes and more, email programs (Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, etc) can get extremely sluggish. Sluggish performance eventually leads to corrupt data which means you lose all your email. You can take steps to avoid this, however, by following a few simple email...

Ubuntu client update

Today, I helped my customer who I installed Ubuntu for almost four months ago. “It has been working great so far”, he informed me. We mainly worked on fine tuning some aspects of the desktop and panels (Ubuntu toolbars). He also wanted to use a calendar, but didn’t know how to approach the included Evolution program which is similar to Microsoft Outlook. However, as I pointed out last summer during my...

Backup Your Email Address Book – Video Tip

You can back up your address book very simply to a floppy disk or USB Flash drive and the heartache it has the potential to prevent far outweighs the thirty seconds it takes to complete the task. Follow these steps depending on the program you use: Outlook Express Windows Mail Users Insert USB Flash Drive Start Outlook Express Click the Address Book icon from the toolbar. Click File –> Export –> Other...

Delete your email twice

No, I’m not so obsessive-compulsive that I do things twice. What I’m referring to in the title of today’s Shotgun/Email Tip is that almost all email programs require you to delete your email twice. Whether you use Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Mail, Thunderbird, AOL, Yahoo, Gmail, or any of the myriad of other email services, when you delete your email, the email isn’t gone. Deleted email ends up...

Ubuntu – Day 12

Over the past two weeks, we have been working diligently to come up with a solution for our newsletter problems. We can’t apologize enough for the delay in getting the news to your email box…remember that you can come here to read the newsletter as well. In my ongoing quest for finding an email newsletter solution, I discovered that Mozilla Thunderbird email program will handle RSS feeds (search our site for RSS...