7 Deadly Sins Of Email -Deadly Sins #5

DEADLY SINS #5 – SENDING ATTACHMENTS THAT CAN’T BE OPENED

There are few file formats that are universal though, with everybody that has Internet access and Windows able to open and read.

Rich Text (rtf) – can be opened and read in any word processor software, including WordPad which is included with the Windows operating system.

So, when you’ve finished typing that document you are going to send as an attachment, save it in Rich Text format. You will be limited in the formatting that can be applied, but at least the recipient will be able to read it.

PDF – files can be opened with the free Adobe Reader, also usually installed along with the operating system. Adobe Reader can be downloaded easily if someone doesn’t have it installed.

You can also get free PDF creator programs easily. Convert your document to a PDF file before sending it. PDF’s can be created from desk top publishing programs such as Publisher or Serif Page Plus. Excel files can be converted to PDF too.

Free PDF Programs:

http://www.pdf995.com/

http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/

http://www.cutepdf.com/

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Office-tools/PDF/PDFFree.shtml

Once you’ve installed a PDF creator, you create the PDF file from the Print command.

File/Print and then change the printer selection to the PDF creator program:

HTML – everybody with an Internet browser can open an HTML file. So, you could create an HTML file from your original, many Office programs will convert to HTML directly from within the program.

If you know that your recipient has all the software necessary to read the file you are going to send, no need to convert it. Any doubt – send in a format that is pretty universal. PDF is one of the best for sending with fully preserved layout, images and fonts. Watch out for the file size though!

7 Deadly Sins Of Email -Deadly Sins #4

DEADLY SIN #4 – USING HTML FOR ALL MESSAGES

The worst offenders for large attachments are pictures and PowerPoint shows.

There’s some simple things that you can do to avoid larger-than-needed file attachments.

1. Pictures should be resized (unless quality is paramount). Whether they are sent as standalone attachments or inserted into documents. Pictures taken straight from a digital camera will often be way too big to use without resizing. Changing the size is easy though.

• Windows XP offers an option to change a picture size for emailing.

• Right click on the image file and choose Send To, then Mail Recipient

• Windows will bring up a dialogue box to resize the picture.

The other method, which I like, is to use a free program that is just for resizing. Photo Gadget is free and very effective. Once installed, it creates an additional option on the right-click context menu of images.

• Right-click the image file.

• Choose Photo Gadget Picture Resize from the menu.

• For most emails, the default size of 640×480 is absolutely fine.

• Photo Gadget saves a copy of the picture at the smaller size and names it the same as the original with the size added. This is useful if you might want to send the picture more than once.

• For inserting pictures in documents, consider using the smallest size of 240×320

You will be amazed at the difference in file sizes when they are resized this way.

Download Photo Gadget from here: http://www.xemico.com/photogadget/

PowerPoint Shows are another problem, big file sizes that are often just a recycled joke madder into a presentation. Not much you can do about the sizes, apart from if it’s you that creates the presentations out of jokes. If it is, stop it!

Finally, all those short video clips that get sent around. They are often big files, and most of them aren’t that interesting. Only send them if you really think the person on the receiving end is going to appreciate it. If it’s to me – ask me first!

Think before you send that huge file. Think about the person receiving it.

7 Deadly Sins of Email… Deadly Sins#3

DEADLY SINS #3 – INCLUDING INDENTS IN FORWARDED CONTENT

1. In Outlook Express, go to Tools/Options and then the Send tab as (see last illustration)

2. Click on the Plain Text Settings button in the Mail Sending Format area.

   

3. Remove the tick from the bottom box then click on OK.

4. Do the same for the HTML Settings.

   

5. Repeat in the News Sending Format area

How to Clean the Text

OK, you are pretty good, you’ve got all your settings correct to avoid cluttering messages with useless indent marks. That doesn’t stop you receiving messages that have been through several forwarding sessions and they are full of indents. (Probably full of unwanted email addresses too!)

The good news is that there are free programs that can clean all of that out for you. That way you can send on just nice tidy text. All you have to do is copy and paste the original text, along with any forwarding indents, into the program. Clean it, then copy and paste into a new message.

One such program is EmailStripper,

Download it from here: http://www.webattack.com/get/emstripper.html

7 Deadly Sins Of Email…Deadly Sins#2

DEADLY SINS #2 – USING HTML FOR ALL MESSAGES

One of the worst offenders for sending bloated messages is Incredimail. How many messages do you get with that annoying advertising for Incredimail stuck at the bottom?

If all you want to do is send someone a message with words in it, send it as plain text. Set your email client up to use plain text as the default for messages.

1. Open Outlook Express and go to Tools⁄Options from the menu.

   

2. Click on the Send tab

   

3. The settings should be as shown for mail and news sending – Plain Text.

4. Notice that «Reply to messages using the format in which they were sent» option is also enabled. If someone sends you a message in HTML, your reply will be the same. Similarly, if they send it in plain text, that’s what will be sent back in a reply.

5. If you want to send a new message in HTML, change the format from the message window as you are creating it. The option to use HTML can be found from the menu Format/Rich Text (HTML). Use it wisely though, no point in sending fancy stuff to your bank!