Email Groups
I love CC and BCC as much as the next guy; I think that its a useful tool for sending e-mails to various people, but as I mentioned before, it does have limits. For example, if you wanted to send off a message to seventy seven people, you'd have to write down seventy seven names in the CC section- this would take forever.
As they say, 'time is money'. I, like all male humans, LOVE money, so I like saving time. Wouldn't it be amazing if I could send of all those 77 mails in a single press of the button...
What was that? I can do that? Why didn't you say so?
Today we are covering Email Groups! Basically, all those bloody names placed in CC are recorded down and saved to a single 'group', so now you address the e-mail to the group, and voila! All seventy seven have mail! Following the initial inputting of names, this cans ave bags of time.
Now then, advantages. The obvious one is time and convenience; using a Group is a lot less stressful and time consuming than filling in the CC box a dozen times. Another advantage is that it helps you to organise your e-mail account, placing all of these addresses into a single group, so you have no need to look for each name individually if you forget their name.
Disadvantages! Initial time inputting names might be a pain. Next, using a Group will send a message to all those within said group, so Group can't be used privately like BCC can.
In summary, a brilliant tool for sending lots of e-mails to a hell of a lot of people in an extremely short amount of time and effort. For one or two people though, don't bother. It'd be simpler to use CC and BCC.
Tuesday, 1 April 2014
Friday, 28 March 2014
Out of Office Notices
Out of Office Notices
Have you ever had the issue that you're going on holiday and plan to completely ignore your e-mail account for two weeks, but don't want to send a message to all of your contacts to inform them that you're on holiday, so will not be able to respond? Well, you're in luck. Look no further than the amazingly useful tool known as Out of Office Notices.
I'm not going to explain how to set one up, but basically once it is on, it will send an automatic reply to everyone who sends you a message. This reply can be anything that you want it to be, from "Apologies, I am currently out of office, so unable to respond. Expect delays in my reply." to "On holiday, don't bother me... lest you face the consequences." or even something as simple as "Go away, I can't respond.".
So yes, it has a lot of practical applications, and will even continue to work until a specified date, so you don't have to reapply it once it wears out. Anyway, you'll probably use it mainly in a business scenario, to alert clients that you're not in office, or on holiday, or in a meeting, something like that; the practical applications vary, and could even be used in your personal life as well (See the holiday example).
Okay, positives and negatives. Good- saves time replying and will continually work until told otherwise. Negative- you can't give personalised messages, will always need to be turned on and off manually when you want to leave or return from holiday.
Basically, in summary, Out of Office Notices are a useful tool used to pass out automated responses to e-mails.
Have you ever had the issue that you're going on holiday and plan to completely ignore your e-mail account for two weeks, but don't want to send a message to all of your contacts to inform them that you're on holiday, so will not be able to respond? Well, you're in luck. Look no further than the amazingly useful tool known as Out of Office Notices.
I'm not going to explain how to set one up, but basically once it is on, it will send an automatic reply to everyone who sends you a message. This reply can be anything that you want it to be, from "Apologies, I am currently out of office, so unable to respond. Expect delays in my reply." to "On holiday, don't bother me... lest you face the consequences." or even something as simple as "Go away, I can't respond.".
So yes, it has a lot of practical applications, and will even continue to work until a specified date, so you don't have to reapply it once it wears out. Anyway, you'll probably use it mainly in a business scenario, to alert clients that you're not in office, or on holiday, or in a meeting, something like that; the practical applications vary, and could even be used in your personal life as well (See the holiday example).
Okay, positives and negatives. Good- saves time replying and will continually work until told otherwise. Negative- you can't give personalised messages, will always need to be turned on and off manually when you want to leave or return from holiday.
Basically, in summary, Out of Office Notices are a useful tool used to pass out automated responses to e-mails.
Tuesday, 25 March 2014
Spam Filter
Spam Filter
Hello all, now for another wonderful topic: Spam Filter! That's right, we're actually covering something useful! Spam, the bane of the internet and all e-mail providers, can actually be limited! Only limited, Spam Filter's good, but it ain't a miracle worker. What it can do is block obvious spam e-mails and send them to a specific junk folder to be later removed by yourself.
Handy, huh? Best of all, its automatically set to a low setting, so you don't need to do anything yourself. Alternatively, you could increase this setting, but doing so might catch legitimate e-mails by mistake, so use at your own risk.
This is one of the few negatives of Spam Filter, you can block the actual e-mails you need by mistake. You will also have to clear your junk folder immediately; spam is like a bed smell, it lingers, so must be regularly cleared out, so while the Filter saves time, you still need to deal with the spam personally...
As such, this tool is to add to your e-mail protection, but should not be solely relied on. You must be vigilant!
Hello all, now for another wonderful topic: Spam Filter! That's right, we're actually covering something useful! Spam, the bane of the internet and all e-mail providers, can actually be limited! Only limited, Spam Filter's good, but it ain't a miracle worker. What it can do is block obvious spam e-mails and send them to a specific junk folder to be later removed by yourself.
Handy, huh? Best of all, its automatically set to a low setting, so you don't need to do anything yourself. Alternatively, you could increase this setting, but doing so might catch legitimate e-mails by mistake, so use at your own risk.
This is one of the few negatives of Spam Filter, you can block the actual e-mails you need by mistake. You will also have to clear your junk folder immediately; spam is like a bed smell, it lingers, so must be regularly cleared out, so while the Filter saves time, you still need to deal with the spam personally...
As such, this tool is to add to your e-mail protection, but should not be solely relied on. You must be vigilant!
Friday, 21 March 2014
On the subject of CC and BCC
CC and BCC
Hello denizens of the internet for the first of many (hopefully) posts on e-mail usage.Today we shall be covering the wonders of CC and BCC.
'Oh No's!' you might cry. 'These are acronyms, so must be complicated!' Strangely, this isn't so. CC stands for Carbon Copy and BCC for Blank Carbon Copy. There purpose is simply to make your life easier.
I am sure that you are aware of how to send an e-mail? You compose it, you select the recipient and then you send it. But what if you need to send it to multiple people and don't want to perform the same action a dozen or more time? That's where these bad boys come in.
CC to the rescue! This superhero of the virtual world shall save the day by allowing a single e-mail to be sent to more than one person in a single click of the 'send' button. Neat, huh?
Alas, there are some issues with CC that he just can't fix. For one thing, anyone included by CC can see everyone else who the message has been sent to, while the original person you intended to send to would see their e-mail addresses as well, which you might not want, and this is bad for them since their e-mail address would be spread around. We need a more discrete option...
Enter BCC, Blank Carbon Copy! He's closer to a spy than a hero, anyone attached via BCC can view the message but the original sender won't be able to know that the other person is reading it as well.
In a nutshell, CC for if you want to send a message to many a person without fear of their e-mail address, BCC for more privacy for the additional sender, or to mask the fact that you've sent that message to additional people.
Think of all the possibilities...
Hello denizens of the internet for the first of many (hopefully) posts on e-mail usage.Today we shall be covering the wonders of CC and BCC.
'Oh No's!' you might cry. 'These are acronyms, so must be complicated!' Strangely, this isn't so. CC stands for Carbon Copy and BCC for Blank Carbon Copy. There purpose is simply to make your life easier.
I am sure that you are aware of how to send an e-mail? You compose it, you select the recipient and then you send it. But what if you need to send it to multiple people and don't want to perform the same action a dozen or more time? That's where these bad boys come in.
CC to the rescue! This superhero of the virtual world shall save the day by allowing a single e-mail to be sent to more than one person in a single click of the 'send' button. Neat, huh?
Alas, there are some issues with CC that he just can't fix. For one thing, anyone included by CC can see everyone else who the message has been sent to, while the original person you intended to send to would see their e-mail addresses as well, which you might not want, and this is bad for them since their e-mail address would be spread around. We need a more discrete option...
Enter BCC, Blank Carbon Copy! He's closer to a spy than a hero, anyone attached via BCC can view the message but the original sender won't be able to know that the other person is reading it as well.
In a nutshell, CC for if you want to send a message to many a person without fear of their e-mail address, BCC for more privacy for the additional sender, or to mask the fact that you've sent that message to additional people.
Think of all the possibilities...
Hello Internet!
Hello Internet!
This is merely the first post to welcome all you that love to e-mail to my brand new blog (Sponsored and endorsed by Skill Set) detailing the many interesting things one can do when e-mailing. Now listen here, this isn't some step by step 'guide for dummies' book. We won't be covering basics (If you DO need basics, I recommend reading 'E-mail: Instructions for Imbeciles (Or for those who have been living under a rock for 20 years)', a leaflet I have also made for Skill Set. As it says on the tin, it SHOULD get you started on your self driving exploration into the complicated world of sending small messages to one another via computers. Come back when you're suitably instructed.
..........
..........
..........
..........
Okay, we're all up to speed now (Unless you just skipped reading the leaflet in favour of seeing what the rest of this post was, in which case, shame on you!). Basically, this blog will be to discuss the more complicated and interesting things you can do with e-mails: to talk about the pro's and con's of them, how they can be used, why they should be used and also to evaluate them.
Stay tuned for the next post!
This is merely the first post to welcome all you that love to e-mail to my brand new blog (Sponsored and endorsed by Skill Set) detailing the many interesting things one can do when e-mailing. Now listen here, this isn't some step by step 'guide for dummies' book. We won't be covering basics (If you DO need basics, I recommend reading 'E-mail: Instructions for Imbeciles (Or for those who have been living under a rock for 20 years)', a leaflet I have also made for Skill Set. As it says on the tin, it SHOULD get you started on your self driving exploration into the complicated world of sending small messages to one another via computers. Come back when you're suitably instructed.
..........
..........
..........
..........
Okay, we're all up to speed now (Unless you just skipped reading the leaflet in favour of seeing what the rest of this post was, in which case, shame on you!). Basically, this blog will be to discuss the more complicated and interesting things you can do with e-mails: to talk about the pro's and con's of them, how they can be used, why they should be used and also to evaluate them.
Stay tuned for the next post!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)