Help! Help! If you’re like
me you are inundated with emails. I have been receiving
about 400 emails a DAY. No I don’t have that many friends
or relatives. But, because of all the internet business
I do, my email address must be being handed out like free
candy. But I have taken several precautions to help fight
this onslaught.
1. My ISP uses some software
called SPAM Assassin. Contact your ISP about it.
It looks at every email I receive and then it ‘grades’
it. If the grade is over a 5.0 I have instructed the
ISP to delete (yes, I still could get them back if I contacted
them about a lost (important) email. This eliminates
about 80% of my SPAM.
2. On my computer, all my email
is first read by MailWasher Pro (http://www.firetrust.com/).
One version is free but I liked it so much I purchased the
more powerful Pro version. It let’s me see
just a portion of the email (the 1st 20 lines); who it’s
from; the subject; etc. Then I can mark it as
from a ‘friend’ or ‘blacklist’.
It learns as it goes along. It eliminates about another
15% . Leaving only about 20 SPAMS per day into my Outlook
folders.
3. I use Outlook and it’s
built in ‘Rules Wizard’ to put all email that
are NOT from someone in my Contacts list into a SPAM folder.
I check this once a week or so to ensure that a friend with
a new email address didn’t slip in and then delete the
whole bunch!
Here are some other hints you might try:
1. Create more than one
inbox. Did you know that Outlook allows you to create multiple
inboxes, where you can send e-mail based on your rules?
Go to File, then Folder, then New Folder, and then “Create
new folder.” Select your inbox, make sure the settings
are on “Folder contains: mail and post items,”
and then give the folder a name.
2. Change your “view”
to see less – and more. One little-known way to clear
the clutter and see relevant correspondences is to change
your view. In Outlook 2003, click on View, followed by “Arrange
By” and then “Conversation.” That will show
you all of the messages relevant to the particular subject.
3. Click on the
“From” line from time to time. This isn’t
exactly a secret, but I am including this tip anyway. Most
people get the e-mails in the order they come in, with the
most recent at the top. By hitting the “From”
line at the top of your inbox, you can see alphabetically
all the messages from senders that you’ve saved. Want
to go back to your normal view? Click on “Received.”
4. Use rules to
keep your primary inbox clear. How to keep the clutter out?
Click on Tools, and go to “Rules and Alerts” to
send designated e-mails to another folder, or even to the
“Deleted Items” folder, which should prevent your
inbox from overflowing.
5. Tell ‘em apart by getting
colorful. Your incoming e-mail doesn’t have to look
like a massive gray blob. Go to Tools, then Organize, and
click on “Using Colors.” You can color-code important
e-mails from clients or just specify that you want messages
sent to yourself to look different.
Download-of-the-Week. This site saves me time and irritation
while I travel: http://www.mail2web.com It lets me logon
to my email account AND delete emails so my mailbox doesn’t
fill up while I’m on the road.
Have a question or problem? Write me at BaliPCAdvisor@GMail.com.
I’ll try and answer as soon as I can. Bali PC Advisor
and other Bali Advertiser article Archives now ONLINE: http://baliadvertiser.biz/articles/index.html.
