Pet Peeves, Tips, and Best Practices

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Pet Peeves, Tips, and Best Practices

• Texas Department of Information Resources
• Britt Brookshire
• July 24, 2007

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Truth or Dare Where Do You Rate?
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Top Ten Annoying Things

• 10. Use the Darn Meeting
• Request Busy Search!

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Top Ten Annoying Things

• 10. Use the Darn Meeting
• Request Busy Search!
• 9. Mystery Mail
• Its Relatives

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Top Ten Annoying Things

• 10. Use the Darn Meeting
• Request Busy Search!
• 9. Mystery Mail
• Its Relatives
• 8. CC Mania, a.k.a.
• Inciting a Spampede

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Top Ten Annoying Things

• 10. Use the Darn Meeting
• Request Busy Search!
• 9. Mystery Mail
• Its Relatives
• 8. CC Mania, a.k.a.
• Inciting a Spampede
• 7. Back Stabbing
• Aggravated BCC

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Top Ten Annoying Things

• 10. Use the Darn Meeting
• Request Busy Search!
• 9. Mystery Mail
• Its Relatives
• 8. CC Mania, a.k.a.
• Inciting a Spampede
• 7. Back Stabbing
• Aggravated BCC
• 6. txt msg abvs
• U agrv8 me

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Top Ten Annoying Things

• 10. Use the Darn Meeting
• Request Busy Search!
• 9. Mystery Mail
• Its Relatives
• 8. CC Mania, a.k.a.
• Inciting a Spampede
• 7. Back Stabbing
• Aggravated BCC
• 6. txt msg abvs
• U agrv8 me

• 5. Gigantic Attachments
• Send Links Instead

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Top Ten Annoying Things

• 10. Use the Darn Meeting
• Request Busy Search!
• 9. Mystery Mail
• Its Relatives
• 8. CC Mania, a.k.a.
• Inciting a Spampede
• 7. Back Stabbing
• Aggravated BCC
• 6. txt msg abvs
• U agrv8 me

• 5. Gigantic Attachments
• Send Links Instead
• 4. Diarrhea of the Keyboard

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Top Ten Annoying Things

• 10. Use the Darn Meeting
• Request Busy Search!
• 9. Mystery Mail
• Its Relatives
• 8. CC Mania, a.k.a.
• Inciting a Spampede
• 7. Back Stabbing
• Aggravated BCC
• 6. txt msg abvs
• U agrv8 me

• 5. Gigantic Attachments
• Send Links Instead
• 4. Diarrhea of the Keyboard
• 3. Reply to All Abuse

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Top Ten Annoying Things

• 10. Use the Darn Meeting
• Request Busy Search!
• 9. Mystery Mail
• Its Relatives
• 8. CC Mania, a.k.a.
• Inciting a Spampede
• 7. Back Stabbing
• Aggravated BCC
• 6. txt msg abvs
• U agrv8 me

• 5. Gigantic Attachments
• Send Links Instead
• 4. Diarrhea of the Keyboard
• 3. Reply to All Abuse
• 2. BCC Abuse, a.k.a. Letting the Cat Out of the
  Bag

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Top Ten Annoying Things

• 1. That Stupid MicroSoft Dog PaperClip
  Man!

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Productivity Tips

• Turn off the Ding and do email 3 times a day
• Archive email to Personal Folders to stay out of
  Email Jail
• BCC yourself
• Use Shared Folders for
• both email other files
• Beware of overlapping folders

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• Geeky Email Tips
• New eMail Message
• CntlShiftM
• OR, if youre in Email
• CntlN
• New Meeting Request
• CntlShiftQ

• Keep Your Halo Shiny
• Use Out of Office!
• Tip sort meetings to the top when you get
  back
• Use BCC on Big Mailings
• Tip To look for an email address in a large
  list, use CntlA, copy paste into Word do a
  find for that persons name.

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Less is More

• Send Less, Get Less
• Thank You Abuse
• Ask for Less, Get Less
• Unsubscribe
• No Reply Needed
• Stop CCg the World
• Short Messages in Subject
• Line OK

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Ensure Eternal Happiness for Grand Pooh-Bah

• Summarize long email chains at the top
• Avoid What I am supposed to do with this?
  syndrome
• Dont make the boss do math
• Is Your Boss a CrackBerry User?
• Summarize attachments include urgency
• Put most important words first in Subject

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Are YOU a User?

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Fast Keys Life in the Fast Lane

• Outlook editing tips
• General
• Select All - CntlA
• Undo - CntlZ
• File Save AltF, AltS or CntlS or F12
• Spell Check - F7
• Editing
• Copy - AltE, AltC or CntlC
• Paste - AltE, AltP or CntlV
• Cut - Alt_E, AltT or CntlX
• Bold, Italics, Underline - Cntl B or I or U
• Geekist of Them All
• Bit levers macros - Activeworks.com, QuicKeys

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Yellow Paintbrush

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Low Points in Email History

• Hi Ive been having trouble with my email, so
  Im sending you this test email. Please let me
  know if you dont get it.
• Email sent to all staff
• Contrary to what you all have been emailing each
  other, this company does not monitor email.
• 400 Radio Shack employees found out they were
  fired via email

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Random Productivity Tips

• File Name Tips
• Ditch Final Version or Current
• Be Specific no resume.doc
• Where to put UserIDs, PWs?
• Create a Registrations Folder
• Use Contacts - Comments
• Save Files in Internet Favs
• Create Desktop Shortcuts

• To Do List Tips
• Dont Use Inbox
• Do Keep List Online
• Assign Dates to Items
• Assign Priorities for Each Day
• Gootodo.com
• File All eMail You Cant Handle in
• Its OK to Read the Easy eMail First

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Cleaning Up an Inbox Disaster

• Sort delete newsletters
• Sort by From Subject Line to find long series
• Sort by Type delete obsolete meeting requests
• Sort by oldest

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Peeves Continued

• Read receipts
• Meeting requests without
• building address
• Stationery funky fonts
• Insane legal disclaimers

The
information in this email is confidential and
may be legally privileged Access to this email by
anyone other than the intended addressee is
unauthorized. If you are not the intended
recipient of this message, any review,
disclosure, copying, distribution, retention, or
any action taken or omitted to be taken in
reliance on it is prohibited and may be unlawful.
If you are not the intended recipient, please
reply to or forward a copy of this message to the
sender and delete the message, any attachments,
and any copies thereof from your system.

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Things I Love

• Red flags, blue flags
• Tasks
• Signature lines
• Meeting requests with agendas or clear purpose
• Date/time, page numbers, path/filename
• Advanced search features

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Advanced Search In Outlook

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• Recommended Reading
• Bit Literacy by Mark Hurst
• Send by David Shipley Will Schwalbe

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Dare to Dream
You Have No Messages in Your Inbox!

• Texas Department of Information Resources
• Britt Brookshire
• britt.brookshire_at_dir.state.tx.us
• 512 463-4174