Module 2 - Email Tasks (Q.'s 1-5)

Q1. 'What information about a users email, the origin of a message, and the path it took, can you glean from an email message?'

I use Outlook Express on the PC but mostly I only use my gmail account for email because I've moved around so much over recent years (Brisbane, London, Sydney and Melbourne in the last 6 years!). So said (or written as the case may be) Outlook Express is a little more user friendly on details so I'll be using this where I can. A message demonstrates the following information:

• name of the sender
• subject matter
• copies
• urgency
• senders email address (consisting of user name.domain name)
• date sent/received
• signatures

I resolved to open a past message and have a play around and see what other information I could find. By opening file -> properties -> details tab, a great deal of information about the email can be found, including further details concerning the path and source. By clicking 'source' coding details can be found.

Q2. 'In what cases would you find it useful to use 'cc', 'bcc' and 'reply all' functions of an email?

• The 'cc' function is useful when you are responding to a message that may require the input or involvement of one or many others, or may be simply used for informative purposes.... keeping people updated on issues. For example, I reply to a question posed by a team member. To avoid repetition, particularly if it is an issue of timely concern, I 'cc' the rest of the team in on my reply.
• Not everyone wants their details broadcast over the internet. In this case sending an email to yourself with the outgoing addresses in the 'bcc' is a sensible option, particularly when mass emailing.
• The 'reply all' function should be used sparingly. By using 'reply all' the response will be received by everyone on the original email creating an annoyance, particularly when many users respond in this manner to mass emails. If you have something valid to add in the context of the original communication that would be of interest to all then the 'reply all' function is useful. When arranging events such as meetings it is also useful... for example I respond to an email using the 'reply all' function stating, 'I cannot make the meeting for 10.00am 25 December 2006, is everyone OK to reschedule to same time 28 December 2006?'

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Q3. 'In what ways can you ensure an attachment you send will be easily opened by the receiver?'

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If you intend on sending an email with attachment then it is usually not a bad idea to send a short email to the intended recipient first. For example.... 'Hi Dave, I want to send you the proposal we discussed. It is in Microsoft Word 2000. Are you fine with this or do you require a different format?'.

However, what if Dave is in a meeting or away and you have a deadline to meet. When in doubt:

1. Use MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension);
2. use RTF (Rich Text File); and
3. include 'in text' details on the attachment.

In this case my email might read... 'Hi Dave, concerning the proposal we discussed 06 December 2006, I've copied the sections relating to your involvement into the email message below. The proposal is attached in full for execution and replicated in RTF should there be any problems opening the Microsoft Word attachment.'

Q4. 'What sort of filters or rules do you have set up and for what purpose?

I have an antispam filter on my email that I guess has been running since I owned my laptop. Before reading this course I really knew nothing about what filters were for (other than what the name implied) or how they worked. I'm still not an expert, but I'm learning. The antispam stops those unwanted emails from coming through. I can now configure this to create a block list to stop email from any other unwanted sources. Who knew there were rules involved! I presently do not have any of the rules activated (nobody is automatically blocked, or marked as 'read' etc.) but now I know they are there I'm confident enough to use them as the need arises. I should mention though that all my email goes through a virus scan before being released/received.

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Q5. 'How have you organised the file structure of your email and why?'

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I admit I do not use email a great deal in my personal life. Previous business roles though were a different story, they necessitated organisation of folders to store email for ease of access and records. For a time I worked as an insurance broker with an international company in London. The role included regional wholesale of product into principally Lloyd's. This included a lot of incoming email from many different countries, many different time zones and many different clients. Each client needed the participation of at least 3 Lloyds insurers to fulfill their needs and we dealt with over 80 syndicates within my team. Larger risks sometimes attracted 30+ insurers to fulfill their capacity requirements.

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As you can see the volume of email created, being the predominant sphere of communication in such an atmosphere, could quickly become overwhelming. I arranged my folders by region, wholesale client, end client, then risk type. All correspondence for a client ends up in one relevant place. The placement of risk for large international companies often created hundreds of emails. To organise this larger volume the email was stored by annual periods. For example, a message received from ABC Broking Hong Kong regarding end client International Construction Ltd D&O policy would be stored under Asia/HongKong/ABC/International Construction Ltd/D&O/Dec 2005_06.