Module 2 - Email Tasks

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

From looking in Outlook I've discovered that you can find the path an email has taken to get to you from right clicking on a message and selecting message options. These are in the form of headers. Some emails that are from outside our office network have 3 or 4 servers, others 1 or 2 and emails that are delivered interoffice have no headers at all.

2. In what cases would you find it useful to use the 'cc', 'bcc' and 'reply all functions of email?
I use 'CC' to copy people in on emails who aren't directly involved with the conversation but who can be openly apart of it. This would include my department manager who might want to stay informed during any business between myself acting on the companies behalf and a 3rd party.

'BCC' I never use, but I would if I wanted to keep somebody aware of a conversation but I don't want it known.

'Reply All' is used to keep a group conversation going. I find it very annoying though when you write your reply and realise you only pressed 'reply'!

3. In what ways can you ensure that an attachment you send will be easily opened by the receiver?
The only attachments I generally send are PDF's, JPEG's and word documents. Anything else I either compress them in ZIP files or use online file services such as YouSendIt. I've never had a problem with people not receiving my attachments properly. If it was an issue I'd use the popular MIME encoding and make sure that any document file types I send can be commonly opened in all version of the required program.


4. What sorts of filters or rules do you have set up, and for what purpose?

I use a few rules in Outlook 2007 to send certain messages to their own folder. For instance I get website updates sent to me daily from our international office. I like to keep them altogether in one folder as I can find them in one place to make sure that I've gone through them. There's also a daily newsletter that I subscribe to that I get sent to it's own folder. I'm a bit of a neat freak so I want to go through my emails more and work out if I can use extra rules for the purpose of keeping my inbox organised.

5. How have you organised the folder structure of your email and why?
As I explained before I organise it with a few rules but do plan to reorganise it a bit more. Who else hates a messy inbox? I DO!!!!