1. Searching for an E-mail
Thanks to all who responded to the survey on your e-mail inbox. As of last night when I wrote this issue, 113 people had responded. When looking at how many e-mails are in your Inbox, 77 people said 100 or less and 17 more said 101 to 250. What these statistics tell me is that 83% of you clean out your Inbox regularly, probably into folders for certain topics or projects. This means that when you go to find an e-mail, you are searching across many folders. Let me share a quick tip on how to search across many folders at once in Outlook (since 63 people (56%) said they use Outlook). In the Advanced Find dialog box in Outlook, you can click on the Browse button and then check off as many folders as you want to search. Remember that the more folders you select the longer the search will take. One alternative approach to spending time moving e-mails into folders is to hold all non- spam incoming mail in your Inbox. Then, every quarter, move all messages for the previous quarter to a folder. For example, at the end of June, you would move the messages from January to March to a folder called “Inbox 2003-Q1”. Then, when you want to search for an e-mail, you can use the Advanced Find function and select the folders you need. Consider how often you need to find an e-mail from four or more months ago and see if this may work for you. I don’t know if the searching across folders is possible in Lotus Notes (the e-mail program for 10 people or 9%) and I know it is not possible in Outlook Express (the choice for 16 people or 14%). By the way, if you want to see the full survey results, you can click on this link: http://www.createsurvey.com/cgi-bin/graph?s=9771&magic=VyCn1yFAoaRZG3F
2. Practicing your presentation
Earlier this year I did a series of tips on great presentation web sites to visit. You can see the whole list on the Links page on the web site if you missed it. One of the suggestions was Presentations magazine and I recommended their regular electronic newsletter. Recently they highlighted one article from a recent issue which has great ideas on preparing for and practicing your presentation. The link to the article is below, but I suggest you pay attention to the difference he makes between practicing and rehearsal. I share the opinion with the experts they quote that far too little time is spent on rehearsal, to the detriment of many presentations. Check out the article at: http://tinyurl.com/hno0
3. Useful Resource – www.powerpointanswers.com
Speaking of great presentation web sites, here is another. The articles, tips and resources at PowerPoint Answers will help you use PowerPoint better. Check it out at: http://www.powerpointanswers.com