Site-Creators

Archive for the ‘Website & Computer How To’ Category

Email is a quick and convenient way of correspondence, but without the proper etiquette it can be interpeted incorrectly and/or reflect poorly on your business. Applying some basic formatting rules and etiquette you can be sure that your emails will represent you and your company in the best possible light.

• Do not disclose email addresses of other recipients unless there is a need to do so, and when necessary add the secondary recipients to the CC: field
• Address the recipient propely, as you would a mailed letter
• Do not use all capital letters, as that is known as shouting, an expression of anger
• Allow your words to adequately convey your tone, avoiding excessive bold, itallic, underline, capital letters and excessive punctuation
• Check your spelling and grammar
• Include your company logo and contact information without distracting background images
• Do not use an old email from an unrelated topic to start a new topic – and keep your replies to an existing topic within the same email thread for easy reference
• Use an appropriate subject line
• Do not use email to deliver bad news
• Zip up large files and advise the recipient of your intention to send the same
• Do not forward private messages to others, this is taken as ‘talking behind ones back’
• Make sure your email address is set up properly in your email program so it displays properly
• Avoid over use of the return receipt feature
• Avoid the use of acronyms and smilies
• If you are unable to respond to an email in a timely manner quickly respond and let the recipient know that you received their email and you’ll respond as quickly as possible.
• Remember that your email is an extension of your business

The first step in proper email etiquette is to protect the email addresses of those that you send email to.  This means not sending email to a large group of people in a fashion that each person can see the other’s email. You can achieve this anonymity by utilizing the BCC: field of the emails that you send out.

By addressing the email To: field to yourself and putting all of the recipient’s email addresses in the BCC: field the only email address that each person sees is yours and theirs. You can either manually address each email with your address in the To: field or you can create a contact in your address book, storing your address and naming it “friends”, “undisclosed recipient” or something similar.

The need for email privacy is becoming more and more prevelant with the increased spam.

If certain websites seem to be giving you trouble, not displaying correctly, not allowing you to log in, not allowing you to view photo galleries, etc. – Now there is a way that you can check to see if it’s your computer or the website causing the problem. You no longer have to wait for a tech support rep to tell you to “clear your cache” and “delete your cookies”….. ough!

Microsoft has provided us with a version of Internet Explorer called, “Internet Explorer, no add ons”. This is a stripped down version of Internet Explorer that has no bells or whistles; it is not meant for daily browsing but it’s wonderful for finding out which side of a website a problem is occurring on. Should you encounter a problem with a site that does not want to load or certain areas are not working right for you, try this.

Go to your ‘Start’ button, go to “Accessories” and into “System Tools”. In the “System Tools” folder you will see “Internet Explorer no add ons” – select that and a new browser window will open with a little warning window, like this:

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With this version of Internet Explorer, go back to the website that you were experiencing difficulty with and try to do the same thing that it would not let you do previously – If you were trying to post on a message board and it would not allow you to post, try to make a new post using this bare bone basic version. If you are able to navigate the site with this version of Internet Explorer, then you have narrowed your problem down to it being an add on.

Now it’s time to close this version out and go back to the “real version” and begin experimenting with disabling the add ons that might be causing the problem. Internet Explorer comes prepackaged with several add ons already, and many sites install their own so this might be a chore. You can safely disable any and all of them, just know that when you need one you will receive a pop up message stating that the website you are viewing requires ‘x’ add on, asking if you would you like to enable it.

To disable (or enable) add on, go to “Tools” –> “Internet Options”, when the window opens, click on the “Programs” Tab.

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Click on the “Manage add-ons” Button, and this window will open, displaying all of the add ons installed in your Internet Explorer:

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As you highlight each add on you will see radio buttons underneath (in the gray area at the bottom of the screen) where you can enable or disable each add on. Once you are done, click “OK”, and then close the subsequent window to return to your Internet Explorer. Open a new browser window to check your new settings (to see if the add ons that you disabled fixed your problem).