Anyone who participates in or is a non-posting recipient of a reasonably active Listserv® such as the RealTalk message list, knows all too well how quickly e-mail overload can become a nightmare. With hundreds, if not thousands of messages coming in every week, it might seem that the best path to message management would be to receive the Listserv in Digest format. At that rate, you will only get one or two messages per day. . . much easier to manage. . . or is it?
Let’s look at the example of a digest from a day in September 2001:
**** RealTalk Thu, 20 Sep 2001 Volume 1 : Number 757 In this issue: Re:Guarantee sale programs... Re: RealTalk: Outlook Express Guarantee Sale Programs Inspection Report--To be Liable or Not To be Liable. Adobe Acrobat American Flag for Palm Pilot RealTalk: Scott's Question...Dons answer Lot "not included!" RE: RealTalk: Feedback fax after showing a property, my own or someone else's RE: RealTalk: Outlook Express: BCC function Why I haven't posted . . . Feedback Procedure Big Blue Changes RE: RealTalk: Outlook Express RealTalk: HOMEGAIN WANTS MY UNBORN CHILD???? For customer feedback To work with a brokerage, or on your own? Defects you know about Re: RealTalk: Guarantee sale programs... World Thank You Re: RealTalk: To work with a brokerage, or on your own? Feedback faxes RE: RealTalk: To work with a brokerage, or on your own? RE: RealTalk: Re:Guarantee sale programs... Take Control of your Future...Sign-up for e-PRO Now!!! http://www.eProNAR.com The Only NAR Certified Program http://InternetCrusade.com Real E-mail Solutions and Web Site Solutions for the Real Estate Industry... Give us a try...you won't be disappointed ============================================= ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2001 14:06:23 -0400 From: "Ann Cummings" >ann@anncummings.com> To:>RealTalk@InternetCrusade.com > Subject: Re:Guarantee sale programs... Message-ID: >010101c141fe$f638c9e0$296df5d1@l4m2o3> Al wrote: > I am therefore seriously considering strengthening my sale guarantee to >something like 64 days or I sell it for free..........In spite of this, my hands > are getting a bit sweaty thinking about this (which probably means that I should go ahead and do it) so I am asking for input here. Hi Al, I don't know about your area of New England, but this area has seen a great slowdown of late, and it actually began before last week's terrible events. Last week made it worse. I showed property this past Saturday, and I met 4 different brokers, each of whom told me I was the only one to call for showings with them in the last week and a half or so.........THAT'S kinda scary to me!! I guess I would rethink that 64 day guarantee, if it were me. I understand the reasoning behind it, but I think that we're seeing, and will continue to see, a change in the market, at least here in New England it would seem. I really hope I'm wrong on that thinking.....!!! Ann Cummings, GRI, CRS, CBR, e-PRO, QOMD RE/MAX Coast to Coast Portsmouth, NH 603-431-1111 x 39 mailto:ann@anncummings.com http://www.AnnCummings.com http://www.CallAnn.com http://www.PortsmouthNewHampshireHomes.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2001 14:24:27 -0400 From: "Ron Tiller" >Ron@RonTiller.com> To: >RealTalk@InternetCrusade.com> Subject: Re: RealTalk: Outlook Express Message-ID: >00a301c14201$7fb73c40$08c312ac@accn.org> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Meir Aloni">Meir@MeirAloni.com> > Just got DSL and Outlook Express. I put together a group to E-mail a monthly > newsletter. I understand I need to use Bcc when E-mailing. How do I do it?
Now, understand that we have only copied a small portion of this digest here. It would be, literally, 16 pages long if we posted the entire digest! How can that possibly be called easy to manage? The message itself, as represented in your e-mail client software, would simply be called:
RealTalkDigest, Thu,20 Sep 2001 Volume 1 : Number 757
If you are like so many users, your inbox is probably dozens or even hundreds of messages deep at any point in time. How, then, would you ever hope to remember what content is in which message based on the message header information above? Keep in mind, this digest contains some twenty four messages with twenty different subjects!
Contrast that with this example of a folder that is dedicated to RealTalk messages in the Immediate format:
A message sent in Immediate format is much easier to locate, store, sort, read and even delete if desired. Here is a good example of an Immediate format Listserv® message:
As you can easily see, messages in the immediate format are generally much easier to read, as they typically deal with one topic at a time. Also, and for the same reason, immediate Listserv® messages are much better for conversational purposes in that you can sort them by subject and read them in order – just like a discussion in person. Here is an example of sort-by-subject messages:
There is much to be said about having a real problem dealing with some hundreds of Listserv® messages filling up your inbox every day. It would be next to impossible to make sense of not only your Listserv® messages but of your entire inbox as well.
Fortunately, there are automated tools that can keep this from causing you any extra work or any lost time spent in manually sorting messages. Nearly every one of the top tier e-mail client systems offer tools for filtering and “folderizing” messages as they come into your inbox.
In Outlook Express, you use the Message Rules Editor to create rules that you want to activate when a particular set of conditions exist. For example, say we want a rule that moves all messages about Agency or Buyer Representation to a new folder that we create called “Agency.” Here are the steps:
First, select the “Tools” menu and the “Message Rules” option and then select “Mail.” This opens the Message Rules box where you select “New” to create a new rule. This opens the Mail Rule Editor where you set the parameters as shown below:
When you get to the line that says “move it to the specified folder” clicking on the word “specified” will open the file list where you can create a new folder just for these messages. Here is an example:
Now, when you click OK, you return to the Rules Editor window.
Set all of the parameters by checking the appropriate boxes and by clicking on the underlined text and then adding your specific text to make the rule say what you want it to say. When the rule is set exactly as you want it, with all of the conditions and actions in the correct place, click on “OK.” This takes you back to the Message Rules list where clicking on OK will save the new rule. From this point on, your agency and Buyer Representation messages will go into the new folder BEFORE they hit your inbox!
In Outlook®, the rules are set a little differently:
First, you select the Organizer, then the Rules Wizard.
Once you open Outlook’s Rules Wizard, you might see that it operates in a similar fashion to Outlook Express’ Rule Editor. The first step is to either activate an existing Rule or create a new one. In this example, we will select New from the options.
This action will open the Rule Creation tool where you select the type of action and the type of condition for this rule.
Select Finish, and your new rule will be ready to take the action you want when the conditions you specified are met.
Now that you have seen that you can have all messages from a Listserv® placed in a special folder – or even multiple folders based on their content, does it still make sense to keep getting Listserv® in digest format? Let’s look at the reasons to switch to immediate:
These and more compelling reasons, coupled with your new organization tools, make the immediate format the right way to go for many people.