David Geer Talks Tech
Thursday, August 18, 2005
Speed dial for e-mail (in XP) Courtesy of http://www.GeerCom.com.
Geer Communications - your on time technology writer!
Welcome!
Do you send a lot of e-mails every day, week, year? Do you send a lot of them to the same people? Would you like to save time e-mailing the folks you write to most frequently by using a utility you can easily create yourself that works like speed dial for your phone but for e-mail?
OK, here we go!
In Outlook Express, create an e-mail message to the person you write most frequently. Leave the subject line and message area blank unless you want to create a generic subject line or message to save more time when e-mailing.
Go to File, Save As and in the My Documents field select Desktop. Type a brief, memorable abbreviation of the party's name in the File name field, click the Save button and close the New Message window.
Right click on the saved message, left click on Create Shortcut. Right click on the shortcut you created and left click on Properties.
Under the Shortcut tab, put the cursor inside the field next to Shortcut key: None. Hit one of the arrow keys on the keyboard. You will get something like Ctrl + Alt + and the direction of the key you hit.
Here's where it gets tricky. Quickly hold down shift while selecting the unique letter from the keyboard that is the first initial of the person's last, first, middle or nickname, whichever you will most easily be able to remember and use to differentiate them from others you create for your new e-mail speed dial list. Click Apply and OK.
Test your first addition to e-mail speed dial. Simultaneously hit the keyboard shortcut keys Ctrl, Alt and the letter you selected. Release them as quickly as you hit the last key so that you don't open more than one new message to this party.
Type in your subject and message and click Send as usual. Repeat the whole process to create new people for your e-mail speed dial list.
To keep your desktop from being cluttered, make both the original and shortcut e-mails hidden files. Right click on each, left click on Properties, under the General tab put a check box next to Hidden and click Apply and OK.
Make sure to memorize the shortcut key combinations for each individual. To make sure that this new utility you have created for yourself doesn't take up too much memory and slow down your computer, keep your speed dial list as short as possible. You should be able to have 10 to 20 or more people on the list, depending on how much RAM memory you have. Test it for yourself to see how many names you can add without slowing down your computer.
Now, won't this save you a lot of time over the year on e-mailing?
Best,
David Geer - your on time technology writer!
Geer Communications
Geer Communications - your on time technology writer!
Welcome!
Do you send a lot of e-mails every day, week, year? Do you send a lot of them to the same people? Would you like to save time e-mailing the folks you write to most frequently by using a utility you can easily create yourself that works like speed dial for your phone but for e-mail?
OK, here we go!
In Outlook Express, create an e-mail message to the person you write most frequently. Leave the subject line and message area blank unless you want to create a generic subject line or message to save more time when e-mailing.
Go to File, Save As and in the My Documents field select Desktop. Type a brief, memorable abbreviation of the party's name in the File name field, click the Save button and close the New Message window.
Right click on the saved message, left click on Create Shortcut. Right click on the shortcut you created and left click on Properties.
Under the Shortcut tab, put the cursor inside the field next to Shortcut key: None. Hit one of the arrow keys on the keyboard. You will get something like Ctrl + Alt + and the direction of the key you hit.
Here's where it gets tricky. Quickly hold down shift while selecting the unique letter from the keyboard that is the first initial of the person's last, first, middle or nickname, whichever you will most easily be able to remember and use to differentiate them from others you create for your new e-mail speed dial list. Click Apply and OK.
Test your first addition to e-mail speed dial. Simultaneously hit the keyboard shortcut keys Ctrl, Alt and the letter you selected. Release them as quickly as you hit the last key so that you don't open more than one new message to this party.
Type in your subject and message and click Send as usual. Repeat the whole process to create new people for your e-mail speed dial list.
To keep your desktop from being cluttered, make both the original and shortcut e-mails hidden files. Right click on each, left click on Properties, under the General tab put a check box next to Hidden and click Apply and OK.
Make sure to memorize the shortcut key combinations for each individual. To make sure that this new utility you have created for yourself doesn't take up too much memory and slow down your computer, keep your speed dial list as short as possible. You should be able to have 10 to 20 or more people on the list, depending on how much RAM memory you have. Test it for yourself to see how many names you can add without slowing down your computer.
Now, won't this save you a lot of time over the year on e-mailing?
Best,
David Geer - your on time technology writer!
Geer Communications
