Email Guides and Essays
by Kaitlin Duck Sherwood,
including
About Overcome Email Overload with Eudora 5
About Overcome Email Overload with Microsoft Outlook 2000 and Outlook 2002
About Kaitlin Duck Sherwood
Overcome Email Overload
Frequently Asked Questions
Questions
- Why should I read one of these books?
- How can I buy one of these books?
- How many books have you written on email overload?
- What if I use an email program that you haven't written about?
- Why didn't you just write one book that covered all email programs?
- Okay, why didn't you write one book that covered the most popular programs -- Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, Netscape, and AOL?
- What email programs did you write?
- What would you like to see in an email program?
- How has your background as an engineer affected how you approached writing these books?
- How long did it take you to write the books?
- When did you first consider a career in writing?
- Where did you learn to write?
- Is it true that you shaved your head?
- Is it true that you wore a duck on your head to your college graduation?
Why should I read one of these books?
If you already spend a lot of time on email, these books will show you how to get through your email faster. You will learn how to:- Set up your email program to automatically prioritize your messages
- Use keyboard and toolbar shortcuts to move through your messages faster
- Spend less time on responses
- Get fewer messages by writing better messages
- Improve your company's email culture
How can I buy one of these books?
You can't. They are now out of print. You can, however, read the books online. See the Eudora version and/or the Outlook version.
How many books have you written on email overload?
Two: Overcome Email Overload with Eudora
5 and
Overcome Email Overload with Microsoft
Outlook 2000 and Outlook 2002.
Another thing to bear in mind is that most people don't get to choose which
email program they use at work -- the Information Technology group chooses.
You have to use whatever they choose for you. So it doesn't make sense to
give people a bunch of options when all but one is unavailable to them.
Then from mid-1996 to mid-1998, I worked on a home media networking project
for Interval Research. One of my many responsibilities was the email
subsystem. I ended up writing a simple email program several times because
the language (a dialect of Smalltalk) kept changing.
That project was very ambitious, and its funding got cut before we had
a stable programming environment.
Lots of the people who went to my high school have written books.
Many of them are academic books like Charles Ives: The Idea Behind the
Man, but
Iris Chang, the sadly departed
author of The Rape of Nanking, went to my high school. (I didn't know
her.)
Fred Marx, co-director of the award-winning Hoop Dreams also went to my
high school. (I did know him, but not from high school.)
What if I use an email program that you haven't written about yet?
See the following pages for information about
Netscape, Outlook Express, and
America On Line.
Why didn't you just write one book that covered all email programs?
Because there are a zillion different email programs. Because the
underlying protocols are standard, anybody can write an email program --
and anyone does. (Even I have written two email programs.) I am certain
that I wouldn't even be able to find all the email programs in
existence.
Okay, why didn't you write one book that covered the most popular
programs at least -- Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, Netscape, and AOL?
I tried. Believe me, I tried. The problem is that different programs
have very different features and even different vocabulary. For example,
there is one feature that Eudora calls "filters", Outlook calls "rules",
Outlook Express calls "mail rules", Netscape calls "message filters", and AOL
doesn't have at all. I found that I had to spend so much time explaining
differences in terminology and features that it got in the way of explaining
strategies.
What email programs did you write?
In the summer of 1995, I wrote
a Web-based interface
for sending and receiving email, like Hotmail or Yahoo mail.
Hypermail
was the first program for reading email archives over the Web, but
I believe that my program was the first to allow sending and receiving
private email.
I did that project while at Enterprise Integration Systems for
a contract with the National Center for Manufacturing
Systems.
While NCMS used my program successfully, EIT never commercialized and
distributed the program.
What would you like to see in an email program?
I have
a whole list.
How has your background as an engineer affected how you
approached writing these books?
From years of experience in engineering, I value testing very highly,
so I aggressively sought feedback. Over 130 people commented on these books,
which made them much better than if I had worked completely alone.
How long did it take you to write the books?
Two and a half years -- because of all the changes my reviewers suggested!
It would have been easier if I hadn't given it out for
feedback, but it wouldn't have been nearly as good.
When did you first consider a career in writing?
When I was trying to figure out what I wanted to
major in when I got to college, I considered majoring in English. However,
I (perhaps naively) thought that I couldn't make it as an author unless
I had a burning desire to write and something to write about. I had neither.
So although I always liked to write, I discarded that idea and went into
engineering instead.
Where did you learn to write?
I had very good high school English classes. In particular,
Mrs. Hoag's 9th-grade English class really firmly planted English grammar rules into
my head. (Thank you, Mrs. Hoag!)
Is it true that you shaved your head?
Yep. See What
I Learned by Shaving My Head.
Is it true that you wore a duck on your head to your college
graduation?
Yes -- but it wasn't my fault! See
A Duck on the
Mortarboard.