My Loooooooong Email Has Gone Missing!
Email is the medium of choice these days for corresponding. What used to be an informal method of messaging has evolved into a more formal means of sending communications. We used to send off those one-liners that took only minutes to write. Now we are sending entire letters via email. With the advent of the digital signature and the return receipt, we now even have the proof of delivery and non-repudiation issues covered. People are even organizing their email folders filing their emails away for later reference and for keeping track of long threads of discussion.
Having said that, I notice that more and more I will hear someone say that they had spent the last hour or so composing an email only to hit a wrong key and have it disappear before their very eyes. This has more to do with the way many email programs save works in progress. Many of the less sophisticated programs, which many people use, do not automatically save the email as you go along. I use Microsoft Outlook at home, which will save my work in progress in the “Drafts” folder, even if I don’t consciously save it myself. If I accidentally exit out of the email program, I will be prompted to save it before the exit. I also use Lotus Notes at work, which does not save my drafts unless I make a conscious decision to save it before I exit. I have lost a few emails myself with Notes, whereas my Outlook at home has been fairly safe. The other thing to worry about is whether or not you can maintain a permanent copy of your email, or whether or not you can get to it to edit it, even if you are offline. Many web-based emails such as Yahoo and HotMail are convenient, but they don’t store anything on your local computer. Te service provider may even purge documents after a certain length of time.
Rather than scramble around to find an email program that will keep you safe from your own fat fingers, there are some measures you can take to keep from losing a long email. First of all, if you know you are going to write a long email, and your email program doesn’t auto-save for you, save it into your “Drafts” folder right away, and then hit “Save” periodically as you go along. One even better way to do it, especially if you have a long, formal email that you need to draft, is to not draft it using your email program at all. Compose your lengthy message with a word processor, such as Microsoft Word, or whatever word processing program you have installed. Save your letter right away in a “Letters” folder or something. When you are all done, simply highlight all the text and copy it into a new email document. This will give you two benefits: 1) You will now have a permanent copy of your long letter somewhere on your computer besides your mail file (which may or may not be resident on your machine). 2) Your word processing software probably has better spell and grammar checking features than your email program – which means your formal letter is sure to be correct in every way. If you lose your outgoing email, or need another copy of what you wrote, you can retrieve your permanent document and even resend it if necessary.
Just a little tip to help you keep from losing your mind when typing (and losing) those long emails. Save immediately and save often. If you can’t do that in your present email program, then break out the word processor!
Having said that, I notice that more and more I will hear someone say that they had spent the last hour or so composing an email only to hit a wrong key and have it disappear before their very eyes. This has more to do with the way many email programs save works in progress. Many of the less sophisticated programs, which many people use, do not automatically save the email as you go along. I use Microsoft Outlook at home, which will save my work in progress in the “Drafts” folder, even if I don’t consciously save it myself. If I accidentally exit out of the email program, I will be prompted to save it before the exit. I also use Lotus Notes at work, which does not save my drafts unless I make a conscious decision to save it before I exit. I have lost a few emails myself with Notes, whereas my Outlook at home has been fairly safe. The other thing to worry about is whether or not you can maintain a permanent copy of your email, or whether or not you can get to it to edit it, even if you are offline. Many web-based emails such as Yahoo and HotMail are convenient, but they don’t store anything on your local computer. Te service provider may even purge documents after a certain length of time.
Rather than scramble around to find an email program that will keep you safe from your own fat fingers, there are some measures you can take to keep from losing a long email. First of all, if you know you are going to write a long email, and your email program doesn’t auto-save for you, save it into your “Drafts” folder right away, and then hit “Save” periodically as you go along. One even better way to do it, especially if you have a long, formal email that you need to draft, is to not draft it using your email program at all. Compose your lengthy message with a word processor, such as Microsoft Word, or whatever word processing program you have installed. Save your letter right away in a “Letters” folder or something. When you are all done, simply highlight all the text and copy it into a new email document. This will give you two benefits: 1) You will now have a permanent copy of your long letter somewhere on your computer besides your mail file (which may or may not be resident on your machine). 2) Your word processing software probably has better spell and grammar checking features than your email program – which means your formal letter is sure to be correct in every way. If you lose your outgoing email, or need another copy of what you wrote, you can retrieve your permanent document and even resend it if necessary.
Just a little tip to help you keep from losing your mind when typing (and losing) those long emails. Save immediately and save often. If you can’t do that in your present email program, then break out the word processor!
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