The concept of finding the “perfect” e-mail solution begs a question: Aren’t there people who want to get away from e-mail altogether? That may be so, but for the rest of us, dealing with electronic messages is a necessary fact of life.
So how can you balance work and private needs, keep everything together when needed and keep it separate when required? I would propose two solutions: software and online services.
On the software front, things are looking up. The 2007 edition of Microsoft Office (for Windows-based PCs) offers more than enough tools for managing e-mail, especially when it comes from a corporate server running Microsoft’s Exchange program. Don’t want to pay for Office 2007? Mozilla.org’s Thunderbird is a very robust program which also has support from a range of developers offering add-ins to make your e-mailing easier. Thunderbird is also probably the best bet among the many competing programs for the Linux platform, again because of its wide support community.
For users of Apple’s Macintosh, the firm’s Mail.app will pick up some new features, probably at the end of this month, when the next version of OS X, code named “Leopard,” bows. Here, the greatest advancements, according to Apple’s Web site, will involve integrating e-mail with your computer’s calendar, as well as to-do items and online “news feeds” such as those provided by The Washington Times’ RSS, or “really simple syndication” services (available via the newspaper’s Web site).
Putting these things together in one place will simplify communication and give Mail.app more ammunition to compete with Microsoft Corp.’s Entourage, which will undergo its own renaissance in January, if all goes according to plan. I have high expectations that the new Mac “Office” will include many of the improvements Office 2007 brought to Windows users.
But software is key: Getting the right program and learning its ins and outs will help you categorize and simplify e-mail quite a bit. As someone who deals with at least 200 e-mails in a given day, I know how important that level of control can be.
To solidify that control, however, you need to separate and segregate the kinds of e-mail you receive. It’s not cool to have work e-mail come to your private account, or personal notes show up in your corporate e-mail.
That’s why I have a Gmail (https://mail.google.com) account, along with some other personal ones. It takes discipline and determination to keep things in order, but it’s to your advantage.
What’s more, Web-based e-mail can feed into a desktop software program such as Thunderbird, Microsoft Outlook or Entourage, or Apple’s Mail.app. This lets you read, write and send such messages with a familiar program.
For those who want to make utterly certain they do not run afoul of any corporate (or agency) strictures, perhaps the best course is to make sure you do no personal e-mail at work, on a computer or Internet service you do not own or pay for. I would imagine this is a requirement in certain places, but it’s also a good idea for anyone in a new work situation.
Now, if only someone could come up with a surefire way to block all those, ahem, “pharmaceutical” e-mails I keep getting.
• Read Mark Kellner’s Tech blog at www3.washingtontimes.com/blogs.
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