ORGANIZING E-MAIL

Using Windows Live Mail

Barbara Alwin

Organizing Email Content - using Windows Live Mail

The first thing I did was to set up 3 separate email accounts for my incoming email:

1 - Personal email from friends and acquaintances.

2 - Calendar entries and reminders from my “Hotmail” calendar.

3 - Miscellaneous incoming email: This is email that comes from companies I purchase from on the Internet, or from anywhere I had to sign up by giving my email address.

Here is what my Live Mail account looks like when I open email….

Here is the first of my three incoming email addresses:

Next is the second of my three email mailboxes...

And then the email address for all my “general email” messages...

The next thing I did was to organize folders to store messages I want to keep.

This allows me to move messages out of my Inbox and save them in such a way that I can more easily locate them in the future.

I set up folders for family information, travel information, Computer club, church, Internet purchases, etc.

Here is the display of my folder list:

Let’s look at the folder for “Amazon” - where I store messages pertaining to purchases, shipping information, etc. when I shop at Amazon.

I also use my Live Mail to set up my “on-line” calendar, which sends reminders to me by email (remember that second email account I set up? That’s where those reminder messages go - so they don’t “clutter up” my other email).

This calendar is also linked to my iPhone, so I receive reminder alerts -- which I set up on the Live Mail Calendar. I can set up more than one reminder, so birthday reminders first come one week ahead, and then again on the day of the birthday.

Here is what my calendar looks like for the month of November:

Calendar - Windows Live Mail

To set up an event, I just double click on the day of the event, and then fill out the details - including when I want a reminder sent to me.

Most email programs are fairly similar to the Live Mail program. The purpose of my presentation is simply to show ways you can make the best use of your own email program --by moving email messages out of your “Inbox”, and storing them so you can more easily locate them later. This helps to keep your Inbox from becoming overloaded.

Another reminder about keeping your email program organized: Be sure to go into your “Deleted Messages” and “Sent Messages” folders periodically to delete those messages you no longer need.

I hope this will give you some ideas about how to organize your own email program, so you can maximize the benefits it provides.