Admins @ Work » Email

Why You Need An iPhone

Erin Colbert — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 02:24:27 +0000

Yes, everyone is talking about them and you’re wondering what all the hype is about. It’s just a phone right? Wrong! This is the phone/computer/music player/GPS/personal assistant of the future. Here are a few features that will have you ditching your Blackberry in no time.

WiFi – your iPhone is wired for use practically everywhere! You can link up to any WiFi network to browse the internet or get connected, which means airports, Starbuck’s, your office. If there isn’t a WiFi connection, then use AT&T’s Edge cell network to get connected quickly.
Email – all of your email accounts are in one place and easy to configure. Yahoo, Gmail, .mac, AOL and Outlook accounts can all be added to the phone. So, there’s not more logging on to your personal accounts at work.
iPod – store your music on your phone. With 8GB of memory you’ll have enough room for all your favorite songs, podcasts, and movies. Plus, you can download directly from iTunes on your iPhone – no computer required!
GPS – Google Maps is built into the phone with GPS capabilities. You don’t even need an address – search for restaurants and it’ll automatically find you the closes ones to your present location.
Calendar – like email you can sync all of your account calendars into one.
Camera and Photos – of course, this phone has a camera and iPhoto built in.
World Clock – see the local time for all of your offices at a glance.

$399 may seem steep, but with all of these features it clearly beats the Blackberry, where current models are selling for $299.

Top 10 Passwords to Avoid

Erin Colbert — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 04:16:11 +0000

I think I have about 60 different passwords to various email accounts, computers, programs, and websites. Like most people, I try to use the same password for all of my accounts, but if a hacker figured it out then I would be in trouble. According to Thomas Wilson, author of “Top 10 Admin Passwords to Avoid,” “strong passwords should contain at least eight characters, and should include numerals as well as upper and lower-case letters.”

Here is his list:

(username)
(username)123
123456
password
1234
12345
passwd
123
test
1

He also notes that another common strategy for hackers is to try the default password set by vendors, such as “default,” “system,” or the company name. If you install a new program or have a default password assigned to you, be sure to change it immediately.

Don’t Waste Time Scheduling Time!

Erin Colbert — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 05:03:13 +0000

How frustrating is it when you try to schedule a meeting in Outlook and end up going back and forth, back and forth, trying to find a time that works with everyone’s schedule? Yes, Outlook is great if you can look at other’s schedules, but so many people still do not utilize all of it’s features so it can be difficult to tell if someone actually has a prior commitment or just blocked out space for a tentative event.

I first read about TimeBridge on VentureBeat, an online news blog, last week. It’s a two and a half year old startup that just launched their flagship scheduling product on December 11, 2007.

Here’s how it works: The program, which is a small download for Microsoft Outlook users or a web app for Google adherents, syncs with the user’s calendar to show which time slots are open. The user, who we’ll assume is initiating the meeting, can then highlight blocks of time that would be acceptable for a meeting.

Invitations are then sent off to the other participants, who can see all the times the organizer has available and choose their own set of open time slots. Through a process of elimination, the times that other participants can’t make it to a meeting are ruled out, and a confirmation for the best time is sent out to everyone.

I gave it a try for myself and have to say it is quite handy. I really like the tool and others who tested the web application (they didn’t want to download the software quite yet) had good luck with it. In the end, we all received a final confirmation for our meeting. I will definitely continue to use this software, especially for meetings with those outside the company. I end up sending a whole list of times and I’m looking forward to cutting down on the email!

Custom Holiday eCards from Adobe

Erin Colbert — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 03:48:54 +0000

Send a fun and environmentally-friendly holiday card this year with Adobe. The eCards are free and don’t contain advertising (except Adobe of course). Visit http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/holidaycard/2006/ and get started. First, you select a background theme, then add a border, then select your holiday message available in 17 different languages. Finally, pick your music and send it off. You’ll need JavaScript enabled.

Click here to see my card! Below is the message that appears in the recipients email box.

Share Your Photos with Picasa

Erin Colbert — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 03:47:37 +0000

Thanksgiving is over and you had a great time with family and friends, but how are you going to share all those pics you took? Attaching multiple photos in an email is archaic and will probably end up in your recipients spam box or not delivered at all because the file size was too large. Try Google’s Picasa web albums instead.

Sign up and Get Started

To sign up for Picasa go to http://picasaweb.google.com
Sign in to your Google account
If you don’t have a Google account, click “Create a new Google Account” – it is not required that you sign up for a Google Gmail account to use Picasa
Follow the steps to get started

Upload Photos and Create Albums using Picasa Web

Click “+Upload Photos” from the right hand side
Create a new album or add to existing album
Fill in all the blanks and follow the instructions to create an album

You can also download Picasa software for your computer and store all your photos there. If you do this then you don’t have to manually add each photo one by one using the “browse” then “upload” feature. They offer 2 versions – one for a PC and the other for a Mac. The Mac software allows you to seamlessly upload iPhoto pictures into Picasa.

Share your album

Click on the album to enter it
On the left hand side there are a list of options – Upload photos, Embed Slideshow, Link to this Album, Delete Album
Select “Link to this Album”
Copy the text in “Paste link in email or IM”
Place the link in your email and send

For advanced users you can click on the “Embed Slideshow” link and place the photo album within your HTML webpage or blog as I have done below. Or, send the link to your web developer for placement on your company’s Intranet.

Rid Yourself of Unwanted Junk Mail

Erin Colbert — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 03:14:35 +0000

With the holidays upon us junk mail is at it’s peak circulation and leaves us all vulnerable to identity theft. I get dozens of credit card offers, local circulars, and product newsletters each week – both at home and at work. I found a website called ProQuo that aims to put the consumer back in control of their information. I signed up a few weeks ago for their beta and, to be honest, haven’t seen much of a difference as yet. However, I’m keeping at it because they say it takes between 4 weeks and 3 months to see a drastic reduction, especially for snail mail publications.

The service is free and they will make money by allowing consumers to opt-in to specific offers in addition to opting-out. This is the best site I have seen thus far to offer centralization of opt-out notices. It has a clean interface and is very user-friendly. The only downside is that many of the marketing companies still require written notice for name removal, so it can be time consuming to write letters to the 5 or so companies who haven’t made it to the internet age. I guess that’s how they get you though – make it so difficult to unsubscribe and people will just leave it be. To combat this, ProQuo has developed templates for the letters, but it can still be time consuming. Try it yourself and let me know how it goes.

Customize Your Homepage

Erin Colbert — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 21:23:19 +0000

Approximately 70% of all internet search goes through Google and they clearly dominate the search market. They became popular for their clean, uncluttered, and advertisement-free home page, but now, as the fifth most valuable company in the world, they offer a unique array of products with complete customization.

The Google home page, or iGoogle, is a dashboard of widgets that you can drag and drop to make a page as creative as you are. The widgets, a graphical user interface that allows 3rd party content to be placed on a web page, are created by both individuals and companies. There are basics such as clock, weather, maps, and multiple news sites. A few of my other favorites are:

Google Reader – allows me to quickly view the top posts from my RSS reader (read my post on creating an RSS Reader)
To Do List – keeping personal items on your work computer is difficult and dangerous, since anything you put on your computer is property of the company – keep your to do list right on your home page so you can access it quickly and easily at work or home
Google Calendar – lets me sync multiple calendars to view on one page, including iCal, Outlook, and Yahoo! Calendar – as with the To Do List, you don’t want to keep personal items on your work computer so sync to Google calendar and you can keep your work and home calendars together
WikiTravel – links to breaking travel news and destination highlights from their website
Flight Stats – widget that allows me to quickly check the flight status of any flight by route, flight number, or airport
Fandango – movie show times at my local theater
Local Gas Prices – shows the cheapest gas prices by zip code
Wikipedia – I never have to go to the site directly, I just search straight from my home page

To get started go to www.google.com/ig. You must add the widgets straight from iGoogle, since there are no links from the individual websites linked above. If you already have a Gmail account then log in using that, otherwise, click the link to “Get Started” and follow the instruction. There are thousands of widgets and you can arrange them in any way to like to make browsing and searching more efficient and fun. And, change your theme to suit your mood. Right now, I’m using Hong Kong to get pumped about my upcoming trip next March!

Free Microsoft Training Webinars On-Demand

Erin Colbert — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 05:41:24 +0000

I am always getting asked “how do I do this in Excel,” “where is that in PowerPoint,” “where do I find this in Office.” I think I just found a lucrative profession – Microsoft Office Trainer. But, seeing as I don’t want to quit my day job, I started looking online for training tools. Yes, there are 2-hour and even full day training classes available (see LearnIt in the Bay Area), but these can be quite expensive and time consuming. Here’s a solution – and it’s free!

Microsoft offers free online webinars that are pre-recorded for viewing at any time. The hitch, you have to have a Windows Live ID, but again, this is free. And, if you currently use MSN Messenger, then you probably already have an account. They’ve created a site geared specifically toward Administrative Professionals – click here to check out their site. The other hitch, this is best viewed on a PC in Internet Explorer with Windows Media Player because it uses their proprietary meeting software LiveMeeting.

Both webcasts and podcasts are available for Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Visio, and Word. Despite the drawbacks listed above, this is a great tool to learn the tips and tricks of MS Office. All of the webinars are available for download so you could even forward copies to your Webmaster to post on your company’s intranet.

Top 10 Email Etiquette Rules

Erin Colbert — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 23:54:36 +0000

STOP SHOUTING! Writing in all caps is like screaming. If you are angry or want to reiterate a point, pick up the phone or meet in person.
If all you have to say is “thank you” don’t send the email. Your co-workers understand that you appreciate their work, but if you still want to thank them for their efforts, be sure to include more than just those two words.
Use caution with the “reply-all” feature. Ask yourself if everyone on the distribution list really needs the information you are about to send. Limit the email to only those that truly need to be addressed.
With all of the tools available at our fingertips, I am surprised at how many spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors I still see in my inbox. Spell check was invented for a reason – set the default to run before all messages are sent.
Choose a meaningful subject line and never leave it blank.
If your email thread has reached 3 or 4 levels, consider creating a new email. Email threads that stretch on for miles will be ignored by most readers. Consider what pieces are most important and delete the rest, especially long signature lines and duplicate confidentiality notices that clutter the space.
Don’t send complex messages via email. As in point #1, sometimes a simple phone call or meeting will be more effective than email.
Use caution when flagging a message as “high importance.” The recipients may feel you are crying wolf if it is over used.
Use “read receipts” only when absolutely necessary (i.e. for legal documentation or a human resource incident). Not only is it irritating to receive these time and again, the recipient can take this as a sign of mistrust.
Finally, take a second look at your email before hitting send. Re-reading an email can help save the headache and embarrassment of an unintended message.