Thirteen Simple Ways to Bring Order to Your Inbox (cont'd)

8. Sign on the bottom Line: E-mail signatures are the extra text added automatically at the end of messages to identify the sender. They sometimes get in the way, but a brief, well-crafted sig is the perfect finish to a professional missive, especially when you're contacting someone for the first time.

To append a signature to an Outlook message, choose Insert, Signature and click an existing sig or choose More to create one on the spot (see FIGURE 2). In Outlook Express, create a signature (Tools, Options, Signatures, New), and then add it to a message by clicking Insert, Signature.

In Thunderbird, create the signature as a text file using Notepad. Next, open Thunderbird and choose Tools, Account Settings. Select your account, check Attach this signature, click Choose, browse to and select the signature file, and click OK. Thunderbird will insert the text automatically at the end of all new messages.

9. Catch their eye (for better or worse) with stationery: I think fancy fonts and backgrounds just get in the way of the message, but e-mail with such formatting always gets my attention. To add a standout format to mail in Outlook, choose Actions, New Mail Message Using, More Stationery, select a message background, and click OK. In Outlook Express, choose Message, New Message Using, and select one of the listed stationery formats. To see several more templates, click Select Stationery. Choose the Create New button in the Select Stationery dialog box to create a custom style using the stationery wizard. (Thunderbird lacks similar automated stationery tools, much to my relief.)

10. Feed Thunderbird some RSS: Version 1.5 of Thunderbird can track blogs, news updates, and other RSS feeds. Choose Tools, Account Settings, click Add Account, select RSS News & Blogs, click Next twice, and then Finish. Now you're ready to add a news feed: Select News & Blogs in Thunderbird's folders list in the left pane, click Manage Subscriptions, Add, and paste a news feed address into the Feed Properties dialog box that appears (see a list of PC World's feeds). Click OK to complete the process.

11. Add RSS to Outlook, too: Integrating RSS with e-mail is such a good idea, Microsoft is supporting it in the Office 12 version of Outlook, due late this year. But you don't have to wait until then: Attensa for Outlook is a free add-in that keeps Outlook up to speed on the latest RSS buzz. The preview version I tried includes RSS toolbars for Firefox and Internet Explorer, support for podcast playback in iTunes and Windows Media Player, and the ability to publish links to RSS feeds on your own blog. (Note that several other Outlook plug-ins add RSS support to the program as well.)

12. Hide your mailing list: It's handy to send e-mail to many people at once, but sometimes you don't want some or all of them to know who is getting the message. Addresses placed in the Blind Carbon Copy (Bcc) field are stripped away before the messages arrive. Outlook's Bcc option is hidden when you start a message. To use it, click the down arrow next to Options and select Bcc. In OE, create a message and then click View, All Headers.

In Thunderbird, simply click the down arrow next to 'To:' in the message's address header and choose Bcc: (see FIGURE 3).

13. Filter Outlook in a flash: It's easy to create an Outlook rule that moves similar messages to a folder and signals their arrival by displaying an alert or playing a sound: Right-click a message, choose Create Rule, pick the criteria, and select an action (see FIGURE 4). When that type of mail arrives, Outlook will shunt it or shout out, as you choose. To have Outlook remind you of an important message, right-click it, choose Follow Up, Add Reminder, and select a date and time in the 'Due by' menu.

Send your questions and tips to nettips@spanbauer.com. We pay $50 for published items. Scott Spanbauer is a contributing editor for PC World.