Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Monday, July 28, 2008
Administration resources
Here is a list of magazines, books and websites that have caught my eye lately:
Professional Magazines:
OfficePro
This is a well-written professional magazine put out by the International Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP).
Admin Advantage
This is also a very good professional magazine by Desk Demon based in the UK and the United States.
Websites:
45 Things by Workplace Columnist Anita Bruzzese
I love visiting Anita's blog. She is insightful and has witty and relevant articles about your career and workplace.
Admin Secret - "In the Know, Running the Show"
This is a new site for administrative professionals and is part of the Monster.com family. It is a fun site to visit, with interesting and relevant articles for the office worker.
Office Arrow - "For Office Professionals, By Office Professionals"
As the title states, this is a site created for and by office professionals and you can tell. The articles are very well written and are relevant to what we do every day. A must-visit site.
The Brazen Careerist - by Penelope Trunk
This can be an interesting site to visit. Sometimes it is more personal than work, but then work can be personal. It is a mixed bag of good information that can really hit the mark.
Books:
How Full is Your Bucket? Positive Strategies for Work and Life - by Tom Rath and Donald Clifton
Working Relationships: The Simple Truth About Getting Along with Friends and Foes at Work - by Bob Wall
I have commented on this book and recommended it often. It is a very good read with great tips and stategies for getting along with our co-workers.
Nuts, Bolts and Jolts - by Richard Moran
I get so many quotes from this book. It is filled with fun and serious quotes about work and business.
These are just a few of many. Check out the sidebar of the blog "My Blog List" for more interesting links.
If there are any good magazines, books and sites that you want to share, I'd love to hear about them.
Professional Magazines:
OfficePro
This is a well-written professional magazine put out by the International Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP).
Admin Advantage
This is also a very good professional magazine by Desk Demon based in the UK and the United States.
Websites:
45 Things by Workplace Columnist Anita Bruzzese
I love visiting Anita's blog. She is insightful and has witty and relevant articles about your career and workplace.
Admin Secret - "In the Know, Running the Show"
This is a new site for administrative professionals and is part of the Monster.com family. It is a fun site to visit, with interesting and relevant articles for the office worker.
Office Arrow - "For Office Professionals, By Office Professionals"
As the title states, this is a site created for and by office professionals and you can tell. The articles are very well written and are relevant to what we do every day. A must-visit site.
The Brazen Careerist - by Penelope Trunk
This can be an interesting site to visit. Sometimes it is more personal than work, but then work can be personal. It is a mixed bag of good information that can really hit the mark.
Books:
How Full is Your Bucket? Positive Strategies for Work and Life - by Tom Rath and Donald Clifton
Working Relationships: The Simple Truth About Getting Along with Friends and Foes at Work - by Bob Wall
I have commented on this book and recommended it often. It is a very good read with great tips and stategies for getting along with our co-workers.
Nuts, Bolts and Jolts - by Richard Moran
I get so many quotes from this book. It is filled with fun and serious quotes about work and business.
These are just a few of many. Check out the sidebar of the blog "My Blog List" for more interesting links.
If there are any good magazines, books and sites that you want to share, I'd love to hear about them.
http://www.adminsecret.com/topics/124-is-it-all-right-to-ask-how-much-do-you-earn/posts
Nice Website for the office administration
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Outlook Inbox organize
Power Tips for
Organizing Your Outlook Inbox
Power Tips for Organizing
Your Outlook Inbox
Microsoft Outlook offers a wealth of Inbox management settings that you can use to
customize the appearance of the Inbox to suit your needs. This document gives you tips on
some ways to organize your Inbox, namely how to:
Group e-mail messages by thread and sort by date.
Color-code e-mail messages.
Format the font attributes of e-mail messages.
Create and formulate a new user-defined field.
Group e-mail messages by thread and sort by date
Grouping related e-mail messages together (that is, grouping them according to threads and
sorting them by date) makes an e-mail conversation easy to follow.
To group messages by thread and sort by date
1. Right-click the column header bar. This is the bar above your e-mail messages, with
the column headings From, Subject, and so on.
2. Click Group By Box on the shortcut menu.
3. Right-click the column header bar again.
4. Click Field Chooser on the shortcut menu. This displays the Field Chooser dialog
box.
5. Drag the Conversation field to the Group By box.
Now, see how the e-mail messages are grouped by conversation on a particular subject and
sorted in descending order based on date and time.
Note To undo, first display the Field Chooser dialog box as in steps 3 and 4. Then drag the
Conversation field from the Group By box back to the Field Chooser dialog box.
How quickly you should respond to an e-mail message often depends on who sent it and
who the e-mail message recipients are. For example, if the e-mail message is from your
manager and you are the sole recipient, more likely than not, you would need to respond to
it quickly.
You might also want to know at a glance, without actually opening an e-mail message,
whether you are the sole recipient or it was sent to a group of people. You can do this by
color-coding your e-mail messages. You can easily modify your Inbox view to display
color-coding by formatting the font color of your e-mail messages.
To color-code your messages
1. On the Tools menu, click Organize to display the Ways to Organize Inbox task
pane.
2. Click Using Colors.
3. Click an e-mail message in your Inbox, and you will find the name of the sender
displayed in the Color messages box. Or, you can type the name in the Color messages
box yourself.
4. Select a color from the list.
5. Click Apply Color.
6. To color-code e-mail messages sent to you only, select a color from the Show
messages sent only to me in list. Click Turn on to set the color. To undo, click Turn
off.
For example, you might set messages from Jay Adams to red, e-mail messages sent only to
you might be set to blue, and group e-mail messages might be set to black.
Note To undo or select another color, follow the previous steps and reselect your color
preferences.
Format font attributes
Responding to e-mail messages in a timely manner is critical to efficient communication.
One of the ways that can help you see quickly how long ago you received messages is by
formatting the font attributes of the e-mail messages in your Inbox.
To format the font attributes of messages
1. Right-click the column header bar.
2. Click Customize Current View on the shortcut menu. This displays the View
Summary dialog box.
3. Click Automatic Formatting. This displays the Automatic Formatting dialog box.
4. Click Add, and then click Condition. This displays the Filter dialog box.
5. Click the Advanced tab, and then click Field.
6. Point to Date/Time fields, and then click Received.
7. In the Condition list, click yesterday.
8. Click Add to List, and then click OK to close the Filter dialog box.
9. Back in the Automatic Formatting dialog box, click Font to apply formatting. This
displays the Font dialog box.
10. Select your font preferences, and then click OK.
11. In the Name box, type an appropriate name. Note that the exact name now appears
as one of the selections in the Rules for this view list.
12. Click OK.
Repeat these steps for each type of formatting you want. The e-mail messages that arrive
today are formatted to appear in normal font, yesterday's messages are in italic font, and
messages two or more days old are italicized and underlined.
Note To undo, follow the preceding steps and make your changes accordingly.
Create and formulate a new user-defined field
You can also add a custom column to your Inbox that shows the age of e-mail messages in
hours and days.
To show the age of e-mail in hours and days
1. Right-click the column header bar, and then click Field Chooser on the shortcut
menu.
2. Click New. This displays the New Field dialog box.
3. In the Type list, click Formula.
4. In the Formula box, type the following formula: DateDiff("h",[Received],Now())
5. Type a name for this formula in the Name box, such as E-mail Age, and then click
OK. Notice that back in the Field Chooser dialog box, User-defined fields in Inbox is
now displayed in the list, and the field that you just defined (E-mail Age) is shown
below it.
6. Drag the new field you just created to the column header bar, placing it next to the
column heading Received.
7. Notice that even though the new column has been added, it is not formatted properly
yet. To format it, right-click the column header bar.
8. On the shortcut menu, click Format Columns.
9. This displays the Format Columns dialog box. The field you created earlier, which
is E-mail Age, should be in the Available fields list. Click E-mail Age.
10. In the Formula box, type the following formula: DateDiff("h",[Received],Now())
& " hours ( " & DateDiff("d",[Received],Now()) & " day(s) ) old"
11. Click OK.
You can now quickly and easily see how old the e-mail messages in your Inbox are.
Note To undo, right-click the column header bar. Next, click Field Chooser on the shortcut
menu. Drag E-mail Age from the column header bar to the Field Chooser dialog box.
Organizing Your Outlook Inbox
Power Tips for Organizing
Your Outlook Inbox
Microsoft Outlook offers a wealth of Inbox management settings that you can use to
customize the appearance of the Inbox to suit your needs. This document gives you tips on
some ways to organize your Inbox, namely how to:
Group e-mail messages by thread and sort by date.
Color-code e-mail messages.
Format the font attributes of e-mail messages.
Create and formulate a new user-defined field.
Group e-mail messages by thread and sort by date
Grouping related e-mail messages together (that is, grouping them according to threads and
sorting them by date) makes an e-mail conversation easy to follow.
To group messages by thread and sort by date
1. Right-click the column header bar. This is the bar above your e-mail messages, with
the column headings From, Subject, and so on.
2. Click Group By Box on the shortcut menu.
3. Right-click the column header bar again.
4. Click Field Chooser on the shortcut menu. This displays the Field Chooser dialog
box.
5. Drag the Conversation field to the Group By box.
Now, see how the e-mail messages are grouped by conversation on a particular subject and
sorted in descending order based on date and time.
Note To undo, first display the Field Chooser dialog box as in steps 3 and 4. Then drag the
Conversation field from the Group By box back to the Field Chooser dialog box.
How quickly you should respond to an e-mail message often depends on who sent it and
who the e-mail message recipients are. For example, if the e-mail message is from your
manager and you are the sole recipient, more likely than not, you would need to respond to
it quickly.
You might also want to know at a glance, without actually opening an e-mail message,
whether you are the sole recipient or it was sent to a group of people. You can do this by
color-coding your e-mail messages. You can easily modify your Inbox view to display
color-coding by formatting the font color of your e-mail messages.
To color-code your messages
1. On the Tools menu, click Organize to display the Ways to Organize Inbox task
pane.
2. Click Using Colors.
3. Click an e-mail message in your Inbox, and you will find the name of the sender
displayed in the Color messages box. Or, you can type the name in the Color messages
box yourself.
4. Select a color from the list.
5. Click Apply Color.
6. To color-code e-mail messages sent to you only, select a color from the Show
messages sent only to me in list. Click Turn on to set the color. To undo, click Turn
off.
For example, you might set messages from Jay Adams to red, e-mail messages sent only to
you might be set to blue, and group e-mail messages might be set to black.
Note To undo or select another color, follow the previous steps and reselect your color
preferences.
Format font attributes
Responding to e-mail messages in a timely manner is critical to efficient communication.
One of the ways that can help you see quickly how long ago you received messages is by
formatting the font attributes of the e-mail messages in your Inbox.
To format the font attributes of messages
1. Right-click the column header bar.
2. Click Customize Current View on the shortcut menu. This displays the View
Summary dialog box.
3. Click Automatic Formatting. This displays the Automatic Formatting dialog box.
4. Click Add, and then click Condition. This displays the Filter dialog box.
5. Click the Advanced tab, and then click Field.
6. Point to Date/Time fields, and then click Received.
7. In the Condition list, click yesterday.
8. Click Add to List, and then click OK to close the Filter dialog box.
9. Back in the Automatic Formatting dialog box, click Font to apply formatting. This
displays the Font dialog box.
10. Select your font preferences, and then click OK.
11. In the Name box, type an appropriate name. Note that the exact name now appears
as one of the selections in the Rules for this view list.
12. Click OK.
Repeat these steps for each type of formatting you want. The e-mail messages that arrive
today are formatted to appear in normal font, yesterday's messages are in italic font, and
messages two or more days old are italicized and underlined.
Note To undo, follow the preceding steps and make your changes accordingly.
Create and formulate a new user-defined field
You can also add a custom column to your Inbox that shows the age of e-mail messages in
hours and days.
To show the age of e-mail in hours and days
1. Right-click the column header bar, and then click Field Chooser on the shortcut
menu.
2. Click New. This displays the New Field dialog box.
3. In the Type list, click Formula.
4. In the Formula box, type the following formula: DateDiff("h",[Received],Now())
5. Type a name for this formula in the Name box, such as E-mail Age, and then click
OK. Notice that back in the Field Chooser dialog box, User-defined fields in Inbox is
now displayed in the list, and the field that you just defined (E-mail Age) is shown
below it.
6. Drag the new field you just created to the column header bar, placing it next to the
column heading Received.
7. Notice that even though the new column has been added, it is not formatted properly
yet. To format it, right-click the column header bar.
8. On the shortcut menu, click Format Columns.
9. This displays the Format Columns dialog box. The field you created earlier, which
is E-mail Age, should be in the Available fields list. Click E-mail Age.
10. In the Formula box, type the following formula: DateDiff("h",[Received],Now())
& " hours ( " & DateDiff("d",[Received],Now()) & " day(s) ) old"
11. Click OK.
You can now quickly and easily see how old the e-mail messages in your Inbox are.
Note To undo, right-click the column header bar. Next, click Field Chooser on the shortcut
menu. Drag E-mail Age from the column header bar to the Field Chooser dialog box.
Managing someone else's inbox - tips?
In my previous employment, I handled my boss's email and one thing I learned right away: there is no easy way to avoid duplication and still keep your boss informed. Here is our system:
1- I did not EVER delete anything. If I had, there would have inevitably been those arguments about, "Where is this?" Instead, I just sorted stuff.
2 - We created three file folders:
1) Junk
2) Personal
2) News
This way, I could pull out items that fell in any of these three categories, leaving the inbox ONLY work-related material. This helped hugely. If this was all I did, it would have been enough to keep him sane when dealing with his inbox. About once a day, he would go through the filed email and empty the folders.
3 - When there was an item he wanted me to take care of, it was flagged a specific color. Once I had taken care of it, it was flagged a different color. Of course, to fully keep your boss in the loop, it's helpful to cc him on your follow up emails of items you are handling. Otherwise, if you don't do this, you need to be extra cautious about setting a specific time to "download" everything you've done and taken care of. If you don't, it's likely that, a week from now, your boss will come into your office in a panic wondering what happened with a specific issue. Avoid that momentary freak out and show him when and how you're doing things. If he decides he doesn't want to see the dup message, you can rethink the strategy.
FYI - If your boss travels a lot and uses a blackberry, the flag system won't work. Keep that in mind and be aware that you'll need to
adjust your system to account for that. My boss would just forward messages to my inbox when he wanted me to take care of things. It was a simple enough solution but, of course, another email in my own flooded inbox ;)
Good luck. I have to tell you that managing my boss's inbox and his calendar where the two most difficult and stressful tasks for me. It's not that it's hard, but everyone has a specific way that they want things done - and many executives are very particular. Try out different methods and see what works.
1- I did not EVER delete anything. If I had, there would have inevitably been those arguments about, "Where is this?" Instead, I just sorted stuff.
2 - We created three file folders:
1) Junk
2) Personal
2) News
This way, I could pull out items that fell in any of these three categories, leaving the inbox ONLY work-related material. This helped hugely. If this was all I did, it would have been enough to keep him sane when dealing with his inbox. About once a day, he would go through the filed email and empty the folders.
3 - When there was an item he wanted me to take care of, it was flagged a specific color. Once I had taken care of it, it was flagged a different color. Of course, to fully keep your boss in the loop, it's helpful to cc him on your follow up emails of items you are handling. Otherwise, if you don't do this, you need to be extra cautious about setting a specific time to "download" everything you've done and taken care of. If you don't, it's likely that, a week from now, your boss will come into your office in a panic wondering what happened with a specific issue. Avoid that momentary freak out and show him when and how you're doing things. If he decides he doesn't want to see the dup message, you can rethink the strategy.
FYI - If your boss travels a lot and uses a blackberry, the flag system won't work. Keep that in mind and be aware that you'll need to
adjust your system to account for that. My boss would just forward messages to my inbox when he wanted me to take care of things. It was a simple enough solution but, of course, another email in my own flooded inbox ;)
Good luck. I have to tell you that managing my boss's inbox and his calendar where the two most difficult and stressful tasks for me. It's not that it's hard, but everyone has a specific way that they want things done - and many executives are very particular. Try out different methods and see what works.
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