Organizing and Cleaning-up Your Electronic Address Book
By: Janet L. Hall
(Editors Note: This article includes instructions for Outlook
Express, Netscape Communicator, AOL, and ACT! users).
Has your email address book become unmanageable?
Do you ever look at all the email addresses and wonder, "Who
are all these people?"
Do you have difficulty locating someone in your address book
that you need to send email to NOW?
Do you know you can sort your email addresses by first and last
name, name, email address and more?
Set a date and time with yourself that you will do the following
exercises to organize and clean-up your electronic address
book.
First you want to go and view your address book, see what kind
of shape it's in.
Mine, for example, had 755 email addresses. Some had first
name, some last, but most of them just had email addresses.
One reason for that is that I have selected the option to
automatically add the email address of anyone that sends me
email (I've since turned this option off). I also found numerous
duplicates and people that I didn't even know, let alone
communicate with.
First let me demonstrate all the different ways you can view or
sort your email address book, which will make for quicker organization
and cleaning out:
OUTLOOK EXPRESS Users:
>>Open Outlook Express
>>CLICK Tools at the top of screen
>>CLICK Address Book
A new window opens and you are presented with your Address
Book.
Notice the columns have headings of NAME, E-MAIL
Address, Business Phone, and Home Phone. Note: Don't worry
if yours are a little different.
>>Place your mouse pointer at the top of the E-Mail Address
column and CLICK. Now all your E-Mail addresses will be
sorted in either ascending or descending order. CLICK again,
and the reverse happens.
Each column can be sorted in ascending or descending order by
placing your mouse pointer on the top of the column you want to sort
by and CLICKING. You can also do this by CLICKING on VIEW
(while in your address book) and CLICK Sort By.
Now, you can simply arrow down through each E-Mail address,
deleting or editing as you go.
To DELETE an E-Mail Address:
>>CLICK on the "person" to highlight and CLICK Delete at the
top of screen or the DELete key on your keyboard.
To EDIT an E-Mail Address:
>>Double CLICK on the "person" and CLICK on the NAME
Tab to edit any information.
Now you might be like me, and not want to sit in front of the
computer screen to edit and delete, although you will have to do
this eventually. When I was cleaning up mine, I was getting
ready to go to the doctors where I knew I would have to sit and
wait. So I Exported my address book, printed it out, and did my
editing on paper while sitting at the doctors. When I came back
to my office I simply went through my edited list, deleting and
editing my address book on the screen.
To EXPORT your address book:
>>While in your E-Mail Program, CLICK File and CLICK
Export
>>CLICK Address Book
>>CLICK on Text File (Comma Separated Values)
>>CLICK Export
>>CLICK Browse (This is to locate what folder you are going
to store it in; I use TEST, and to assign it a name; I use address
book)
>>CLICK SAVE
Now go and open the new file, it will be in EXCEL, adjust the
columns and print out.
NETSCAPE Users:
Basically you use the same steps to sort as an Outlook Express
user; however, the wording is slightly different:
>>CLICK on Communicator
>>CLICK on Address Book
You will have more columns and you can even add more
columns to sort on by clicking the side arrows at the bottom of
your address book.
You can also use VIEW.
I did not see an Export Function in Netscape.
AOL Users:
I used a friend's AOL account to check out AOL's email
functions and found the email addresses were already sorted in
ascending order. I did not find a way to sort or export.
However you can edit and delete.
ACT! Users:
More then an E-Mail program, yet you can sort by CLICKING
on EDIT and then CLICK SORT. You can sort your people up
to three different ways, either in ascending or descending order.
To EXPORT, go to FILE, CLICK Data Exchange, CLICK
Export and follow the wizard instructions.
Organizing Mass E-Mails:
If you find that you need to send the same mail message to
several people all the time, such as a team at work, or a
committee you're on, you can put them in a Group (Outlook
Express, AOL, and ACT!) or List (Netscape) so you don't have
to look for or type their E- Mail address all the time.
Create a group in Outlook Express:
>>Open your E-Mail program
>>CLICK on TOOLS
>>CLICK on Address Book
>>CLICK on NEW and CLICK NEW GROUP
Name your Group (this is what you will type into the TO: when
you want to send them all the same E-Mail). Now just follow the
instructions on your screen and start adding the people you want
to be in this group.
AOL, ACT!, and Netscape programs have similar steps for
creating groups. If you are using one of these programs, check
out their HELP feature if you need help creating groups.
I have found that most E-Mail programs contain the above basic
functions for organizing your E-Mail addresses; however, it
would be next to impossible to try and include them all here.
You can discover what your E-Mail program can do by
checking out their HELP Section and you just might stumble
across some neat "stuff."
~~~~~
Thank you for supporting me in my work.
============
Janet Hall is a Professional Organizer-Certified ,
Certified Pyramid Feng Shui Practitioner, Speaker, and Author
and can help you regain control of your life, your time, your
stuff, and your environment. Organizing By Phone and in person
at http://www.overhall.com
Copyright (c) 2001-2008 by OverHall Consulting
P.O. Box 263, Port Republic, MD 20676
All Rights Reserved. Permission is granted to reproduce,
copy, or distribute so long as article is kept intact, this
copyright notice and full information about contacting the
author is attached.
