Pssst! 101 hot tips

Home Office Computing, Oct, 1998 by Bonny L. Georgia

46 File it quickly. At a minimum, most e-mail clients allow you to build custom folders for sorting messages into categories as they arrive. But to harness the full potential of Eudora, you need to develop filters that will transfer messages into specific folders automatically. The easiest way to do this is to select any Eudora 4.0 message and choose Special/Make Filter. By default, this will create a filter guiding future messages into a folder with the sender's name. When you're through fine-tuning the action, click the Create Filter button to finish the job.

47 Hotlink your hot news. In Eudora, you can quickly turn important text or an embedded graphic into a hotlink to a related Web site. Select the desired element in your message and click Make Hyperlink button on the formatting toolbar. Then type in the complete URL and click OK.

48 Redirect-don't forward. Got an e-mail from a client that's better addressed by your partner? In Eudora, select the message and pick Message/Redirect from the toolbar. A copy of the message appears with the original sender's address in the From field, including any attachments. Complete the recipient's address and click Send.

49 Get the fax, ma'am. Eudora Pro 4.0 also accepts a plug-in version of JFAX Personal Telecom (888-GET-JFAX, www.jfax.com). For $12.50 per month you receive a local, private phone number in the Jfax.com city of your choice where people can send faxes and voice messages that are then forwarded to your e-mail inbox. If you don't want to go the plug-in route, try Symantec's standalone WinFax Pro 8.0 (800-441-7234, www.symantec.com; $99.95).

50 Instantly communicate. To stay in touch even when you're online, get connected instantly via Internet messaging systems. Consider America Online's Instant Messenger (www.aol.com; free), which is built in to Netscape Communicator, or Activerse's Ding! (www.activerse.com; free).

51 Smile for the camera. You work at home and your colleagues work in an office, so you see each other only when you travel, right? Wrong--if you start using a Net conferencing program. Just attach a small video camera to your monitor, load the software, and you'll be able to meet with clients all over the world. One to try: Connectix QuickCam VC (800-9505880, www.connectix.com; $129).

52 Collaborate in cyberspace. If video conferencing seems too involved and instant messaging not powerful enough, try an Internet collaboration tool instead. Microsoft NetMeeting arrives preinstalled on many Windows 98 systems, or can be downloaded as part of or in addition to IE 4. With Net-Meeting, you can gather together groups of people to chat, share files and applications, draw on a digital whiteboard, and even transmit audio and video.

53 Speed up file exchanqes. Mac users should try a compression utility like Stuffit Deluxe 4.5 (800-656-5443, www.aladdinsys.com; $80) to shrink large files down to size before sending them in an e-mail, and combine groups of small files for easy transmission.

54 Open exotic attachments easily. If you frequently receive e-mail attachments, consider installing a tool like e-ttachment Opener (DataViz, 800-733-0030, www. dataviz.com; $49), which makes it a snap to open files created in applications you don't own.