Etiquette Do's Etiquette Don'ts Symbols E-Speak Signatures Important Email Addresses International Etiquette Proper Care of Email Between 1988 and 1994, the U.S. Postal Service's mail-delivery marketshare dropped from 77 to 62 percent, while electronic alternatives increased their share from 19 to 36 percent? —Iconoclast

"The Claris Guide to Email Etiquette" Electronic mail (or "email" as it is most commonly known) works very much like postal mail. You receive mail at your own "address," and you send mail to others at their addresses. If you have used a computer to type a letter, then you have most of the skills needed to send email. The only difference is that with regular mail you would have to print out the letter and put it in a mailbox, whereas with email you press a key or two and the letter is transmitted electronically to the recipient. When the use of email began in 1972 as a way for academicians around the world to quickly and easily communicate with each other, there were less than 100 people online. Today, with 60 million Americans having access to email, and 12.8 million U.S. households using email from home,1 it is the most widely used application on the Internet. Forty-one percent of email users report using email daily, and another 27 percent use it at least weekly.2 By the year 2001, it is projected that the number of Americans who will communicate via email will be 135 million (half the population!), and they will send more than 500 million personal messages a day. By the year 2005, users will be sending more than 5 billion personal messages a day.3 What does all this mean to you? Email is hot, and getting hotter. Chances are, sooner or later you will be using email, if you don't already, and with the use of email comes a whole new language, set of unspoken rules, and responsibilities - what is commonly known as Email Etiquette. This guide has been created to help you become email savvy as you enter, or continue in, the exciting world of email communication.

forty-seven percent of those who have not yet used the Internet or email to stay in touch with loved ones, would like to learn how? Claris Survey

The proliferation of email across the Internet and online services such as America Online and CompuServe, as well as corporate Intranets, has resulted in a new way of communicating, with evolving nuances and subtleties that the new user might be unaware of. Following are some hints that will put you "in the know" and keep you out of what can become sticky cyber situations. Be Concise One of the many luxuries of email is its ability to answer a question or communicate a thought in a more quick and informal manner than a letter or a phone call. Keeping emails short helps to keep email more productive. Attention may drift if emails are too long. Avoid "Flames" A "flame" is an inflammatory or critical message. Avoid sending junk emails, emails with insufficient information or any other email that might trigger an upsetting response from the recipient. Use Asterisks Use asterisks to highlight a key word or thought for emphasis (i.e. thank you *very* much). Use asterisks only when necessary to highlight a point as overuse of asterisks may make the sender seem insincere. Use Threads Threads are a series of responses to an original message. It is helpful to, rather than start an entirely new message as a response, continue with the thread by pressing "reply" to the messages until the communication is complete. Keeping the thread information together makes it easier for the participants to follow the chain of information that has been exchanged. Avoid Spamming Spam, when used in reference to email, means electronic garbage. Sending junk email (such as an advertisement) using a newsgroup or a list serve, or to anyone you don't know, is considered "spamming." Avoid this annoying practice. Tip: to minimize the appearance of long distribution lists, send your intended email message to yourself (To: yourname@yourcompany.com) and blind courtesy copy (BCC: recipientsname@theircompany.com) all other recipients of your email message. Each recipient of your email message will see only his or her name at the top of the email message.

that with 9.1 million college students using email regularly, it is projected that phone bills will decline as email becomes the favored means of long distance communication. —IDC/LINK

Use ALL CAPS This is the online equivalent of shouting. Don't use a string of capital letters in your correspondence unless absolutely necessary. Repeat Messages Sending the same message to the same recipient more than once can be perceived as pestering a person. It is courteous to give recipients a chance to respond to a previous message before re-sending the original message. Many people send and receive email at regularly scheduled times of the day only. Overuse Mail Distribution Lists When you're sending a message to many people, a long delivery list may appear at the top of the message. This can annoy readers. It also can make your message seem like junk mail. Claris Emailer 2.0 is the fast, flexible easy way to manage email. It features a powerful, accessible email address book; integrated spell-checking and multi-tasking (for example, composing a message while a file is downloading). All these factors make it easy for people to be more productive with Claris Emailer 2.0 than with any other email package.

that the symbol '>' indicates quoting from a previous string of emails, and the symbol ">>" indicates the quoting of a previous quote?

As moods, personalities and emotions are difficult to convey when using email, symbols, referred to as "emoticons," have been developed to help communicate feelings and show some personality when appropriate. For those not blessed with literary flair, they can be an amusing way for even the wordsmith wary to add warmth to their emails. Symbol Translation : -) smiley face/happy ;-) wink :-( frown/sad 8-) eye-glasses :-O yell :-@ scream :-| indifference :-/ perplexed ;-} leer :-e disappointment :-> devilish grin :-D shock or surprise :-P wry smile :-Q smoker C=:-) chef :-! foot in mouth :-{ mustache d:-) baseball smiley :-& tongue tied :- male >- female

If you will not be checking email for some time, you can have a prepared reply automatically sent to incoming messages?

Much of the language used in email, or what we at Claris call E-Speak, has evolved from the lack of body language and status cues in online communications. Therefore, to understand emails and send impressive ones, using email today means having to learn E-Speak fluently. Here are some tips. One of the many beauties of email is that it is a fast and relatively informal way to communicate. Oftentimes, email messages are dashed off while on the phone, between errands or meetings, or as a quick "hello." As a result, an email "code" in the form of acronyms has emerged. Following is a list of some common email acronyms to help you decipher the next email you receive and to provide you with a fun, fast way to get your point across. But be aware—rushed messages can lead to misplaced informality and bad grammar. Acronym Translation BCNU Be seeing you BTW By the way FWIW For what it's worth FAQ Frequently asked questions F2F Face to face FYI For your information IMHO In my humble opinion IRL In real life OBO Or best offer ROTFL Rolling on the floor laughing TNSTAAFL There's no such thing as a free lunch TTFN Ta ta for now TTYL Talk to you later Integrated Spell Checker - No more worrying about embarrassing spelling errors! Claris Emailer has an integrated Claris Dictionary for complete spell checking.

that 11 million of the internet's 36 million business users use email software. —IDC Research

The way one signs email correspondence is often an expression in itself. Whether the user's preference is to be formal or funny, quick or quirky, email allows you to "sign off" with your personal style. Some sample signatures: Cheers, Suzie -tmr Bradley Snideman Hinkley Construction 415/555-8000 Tamara :-) \\|// (o o) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~w~~~U~~~w~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~ \_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_ \ Gabe L. Roofe ~ ~ \_ \_ \_ \ ------------------------ ~ ~ \_ \_\_\_ \_ \_ \_ \ groofe@isp.com ~ ~ \_ \_ \_ \_ \ ---------------------- ~ ~ \_\_\_\_ \_ \_ \ GabeRoofe@aol.com ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Support for an unlimited number of signatures lets Emailer 2.0 users create business-related signatures, personal signatures or any number of whimsical signatures ready for specific or random use.

Queen Elizabeth II sent her first email in 1976?

The rising use of email allows users to not only stay connected to friends, family, clients and colleagues, but enables people to reach the otherwise unreachable. With email, you can now contact anyone from President Clinton to Prince Charles. Following are some famous, and useful, email addresses for your book. Bill Clinton president@whitehouse.gov Hillary Clinton first.lady@whitehouse.gov Al Gore vice.president@whitehouse.gov Madeline Albright secretary@state.gov Prince Charles charlie@buckm.palace.royal.uk The X-Files x_files@delphi.com The Sci-Fi channel orbit@usanetworks.com Dateline Show dateline@nbc.com NASA comments@www.hq.nasa.gov Library of Congress lcweb@loc.gov U.S. Postal Service customer@email.usps.gov National Institutes of Health nihinfo@od31tm1.od.nih.gov All U.S. Senators senator@senatorlastname.senate.gov (i.e. senator@kennedy.senate.gov) If a recipient's name is in your Emailer Address Book, just type the first few letters of that person's name and the address line automatically fills in with the name, email address and destination service. If the recipient's name is not in the Address Book, it can be entered manually. Address books or databases, in contact management software or in the programs supplied by services such as America Online or CompuServe, can be easily imported into Emailer 2.0 to avoid manual data entry.

China requires Internet users and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to register with the police, and Saudi Arabia confines Internet access to universities and hospitals?

Over 100 countries are using email today, and it's no wonder, as using email for international communications means no international phone bills, no waiting for letters to cross the globe, and no embarrassing phone calls at midnight! Because email cuts across the world's cultures and spans all time zones, however, it is necessary to keep the following cultural nuances in mind when sending email abroad. Patience At times you will send an email that will arrive during your recipient's off-work hours, or on a holiday you didn't know about, and won't be responded to for a few days. Be patient before re-transmitting the same message or sending a follow up message. Dates/Time When sending an international email that includes dates and times be sure to translate using date and time conventions for the appropriate country. Sarcasm/Humor Be cautious when using humor and sarcasm in international emails. Different countries and cultures have different perceptions of what is funny or appropriate. Many points have been missed and international contacts lost due to misunderstanding of humor. Contact Information Always provide proper international dialing telephone codes and contact information when sending emails overseas. Monetary Translations When using currency figures, be sure to use either both countries' monetary systems or the terminology used in the country the financial dealings take place in. Claris Emailer 2.0 helps users communicate easily with virtually any email address in the world, without mastering different email services. Emailer can consolidate multiple (an unlimited number) email accounts for the Internet and supported online services in one application. In other words, users can set up Emailer to automatically connect to and retrieve mail from all their email accounts. Claris Emailer 2.0 is a snap to learn, and the perfect traveling companion for notebook computer users.

that although email is private, it can be accessed by others. Company email administrators have the ability to access messages and/or personal mailboxes?

Improper care of an email system can cause a slowdown of email transmission and other computer sluggishness. Similar to proper maintenance of a car, the better your email is managed, the higher the performance quality. If mail is properly maintained, cleaned and organized, there will be better all around functioning of the computer system, and you can avoid dangers such as lost or misfiled emails. Clean Your Email Try to keep the number of messages in your inbox or message log at a minimum by cleaning out email inboxes, draft boxes and message logs frequently. Set up unique folders and move messages to these folders, thus freeing up space in the inbox area and ultimately speeding up email productivity. Always discard all but one email when "thread" messages are passing back and forth. Store Messages Backup email messages to disks for future reference and easy and safe storage. Check Email Regularly Similar to regular postal service mail, email should be checked on a regular basis. Frequent checks of email will help to keep email inboxes clean and running properly. Virus Scan Regularly scan the computer system for viruses. A virus can wipe out an entire mailbox in seconds. Claris Emailer 2.0 provides custom and five-level hierarchical file folders for message storage which lets users group email in more intelligent ways that make sense for them. A single database stores all email messages in Emailer, dramatically reducing the amount of disk space required for storing messages. The result is overall consistency throughout the application, ensuring even more effective email management.

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