Didja Get The Memo?

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Please excuse my formatting. I had to convert it from RichText to MS-Word HTML to real HTML. 😉 The line spacing and seeming random line breaks in the section about Rich Text and indenting really are like that in the original message.

From: [CEO]

Sent: Friday, May 14, 2004 3:27 PM

To: All Staff – Newport Beach

Subject: FW: E-MAIL FORMAT

To all,

Please see message from Bill below and implement asap.

Thank you,

Peter

—–Original Message—–

From: [Guy holding the moneybags]

Sent: Friday, May 14, 2004 5:26 AM

To: [Guy holding the moneybags]

Subject: E-MAIL FORMAT

<<OutlookXP Config.PDF (230KB)>> <<Outlook98 Config.PDF (37KB)>> <<Outlook2000 Config.PDF (113KB)>>

To All:

Outlined below are some suggestions for improving my personal productivity. I believe that they will prove to be effective for most other people as well.

RICH TEXT

My personal e-mail system is set for Rich Text. I believe that Rich Text is the most useful form for sending internal e-mail messages. Internal

e-mail messages are the primary purpose for our email system. Rich Text supports various features which the other formats do not. For example

Rich Text makes it easy to indent automatically as outlined below. I see no advantages to Plain Text or HTML for internal e-mail.

I receive e-mails in Rich Text, Plain Text and HTML format.

When I receive e-mails in Plain Text or HTML, and when I reply, it wastes time to have to convert to Rich Text.

It would therefore be helpful if everyone in Drake’s e-mail system standardized on Rich Text.

FONT SIZE

I use Arial Regular font – Size 11

Studies have shown that using a large monitor VS a standard monitor will increase productivity by a very substantial percentage. Although I cannot point to studies to prove my point, I believe that using a large enough font size VS a small size will also increase productivity. Small fonts are harder to read quickly even for people with perfect eyesight and I believe diminish productivity. From my experience, I am convinced that, working with a small font, productivity declines. When small fonts appear on an even smaller screen than a standard screen, such as a Notebook screen, the problem is magnified.

When responding to an email message in which a portion of the original message might be cut and pasted, follow on typing will adapt to the font from the previous message which has been cut and pasted. Therefore again productivity is lost for me to stop and convert the font size to Size 11.

It would therefore be helpful if everyone would standardize on Font Size 11.

Whether they standardize on the Arial font is less important, although I find it to be the most crisp and clean.

RESPONSES IN BLUE

Although automatic responses in blue are an example of how computer programs can be responsive, I question the desirability of e-mail message answers appearing in blue. For one thing – when a portion of a message is cut and pasted into the reply, the same problems occur as when changing font sizes. Productivity is lost when time is taken to convert the blue copy to black.

When there is a reply to a reply, it makes no sense for the ensuing replies to all be in blue.

Those of us who travel extensively have been confronted many times with reading a response in blue in a small font sitting in the back of a taxi with a small screen Notebook and the sun streaming on to the screen. It can be almost unreadable.

I believe therefore that we would all gain in productivity if we set our computers to send replies in black

ATTACHMENTS

Some documentation on how to make the necessary changes to Outlook are attached. The instructions vary depending on the version of Outlook being used. There are therefore 3 different PDF files that document how to make the changes for Outlook 98, Outlook 2000 and Outlook XP. All three documents are attached.

Bill

Posted in: Work

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