• Additional Reading:
  E-mails 'hurt IQ more than pot’
  Driven to Distraction by Technology by Ina Fried (CNET News.com)
  Social Interruption and the Loss of Productivity (2002, CubeSmart, Inc.)
  The Eleven Commandments for Controlling Your Email by Nick Morgan (Harvard Business School)
  Social Interruption and the Loss of Productivity: by Maggie Leyes (AdvisorToday.com)
  4 Ways to Take Control of Your E-mail Inbox: by Sally McGhee (Microsoft.com)

• In Excel on the Tools menu, click AutoCorrect Options. On the AutoFormat As You Type tab, under Replace as you type, clear the Internet and network paths with hyperlinks check box.
• Get more tips at Microsoft's Office Online website <more>

Top 5 Most Effective Tips to Avoid Getting Spam (January 2, 2006):
The best way to avoid spam is not getting on spammers' lists in the first place. Find out how to use disposable addresses, obfuscation and your watchful eye to steer clear of spam altogether.<more>

• Stop Spam with Disposable Email Addresses: using your real, primary email address anywhere on the Web puts it at risk of being picked up by spammers. And once an email address is in the hands of one spammer, your Inbox is sure to be filled with lots of not-so-delicious spam every day. But what should you use instead of a real email address? <more>

• Watch Out for Those Checkboxes: When you sign up for something on the Web, there is often some innocent-looking text at the end of the form saying something like: "YES, I want to be contacted by select third parties concerning products I might be interested in." Quite often, the checkbox next to that text is already checked and your email address will be given to you don't know who. <more>

• Disguise Your Email Address in Newsgroups, Forums, Chat: Spammers use special programs that extract email addresses from Web sites and Usenet postings. To avoid ending on a spammer's mailing list when you post to a Web forum or a newsgroup, you can...<more>

• Use Disposable Email Addresses on Your Home Page: Using disposable email addresses in forms on the Web and for mailing lists is a great way to stop spam. But with a little effort you can even use them on your home page, too, and allow legitimate mail from unknown senders while keeping out spam...<more>

• Domain Owners: Set up Throwaway Addresses to Fight Spam: If you own a domain name, you have a great anti-spam tool at hand: your mail server. All mail to a address at your domain that does not already exist (such as "quaxidudel@ladedu.com") is forwarded to your main account by default.<more>

Using colors to stay organized in MS Outlook (December 19, 2005):
You can assign a color to everyone you trust so that when when you open Outlook, the message headers that are in black are usually suspect.

• Using this tip is a a useful way to see, at a glance, e-mail from important senders, and it's a way to delay being forced to read spam e-mail. On the Tools menu, click Organize to display the Ways to Organize Inbox task pane; Click Using Colors. Click an e-mail message in your Inbox, and you will see the name of the sender displayed in the Color messages box. Or, you can type the name in the Color messages box yourself. Select a color from the list, and then click Apply Color. To color-code e-mail messages sent only to you, 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. A few words of caution about this tip: If you receive a lot of e-mail, you probably can't color-code every single sender. But you can use this tip to color-code certain types of messages, such as those from your manager or your employees or even those sent just to you.

Say it, don't spray it: Dealing with jokes, rumors, and spam (October 24, 2005):
Microsoft's "Crabby Office Lady" offers some wise words on using the Bcc field when composing non-business e-mail for friends and family. <more>

IRS Boosts Auto Mileage Deductions (September 20, 2005):
The Internal Revenue Service boosted the standard business-mileage deduction rate for cars. <more>

Use Rules to manage your e-mail Inbox in MS Outlook (July 28, 2005): If you are overwhelmed by the number of e-mail messages in your Inbox, consider using rules.

• Rules help you manage your e-mail messages by performing actions on messages that match a specific set of conditions. After you create a rule, Microsoft Outlook applies the rule when a message arrives in your Inbox or when you send a message.

  For example, you can automatically move e-mails from a specific sender to a folder for review at a later time. I have setup folders for subscriptions, groups to which I belong and specific people. I can review the e-mails sent when I have free time rather than sort through my Inbox every time I open e-mail.

  Click here to read more about rules. For in-depth information on how to create rules, refer to the Help Menu within Microsoft Office.

• However, it's much faster to use keyboard shortcuts than to point and click. Attached are 30 useful keyboard shortcuts that can help you navigate Windows XP faster than ever! Click here for more information..

• When you have numerous Microsoft Word documents open at one time, it isn't necessary to save and close each document individually before exiting Word. You can save all of the Word documents at once by pressing [Shift] and then going to File | Save All. Word will save all of the changes you made to the open documents at once. The Save As dialog box will display for any files that have not already been named.
  
  You can close multiple documents in one fell swoop by pressing [Shift] and then going to File | Close All. If any of your documents contain unsaved changes, Word will ask you whether you want to save your changes before closing the particular file.

Organize Outlook with folders (May 9, 2005):
Outlook offers a variety of ways to organize e-mail; creating folders to store messages is one method

• Nothing is more annoying than waiting for information while someone looks through thousands of e-mail messages in their inbox. A better idea is to create folders by topic, review the e-mail, and then move it to the appropriate folder for easy retrieval later.

• Create a folder in Outlook:

  • On the File menu, point to New, and then click Folder.

  • In the Name box, enter a name for the folder.

  • In the Folder contains box, click the type of folder you want to create.

  • In the Select where to place the folder list, click the location for the folder.

Top 5 Microsoft Excel Keyboard Shortcuts (Apr. 27, 2005):
Make your use of spreadsheets easier and faster with this list of shortcuts.;
click here for a complete list of MS Excel keyboarding shortcuts.

• Ctrl + F12  Open a spreadsheet file

• Ctrl + O  Open a spreadsheet file

• Shift + F12  Save the spreadsheet

• Ctrl + S  Save the spreadsheet

• Ctrl + Shift + F12 Print the spreadsheet

Keyboard shortcut (Apr. 11, 2005):

• Hit the BACKSPACE key when browsing the internet--it's the same as clicking the "Back" button!

Top 10 Office Organization Tips (Mar. 24, 2005):
Click here to read the complete list

1. Clean out each desk drawer, to free up even more valuable storage space.

2. Clear off the top of your desk, then wipe off the surface of the desktop.

3. Keep essential items on your desktop (computer, phone, fax, card file).

4. If you work with more than one person create an in box for each person.

5. Have a master to-do list for each day at your desk.

6. Pre-Sort the mail. To-File, To-Read, To-Contact (write or call).

7. Use a variety of containers to organize office supplies, paper clips and pens.

8. Use a variety of desktop organizers or trays to organize papers that come across your desk.

9. Create a separate drawer for personal paperwork, items, etc.

10. Use storage boxes to store dated files.

Top 10 Microsoft Word Keyboard Shortcuts (Mar. 15, 2005):
Make your word processing easier and faster with this list of keyboard shortcuts;
click here for a complete list of MS Word Keyboarding shortcuts.

1. Ctrl+A Select all text in a document

2. Ctrl+B Bold the selected text
3. Ctrl+C Copy the selected text or object
4. Ctrl+I Italicize the selected text
5. Ctrl+U Underline the selected text
6. Ctrl+V Paste cut/copied text or object
7. Ctrl+Home Move to the document's first page
8. Ctrl+End Move to the document's last page
9. Shift+Enter Insert a line break
10. Ctrl+Enter Insert a page break

QIF TO IIF Converter (Feb. 28, 2005):
Converter Make your online banking easy with this specialized conversion tool.

• Do you spend a lot of time manually entering all of your business credit card purchases into QuickBooks? Now Quickbook users can utilize the same online banking features available to Quicken (personal finance software) users! Check out "QIF to IIF Converter"--a software program that will let you automatically convert a Quicken file (QIF) to the QuickBooks format (IIF).
  
  Internet banking provided by many banks allow you to export data in MS Money format or Quicken QIF format only. If you use QuickBooks, you need to convert the Quicken QIF file to an IIF to be able to read it in QuickBooks. It sounds much more intimidating that it actually is...I use it for my business too! QIF to IIF Converter supports credit card transactions as well as checks.
  
  Licence: Free to try, $50 to buy; works with Windows 2000, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT Click here to download from CNET.com

2005 Standard Mileage Rates (Feb. 10, 2005)
Set IR-2004-139, Nov. 17, 2004

• WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today released the optional standard mileage rates to use for 2005 in computing the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business, charitable, medical or moving expense purposes.
  
  Beginning Jan. 1, 2005, the standard mileage rates for the use of a car (including vans, pickups or panel trucks) will be: 40.5 cents a mile for all business miles driven, up from 37.5 cents a mile in 2004; 15 cents a mile when computing deductible medical or moving expenses, up from 14 cents a mile in 2004; and 14 cents a mile when giving services to a charitable organization. For more information, visit www.irs.gov