An easy solution for the user who occasionally needs to to send a large file (over 10MB) via email, whether it is an image, an mp3, or a massive Excel spreadsheet, try using a service called YouSendIt.com.   It is super easy to use and free, if you choose the Lite plan and your file doesn’t exceed 100MB.

The steps for using it are essentially the same as attaching a file to your email:  login online, add the contact’s email address, attach the file or files (not exceeding the size limit) from your computer and send!

YouSendIt also offers handy applications to streamline office productivity.  If you use Outlook,  download the plugin to integrate YouSendIt into your Outlook email, or download YouSendIt Express which enables desktop sending and receiving.

continue

Taking the time to make a few distinctions in your Outlook Contacts has its advantages, in particular for applying bulk actions.

I sync my Blackberry phone to Outlook here at NYC Tech Guys. I use my phone for both personal and business calls, but my NYCTG email address I only use for business communication. When I sync my Blackberry to Outlook it mixes all of my personal contacts with my business contacts; I want to distinguish between the contacts, so this “how to” will show you the way to do the same for yourself.

Adding categories to your entries is worth the labor, simply because you will then have the flexibility of sorting. You can add multiple categories to a single entry, too, which solves what to do with those multifaceted people in your life.

The easiest way I found to quickly add a category to a contact is as follows: continue

Its almost a dirty word, most people secretly want something better, but are stuck with windows applications due to policy at the work place or ignorance of anything else. What am I talking about? Microsoft Office.  Boy is that one entrenched, Microsoft makes quite a lot of money on their versions of office. They would rather you pirate windows than office.  

Picture from this link (full story here)

So, what are our alternatives?

OpenOffice  This is a great suite , with the exception of email it contains all you need to replace office, some would say its even better (and faster) than office. It will handle word files, spread sheets , presentations. One of the best features? It can print to PDF natively ( get with the program Microsoft) 

It can be used on Windows, OSX and Linux Download

continue

Sure you can get around your computer using the mouse to point and click on everything, but sometimes keyboard shortcuts are faster and easier.  One of the biggest benefits is that you’re hands don’t have to leave the keyboard.  Let’s say you’re working on writing a document and need to have some bold text inserted.  You could stop typing, move your hand to the mouse, move the mouse to the “B” icon and click it, move your hand back to the keyboard and type what you need then move back to the mouse to deselect bold (phew) or you can just hit Ctrl-b, type what you need in bold and then hit Ctrl-b to turn off bold.  Simple choice, right?

The biggest reason people don’t use keyboard shortcuts is that they don’t know what the shortcuts are.  The are hundreds of available shortcuts, some that you could use multiple times a day, some that are almost never used unless you’re in a specialized job (I almost never use macros ier

continue

We find one of the most common reasons a user experiences Outlook sluggishness is because the user’s Inbox is over 2,000 messages full.  Solution:  sub file your emails.  The reason your email is slow is that Outlook is refreshing and reloading all 2,000+ emails in your Inbox as you are receiving and sending new email; your Inbox is being an energy hog!

I know you are very busy, but  sub filing is easier and quicker than you think.  It is simply making a file system within your Inbox.  This file system can be as general or detailed as suits your work habit.  I need to make a quick, but important distinction before we continue: think of sub filing as an archiving mechanism, but don’t confuse it with Outlook’s prompts to “archive”.  Without going into too much detail, avoid the auto prompt to archive, especially if you are working off an email Exchange server.  It is safer to drag your emails into sub folders within your email, in a self created archiving system, rather than following the prompt to auto archive.

Here is the most general suggestion for sorting your mail so as to optimize the speed of your Outlook Inbox: continue