E-mail Books

This book is a great starting point for learning the features (and there are a lot of them!) of Outlook 2000. The author has a web site that has a lot more indepth features than she put in the book, but the book is a good starter book.

No matter what your reason for running Outlook 2000 (or OL2K), sooner or later you're going to run into situations where you wish you had your own "genie" to guide you. When it comes to OL2K E-mail and Fax, Sue Mosher's new book is the next best thing. The book is tailored to the needs of e-mail and fax users, allowing Mosher to delve deeply into issues that are usually glossed over in similar books. From technical installation options to composing HTML stationary, she covers each topic with 'gusto' and experience. I continually asked myself "Where in the heck does she get all of this 'inside' info?"

I especially recommend this book to administrators or advanced users who have not yet set up their OL2K environment. By reviewing the various modes and options ahead of time, you will be able to choose the set of features that work for *your* situation.

Indeed, the book is a roadmap. At the end of each chapter you'll find a section called FOR MORE INFORMATION that steers you based on what you're trying to accomplish. The destinations include book chapters, WWW sites, and even utilities on the web.

Absolute beginners will find the book daunting - there is a lot of technical information packed into the 550+ pages. But I have learned that absolute beginners don't stay that way very long and will soon be exploring other nooks and crannies in the OL2K workspace. If you're the kind of person that just uses e-mail because you're forced to, then this is not the book for you. But if you're a beginner or intermediate Outlook user curious about how you can do more than FROM and TO, then take a look at this book.

Power users and administrators: your ship has come in! You *will* lose sleep as you find yourself going deeper and deeper into OL2K's feature set. Others nearby may be startled by your occasional "A-ha!" or "That's why...." or "Where in the heck does she get all of this 'inside' info?" Seriously, this is a *must have* volume for any professional who needs to get the most out of OL2K's e-mail and fax features.

Fair warning: You will find Mosher's book so useful that you'll probably want to move on to her other book where you actually start programming OL2K to do what you want. Again, Mosher will be your guide, laying out the roadmap....

Having spent the better part of the last 15 years in the pc environment, I tend to tweak a program as much as possible to produce output that meets my demands. I was having a problem finding an e-mail solution that enabled me to produce an attractive mass mail message using logos, various fonts and other objects. After spending an inordinate amount of hours reading other manuals, and messages in virtual communities where I came upon Sue Mosher's name, I decided to buy this book. My first reaction was to "get it right away" and go to the "bricks and mortar" competition in my neighborhood. Too technical for them, but they could special order it. Instead, I ordered it from Amazon using the fastest delivery possible. Got it in two days in spite of the 4th of July holiday. Opened up the book and found the solution I was seeking in less than 10 minutes. Am starting to explore other areas in this magnificent book. An excellent resource.

I was very disappointed after reading this book. After reading several of the other reviews, I thought this book would cover the medium to advanced features of Outlook. Instead, there are chapters devoted to "receiving email", "how to enter in contacts", etc. This book is way to BASIC to be considered a complete guide.

Sixth grade is turning out to be the trickiest year ever for Bennet, Pete, and Elizabeth. Bennet and Pete are best friends, Bennet and Elizabeth hate each other, and Pete has a huge crush on Elizabeth. Got that? Things are even more complicated because the kids have similar interests that put them in competition with each other, whether they like it or not. Bennet and Pete run their own news website called Deep Doo-Doo, and Elizabeth is the editor-in-chief of the school newspaper, The Purple Patch.

So when somebody climbs up the flagpole in front of the Town Hall and sticks a pumpkin on top of it, Bennet and Pete post the story on Deep Doo-Doo immediately --- but Elizabeth scoops them with a news flash from The Purple Patch. When Bennet cleverly scoops Elizabeth's scoop, he makes her seriously furious. They fight a war of whispers in social studies class, which gets some unwelcome attention from their teacher. He decides that a fitting punishment is to make them partners on their Civil War project. He says they have to work together to solve the Great Pumpkin Caper. What's that got to do with the Civil War? When Bennet and Elizabeth try to work together on anything, it's a civil war!

Well, with their teacher cracking the whip, plus a $500 reward offered by the town's newspaper to anybody who can find out who planted that pumpkin, Bennet, Pete, and Elizabeth start solving the mystery as a team. Pete, of course, is in seventh heaven around Elizabeth. Bennet has to grudgingly admire her detective skills. And she's a terrific reporter.

As they begin to gather all the facts and come up with some suspects, they get a little help from some mysterious e-mails sent to Deep Doo-Doo. At first the e-mails just seem like bad poetry, and they don't even make any sense. Until Elizabeth cracks their code and the kids realize that the poems are clues to the pumpkin mystery! When the kids narrow down the suspects and interview the top person on their list, they get into some really deep doo-doo. They find out that new mysteries mixed together with old ones can send folks off the edge. What will Bennet, Elizabeth and Pete do when they discover the secret of the pumpkin on the flagpole? And will they all end up friends? Find out in this fun whodunit.

--- Reviewed by Tamara Penny

Election politics and cyber sleuthing make this a timely and entertaining read.
Pete and Bennet are best friends and run the Deep Doo-Doo website. They live to be the first to break a story. Someone stuck a big pumpkin on top of the Town Hall flag pole. How did it get up there? Who did it? Are the mysterious coded emails coming in to the website a clue? Mysteries abound in the context of the town's mayoral election. Good fun.

I thought this book was very fun to read because I like mystery books. The way that Pete, Bennet, and Elizabeth found out the mysterious e-mail was very interesting. They should also make this book into a kid's movie. I think it will be fun to watch how Pete, Bennet, and Elizabeth solve the mystery instead of just reading about it.
I think this is a good book for kids my age who are 8-12 years old. It is easy to read and very easy to understand. I wish that there were pictures in the book so that I could see some of the scenes from the story. I want to see the scene where Pete types a message in the car window. I also thought it was really cool how Elizabeth knew what the mysterious e-mails meant. Go and read this book!

Does your company or organization have a policy that covers writing style in electronic communications? Does your company or organization have cyberinsurance to cover losses attributed to errors or employee misbehavior using your e-mail systems? Does your company or organization offer netiquette training for employees and managers? These are topics that many do not think of but should and that are covered in detail in The ePolicy Handbook: Designing and Implementing Effective E-Mail, Internet and Software Policies by Nancy Flynn (256 pages ; The American Management Association, 2001). Though this book is a few years old, it is worthwhile for Human Resource managers and anyone else involved in the development of ePolicies for their company organization.

The book starts out by covering what every organization should do when deciding what kind of business controls to put in place: the conduct of a risk-assessment. This step is key to putting together a team, conducting a control self-assessment (the author refers to this as an audit, which really is the wrong term from a business controls perspective).

The second part of the book covers the establishment of over all ePolicies to limit liability and exposure. One of the key considerations here is the purchase of appropriate liability insurance. As the reader moves through the book, they will be walked through the steps to craft effective policies for the use of E-Mail. the Internet, and computer software (especially piracy issues). It is after this point where most readers will get perhaps the biggest surprise and guidance. Specifically, the reader will be walked through what steps are needed to truly make any written policies effective. This includes getting buy-in from all line managers, communication of the policies, training and following through. The reader will then be walked through the establishment of eWriting policies for employees, with the main point being that writing e-mail communications should follow the same rules and style of other written communication sent through snail mail. The book finishes up discussing how to respond to an eCrisis.

The book is a very easy read and can be a valuable resource. The only things I did not like about the book is that there are too many points repeated in the book and the fact that the book did not include a CD-ROM of samples from the book was not included. The repeated points may have been for emphasis, but to this reader often seemed to be space filler. The only other caution for potential readers is that the book, while providing good information and examples, seems to be a lead-in as a commercial for the services and her colleagues in and around Columbus, Ohio. I wish that had been a little less blatant than as presented in Appendix E.

The Scorecard: Par on an average Par 4.

This key to designing and implementing email and software policies in a company structure provides business owners and managers with important information on how to produce clear policies which regulate computer use. From workplace piracy to e-theft insurance, Nancy Flynn's The ePolicy Handbook covers a wide range of topics and concerns.

This book covers all of the key points and provides some excellent topics to include in a corporate e-policy. The goal of this book is to aid you in developing a policy that will provide clear, enforceable guidelines to your employees in the acceptable use of the Internet and electronic mail, and to protect your company's image.

It starts out with a well developed approach to assessing your current situation with respect to Internet and software usage, and provides a handy list of questions to aid in this task. The key objective is to discover your company's exposures and what abuse of systems or services [if any] need to be immediately addressed by the policy.

In order to fully understand the results of your assessment and how they relate to risks and exposures, the author provides fundamentals of "cyberlaw" and general security concerns that will indicate, roughly, the degree of risk your company faces. These are important considerations for tailoring an e-policy to which your employees can relate. I liked the chapter on cyber insurance products and how they can be used to transfer some of the inherent risks to an underwriter. I didn't even know such policies existed. The author also addresses software piracy, which can be a big issue because the world wide web has many sources for pirated software (commonly called "Warez"). It goes without saying that pirated software can expose your company to legal headaches and expenses, not to mention technical headaches and lost productivity that will occur if that stolen software also comes with a virus attached.

The book then shows you how to develop an e-policy that is based on your assessment results, and the issues previously discussed in the book. What is valuable here is that the author provides a list of all elements that need to be included in the policy. Moreover the next chapters provide additional material that will prove to be invaluable in preparing your company for the policy. For example, there is a "Netiquette" primer for employees, on-line writing guidelines, and advice on training your employees. The training aspect of implementing an e-policy is especially important because many employees have home computers and are experienced Internet users. They might consider themselves to be experts and may resent being "constrained" by a policy that dictates how they use the Internet at work. Educating them and getting their "buy-in" is essential, and the author provides some effective ways to get that "buy-in".

I found the sample policies in the appendices to be particularly valuable to use as guidelines for drafting a clearly-worded policy that covers all key elements. The applicable laws cited in the appendices were also valuable because they indicate the many sources of legal risks (and protection) that touch an e-policy.

This book provides an excellent starting point for developing an effective e-policy that can be closely tailored to your company and "sold" to your employees. Its clear writing, completeness and sensible advice earn it 5 stars. I will offer one caveat: any e-policy developed based on this book or any other should not be issued until it has been carefully reviewed by legal counsel. I am not an attorney (I am a computer consultant by profession), however, I do know that such a policy touches so many aspects of privacy and employment law that you may put your company at greater risk by implementing a policy that has not been reviewed by qualified legal counsel than by having no policy at all.

Valli Marti has done an excellent job of helping grandparents (or any of us past the age of 50) get beyond our fears of using this new technology. Personally, I have found that even my adult children are more likely to respond to a text than to a voice message. What makes this little book so valuable is that everything is presented in easily understood directions. Valli Marti understands that for many of us, the assumption that "everyone" knows certain things is false. So, she presents the instructions in an encouraging and clear manner. As a college professor, I find that I learn only what technology is needed to do my job but that I balk at learning things for fun. As Marti points out, however, I can practice much of this while sitting in a doctor's waiting room or virtually anywhere. Kudos to Valli Marti for creating this affordable and easily understood guide to help ease the older generation into the joys of texting!

What a great idea!

I don't know about you, but getting my teenager to talk to me in sentences longer three words is a real chore. This guide is so easy to use. I'm pretty sure I've at long last found something that's finally going to help me get some kind of response. It's a relief to know I might be able to use it in a way that appeal to him.

I think I'm going to treasure my EZ guidebook.

"First, get your cell phone & open it." Just about any electronically challenged reader can keep up with these simple instructions. E-Z TEXT MESSAGING leads us gently through the skills of communicating in writing on our cell phones. You don't have to be a grandparent to appreciate this little book. I text my kids every day, but I still learned a lot from Valli Marti's step-by-step intro to the hidden wonders of the cell phone's keypad, her lessons on the coded language of texting, and her links to more information. Serve en español, también. Extra benefit: large type! I'm keeping it in mind for Mothers Day, Fathers Day, and Christmas stocking stuffers.

Ok, you're faced with a business writing task and you don't know where to start. It becomes a mountain of obstacles and fears. But, rescue is on its way. Adina Rishe Gewirtz offers help for the organizationally-challenged writer and, more importantly, the non-writer. Calm down, she seems to say, you can do this. As someone who has a zillion ideas flying in my brain at once, I found her book to be a huge help in organizing those thoughts and in how to present them in a logical manner. Besides, this book is hysterically funny, something I would never have expected in a book on business writing. You'll find yourself reading the whole book and all of her funny examples of business writing, even if you only want to write a memo.

With its unique outline system and amusing examples of the different types of business writing, this book is a great resource not only for business writers but for anyone faced with the daunting task of crafting a variety of professional communications. With a light but deft touch, the author simplifies and clarifies the basics of business writing in a well-structured and engaging manner.

In 13 years of teaching writing I encountered nothing remotely approaching the quality of Adina Gewirtz's How To Say It: Business Writing That Works. Like an athletic coach who can break down moves and teach them, Gewirtz has broken down the process of structuring a piece of writing in a way that is incredibly accessible. It's a boon for business writers, to be sure, but I see it as something that could be used in any classroom,as a basis for instruction, and by writers themselves, working independently. What sets this book apart from any other that I've seen is its simple but brilliant approach to organization, and its highly entertaining examples. Most business writing texts compete with No-Doz as soporifics; this book is funny, engaging, and throughly entertaining. It accomplishes the near impossible in de-mystifying writing for everyone from seasoned veterans to terrified beginners.

I don't think athe author of ny "beginner's" book realizes the state of mind of a "true" beginner, with only the book for help.

A true beginner wants to know:
How do I turn it on? How do I turn it off when I am finished? What do I do with initial pop ups from security, the computer store? An uunknown source and purpose? How do I get to e-mail?

If a knowledgeable helper gets the beginner past these blocks, the book is very good as a "look it up" book.

this is the second manual I have purchased from this publisher. I have found this one to be as informative and easy to follow as I expected.

This series is very popular with seniors at my public library. The writers clearly understand the needs of their target audience. This book in particular is exceptionally well-written. The information is organized into meaningful sections and the book does not drown the reader in technical details that the readers do not need to know in order to accomplish their goals (i.e. surf the web and send & receive email messages).

THE WRONG HANDS is a thought provoking novel written by Nigel Richardson. Mr. Richardson introduces the reader to fourteen-year-old Graham Sinclair. Like most people, Graham has a secret. His secret involves his hands.

Graham was born with large hands. It wasn't until he was seven that Graham realized how special his hands were. On a family vacation, as he accidentally starts to slide down the side of a cliff, he puts his hands out, and suddenly he's floating in the air. Graham can fly!!

His mother tells him to never tell anyone his secret, not even his father. When Graham was twelve, he made the mistake of telling a classmate. His secret was too much for her to handle, so she creates a lie that follows Graham ever after. His new nickname is now Perv, and the community thinks he's the stalker that's been reported in the woods.

Once summer vacation comes around, his parents send him to London to spend time with his Uncle George. On a fateful day, Graham witnesses a plane crash in the city. In the rubble of a hit building, he hears a crying baby. Without thinking about it, he flies up to the baby to rescue him. Little does he know that a lady has seen everything he has done. At that point, Graham's life gets even more complicated. Pursued by a persistent lady journalist, everything that Graham says and does gets twisted and distorted.

Mr. Richardson lets the reader glimpse Graham's thoughts and the tragic spiraling of misunderstanding that follows him wherever he goes. In London, Graham finally feels like he's normal, even with his deformed hands. But even in London, he can't escape what happens when society attacks those that are different from the norm. Mr. Richardson makes the reader decide which side of the fence they are on with Graham. THE WRONG HANDS is a reminder that what we see in the news isn't always the truth.

Reviewed by: Jaglvr

It's not easy being different especially when you're fourteen. Graham has a special gift that seems like a curse. Packed off to London to spend the summer with his uncle, Graham finds himself seemingly more accepted than in his small Yorkshire town. When he rescues a baby in a freak airplane accident, Graham once more becomes the object of attention. Initially, he is applauded for his actions but soon others try to manipulate his gifts to their own advantage. Although it takes him quite awhile to catch on to those with selfish motives, Graham is always his own person. This story speeds along to a gripping conclusion. The audio version is excellent.

Niguel Richardson's THE WRONG HANDS tells of a teen with big hands and a big secret. It's setting is modern England and Graham keeps his talents hidden until an emailer seems to have learned it. An excellent mystery evolves.

This book is one to read and re-read, again and again. Much depth, consistent with the depth to be found within the beliefs (=practices) of traditional Native Peoples.

After reading this book, many native americans can come to understand what is the true meaning of being.

I recieved an e-mail from switzerland, the address was cielia@online.ch that was not acceptable to the computer. What's missing?

Browsers, e-mail programs, or online services turn out even E-MAIL FOR DUMMIES. But they might hit electronic snags: updates might be stored like files so channels missing updates while the computer is disconnected might freeze or lock the screen by updating with the reconnection. There might be online rush hours and waiting lines: conferencing goes faster with the less error-checking ASCII text files and slower with executable and image binary files. Computer glitches might hold up messages between different systems. There might also be a lack of privacy: employers might read messages without employees agreeing or knowing and without breaking any laws. There might even be a lack of security: Active X controls might interact with the Active X support feature in a web browser to locate and upload financial information from a computer. Messages might be intercepted while passing through multiuser and network-connected computers without firewalls and randomly selected private and public keys or pass phrases or words; or while printing to remote laser printers. Messages might not delete because they copy across computers and might end up archived on computer backup tapes. Authors John R Levine et al lead readers through the obstacle course and on to David Ebner's THE TIGHTWAD'S GUIDE TO FREE E-MAIL AND OTHER COOL INTERNET STUFF and David Wood's PROGRAMMING INTERNET E-MAIL.

I got this book for christmas when i was 9 years old and i loved it. It's a great book for any preteen who lieks adventure stories. One Problem...the plot is VERY dated. For example, the charcters in the book are teenagers, but do not know what the internet or e-mail is until their teacher introduces it to them.

As a mother always looking for new and fun books for my [child]to read this book is great. Of course what book from Mercer Mayers isnt great. As a little girl we had all the Little Critter books but she just out grew them and now we can start all over again with bigger books.