- Taking The Pain Out Of E-Mail

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Taking The Pain Out Of E-Mail

Remove The Fuss With This Review Of The Top Programs On The Market

In this article:
--What to do when your program can't read certain types of e-mails
--How to sort out the important e-mails
--Taking the confusion out of scheduling appointments by e-mail
--Scrutinizing the capabilities of the leading e-mail programs on the market.

IBS illustration If you're reading this, odds are pretty strong you have an e-mail account. Research firm eMarketer.com estimates that 81 million Americans have such access, accounting in large part for the 3.4 trillion e-mail messages were sent in the United States in 1998. That's no misprint: 3.4 trillion e-mail messages. Despite the fact that more Americans have e-mail accounts than buy newspapers each day (about 65 million), sending, receiving and managing your e-mail account can be a pain in the -- let's be courtly here -- neck.

How many times have you been unable to open and decipher a message sent with a different encoding scheme?

Have you ever had to feverishly search for a critical e-mail memo you received two months ago? You know it's on your hard drive...somewhere.

What about integrating your e-mail with your desktop scheduling and contact programs?

Why is e-mail so useful and frustrating at the same time? Let's explore three problems that drives this truism, and look at some e-mail programs and solutions that might be able to help you overcome those demons.

I say MIME, you say BINHEX.

Problem: The language barrier. Unlike fax machines, where the Group 3 Protocol has long been the universal data "language" for sending and receiving documents, there are a number of mutually incomprehensible e-mail formats. Without the newest e-mail software, sophisticated e-mail program add-on modules or some creative but arduous work-around solutions, messages sent with some formats may appear as gibberish on screens of users that are running non-compatible applications.

One example: some Mac machines won't be able to open graphical attachments sent in the MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension) format. I, a Windows devotee, reflexively growl at those unreformed, true-believer, borderline cultish Mac addicts that keep sending me stuff encoded in BinHEX.

Solution: Get a conversion utility. Maybe they aren't quite as seamless as the Universal Translator in "Star Trek," but free programs such as Aladdin Expander for Windows from Aladdin Systems can be downloaded and plugged in so your e-mail can understand and open files regardless of what kind of motley gibberish they were written in.

Microsoft Outlook screen

What's that e-mail from my college buddy doing in here?

Problem: Sorting the serious from the trivial. Many e-mail programs don't offer you the flexibility of separating and categorizing downloaded messages. Some relatively primitive, browser-based programs only allow you to list messages by subject line. A lot of help that is, right? If you receive dozens of e-mail messages a day, and need to locate a specific one later on, that can be frustrating.

Solution: Use a "real" e-mail program. When I referred to primitive e-mail programs that are "browser-based," I mean the limited utilities that come bundled in with 'Net-browsing programs --- versions 4.0 and earlier of Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape Communicator, and proprietary systems such as America Online and CompuServe. Most only let you categorize your e-mail by sender, file size, send and receive date, and alphabetically by subject "line." That's called a filter.

What you really want is a program that lets you define your own categories and set up multiple e-mail accounts that you can check simultaneously. AOL lets you do this, but enabling this on other programs can take hours.

With programs that support these functions, you could have one address for personal e-mail, one or general business and the other for more confidential business dealings. Two that do are Microsoft Outlook 2000 and Poco 1.1. We'll review other leading programs below.

Scheduling by e-mail: The nightmare

Problem: What time is our meeting? What conference room are we using? How many times have you participated in multiple e-mail exchanges with several colleagues who are trying to juggle their schedules to accommodate a meeting two days from now? Disorganization, if not chaos, is the result. Ever show up in the wrong meeting room at the wrong time?

Eudora Pro 4.2 product box Solution: Connect your e-mail to your calendar. "Contact management software" is an impressive name for what is basically an electronic calendar, but it's really easy to use. Unfortunately, most such products only work with specific e-mail utilities.

Two of the best are Eudora Planner, which works with the e-mail program Eudora Pro, and Netscape Enterprise Calendar, available in the latest versions of Netscape Communicator. Both allow you to schedule and share this information over the Internet.

Surveying the pack

Here's info on the most popular e-mail programs:

Eudora Pro Version 4.2 lets you filter, forward, and redirect e-mail through multiple text-formatting, graphic-style and e-mail address directories. It sells for around $35-$50.
Eudora Light is the free version of Eudora. It has search, filtering and text-editing capability.
Microsoft Outlook 2000 is the latest enhanced version of the Microsoft Outlook Express program that comes bundled in with Internet Explorer. Among many other features, it offers the capability of sorting multiple messages in several e-mail accounts. Like Eudora Planner and Netscape Enterprise Calendar, Outlook 98 also has scheduling capabilities. In tandem with several companion applications to be included in Microsoft Office 2000, it sells for $249. The earlier Microsoft Outlook 98 is still available as a stand-alone application for $90-$100.
While it lacks some specific functionality of its better-known competitors Pegasus Mail for Windows is a viable option for the home user. It's a totally free e-mail program with a spell-checker, glossary and powerful but easy message text-search capability.

Originally published Oct. 15, 1999

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