Tag: Microsoft Outlook Trainers
How to survive the Windows 7 White Screen of Death (WSOD)
Goodbye blue screen of death, welcome white screen of death! If you haven’t experienced it yet, consider yourself lucky. (It is annoying.) I get them when I use Outlook 2010 and I have a fast computer, or so I think. My laptop at home that gets the WSOD has 4 gigs of ram. My computer at work has 8 gigs of ram and I get the WSOD occasionally on that computer, too. I do not believe it’s caused by lack of memory. I have tried to troubleshoot this issue for months now and for the most part I have concluded that it’s pushing the bigger programs that are using Windows 7 to their max.
Now, let’s begin with what the WSOD is.
Sometimes while working in the internet or especially in Outlook 2010, or just doing too many things at one time, your computer will start to look cloudy and everything you worked on looks transparent. The application you were working in is totally in a white screen of death mode and frozen up. If you go to the bottom tasks, you can usually continue to work in those, as they aren’t frozen up.
Do not start clicking, clicking and clicking in the white screen of death application. Clicking more only causes the computer to stay frozen or continue to white screen. Your best recourse of action is to just let it ride out. If you don’t need the application and data you were working on (like internet surfing, etc), you can end the task in windows and re-open a new browser window, or do what I do (as I am very impatient!), open a new browser all together, such as Firefox or Chrome. If you do need the data you were working on, the best thing to do is just ride out the storm. Most of the time in Outlook 2010 it will figure itself out and be back to normal in a few minutes. If after five or ten minutes it’s still there, you probably have to hard crash it and the email you were scripting up may be in your drafts or might not be.
If you are getting these WSOD’s often within Outlook, you may want to book some time with me as I have a few setting changes that can help lift that problem, or your email folder size may be too large and you will need to slim it down a bit. The WSOD with Outlook can also come from IMAP settings. I love and adore IMAP, so I had to clean up a lot of my email that was synching with IMAP, works much better now.
What I have learned to do is change settings, clean up the computer more and delete and manage my email better. For IE white screens, it is just using fewer tabs. All simple solutions to make the WSOD become less frequent.
If you are experiencing the WSOD and would like us to take a look at it, call us at 612-865-4475 or send us an email – info@callthatgirl.biz.
How to get your email under control
Last night I was talking to a friend about email and how out control people let it get. I have a few concerns about email. My biggest is why it takes some people days to reply to a simple email. But then I thought about it and I do the same thing. I read it, but won’t reply right away. My biggest problem is that I have 5 ways to check my email and only one of them is where I actually “control” where the emails go. Aka…have folders to sort them in and run rules.
Here is my take on it…
Email Etiquette
Normally, when YOU email someone, you want something from them, have a question, need information or are sending them requested information. As the recipient receives the email, they read it but then mentally sort you into a “mental folder”…
Reply now! She’s important and I need her to communicate back right now!
Ah, I can reply later...This is not that important, but tomorrow I will have more time to reply properly.
oh crap, this again….This is far from important, but you should reply at in the next week or so.
the Dread….I seriously didn’t want this email and really…I don’t need to reply and I won’t. (((delete)))
Now what you should be doing is having folders set up and run some rules to organize all this email. I have about 50 folders for my Outlook in the office. I have rules running for many different topics. Example? All my Linkedin emails go to the “Linkedin” folder. I can see when I have new email and as Linkedin is important, my clients come first. I breeze the Linkedin folder as I see new items, but it’s usually not important.
What about the non-folder items? I read the email, then move each email to different folders.
“Stuff to do later” (which means I may get to it, maybe I won’t)
And then I have oodles of subcategories because not all these emails require a reply or did and I replied and it’s now in a folder for archiving.
My inbox is always clean when I leave the office at the end of the day.
Newsletter Etiquette
We all gets tons of “spam/junk”. What constitutes junk or spam? To me, getting a newsletter from someone I met at a networking event or via LinkedIn is not spam or junk. What is? Viagra and emails from Nigeria telling me I was willed $E100000. How do you handle the junk/spam from someone you know or met F2F or online? Here are my simple rules:
If they are giving information that has value, I keep it.
If they are pushing workshops or just info about themselves, I unsubscribe. I get way too much email a day and know who they are and how to contact them, so it’s just best to get off that list.
Yes, it may seem rude, but I have a huge database that I email a few times a month and see people unsubscribe to my newsletters and many are my clients. They aren’t interested in what I have to say about this and that, etc. I get it! I don’t care….so don’t think you are going to hurt someone’s feelings, business is business and email is alot of my workday.
Last tip! DO NOT have 100’s of unread email either! It only brings you down and you should clean that up and start fresh! I love helping clients clean up their emails….it feels refreshing for them and me. If you’re interested in having me help, I can do that remotely and over the phone.
Happy Wed!
