6. Do not use "Reply All" blindly
We've all seen those messages come in: Some stray person who got the same company-wide e-mail you received hits Reply All, and now everyone in the company has to see his gripes. Don't be that person. Especially don't be that person if you're going to gripe about someone in particular—it's almost guaranteed that your subject will be on the list of people getting the message. Sadly, that kind of thing happens all the time.
When sending a new message, don't go to an old message and hit Reply All (or even Reply). Start from scratch and use your own address book. Otherwise someone you don't intend may slip into the list.
7. BCC is your friend
CC once stood for "carbon copy." Some say today it stands for "courtesy copy." Either way, that's how you send a message to someone else along with your intended recipient. However you interpret CC, the "B" stands for "blind," and the BCC field is where you put in the names of those people you want to read your message on the sly. The people listed in the To and CC fields don't get to see who's included in the BCC field. Even the other recipients in BCC don't see each other.
It also serves another purpose. When sending a message to a very, very large list, always put all the addresses in BCC. That way recipients don't have to wade through a gigantic list of names at the top of the message—and you're not abusing everyone's privacy by revealing their e-mail addresses.
Better yet, no one has to suffer if one of those recipients pulls a Reply All snafu.
8. Subject lines matter
"Hi, how are you?" or "Check this out!" don't cut it as subject lines when people are receiving hundreds of messages per day. If you can't distill your message to five or six perfect, pithy words, you run the risk of not getting read at all.
Don't list that the message is from you in the subject, either. "Message from Eric" is redundant: The person knows it's a message and can see your name in the From field. The subject should be on topic.
And don't bury the lead. If the message is about something important, state it up front, in the subject line. If you can inject a bit of urgency or a deadline ("Reply by midnight about CEO firing") your message stands a much better chance of being read soon.
If you leave the subject line blank, well... you don't even deserve a reply.
9. One topic per message
We're all a few steps away from A.D.D. these days, and tracking multiple topics in a message—and responding to them—is difficult at best. Even if you can electronically chew bubble gum and walk at the same time, sticking to a single subject makes it much easier to search and refer to past messages when necessary.
10. Brevity is the soul of wit
How often do you read e-mail messages that are over three paragraphs long?
Neither does anyone else. 'Nuff said.
11. Send plain text if in doubt
Most e-mail programs can display messages in rich text—with all the formatting and special characters and images you desire. Messages can be as complicated as any Web page, but not everyone appreciates that. In fact, since spammers can use images embedded in messages as Web bugs, many people turn off the ability for a message to display any HTML or rich text. That's the default in some e-mail software.
Unless you know for sure that a recipient wants to get formatted e-mail, the better choice is to send all messages as plain text.
12. Run antivirus software
There's no excuse not to check every message you receive and send using e-mail software. Even free antivirus programs like AVG Free Edition can check every message you send and receive with Outlook or Thunderbird. Such scans of incoming and outgoing messages are a given with advanced AV tools. And we know you're running some type of anti-malware on your computer all the time—right? Keep those definitions up to date.
13. Avoid huge attachments
Once, sending digital files to people was done only by e-mail. It was the only direct conduit available. Now, you have a wealth of options for sharing. As files get bigger and bigger, it's best to take advantage of these options rather than clog up an inbox.
First and best option: Share a link rather than the actual file. That video of your stealthy ninja kitten is huge coming from your DV camcorder; but if you put it on YouTube, you can simply send friends the link to view it online. Maybe it will go viral and make you an Internet superstar.
If you absolutely must get the original file or media to someone, use drop.io, which lets you upload a file up to 100MB in size. The address to download it from is yours to distribute as you see fit (but eventually it will expire).
At the very least, compress extra-large files before attaching them. That's no longer as important in this age of broadband, but recipients with limited space for e-mail storage (even Gmail isn't unlimited) or a restriction on attachment size (10MB is typical) will thank you.
14. Attach what you promised
We've all been there: "Attached you'll find a copy of the most important proposal of my lifetime." Off goes that message—and there's nothing with it. You send a sheepish follow-up message and feel like a fool.
We can't improve your memory for you. We can only say "it happens" and pat you on the head. We can, however, point out tools that may help. Gmail, for example, has a Forgotten Attachment Detector available through Gmail Labs (click the green beaker icon at the top of Gmail to access). It looks for words like "attachment" or "attached" in your message and warns you before sending. Thunderbird has an add-on called Attachment Reminder that handles the job; a utility with the same name does the same for Outlook.
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