Creating a e-mail signature block
DeMarcus Jackson

 

Recently, I noticed that a few faculty and staff do not have an e-mail signature block setup for outgoing e-mail. Now, I do not believe that there is any sort of hard-line rule stating that employees need to have a signature setup for their outgoing e-mail. But, I do believe that having a signature block is a good thing, especially if one is communicating with students. Some faculty and staff, however, may not know how to setup a signature black for outgoing e-mail. Here is how you do it:

1. Open Microsoft Outlook

2. Choose Tools

3. Then Options

4. Select the Mail Format tab at the top of the window

5. Click the “Signatures…” button at the bottom

6. Choose New

7. Type in the signature that you want to show up in your email

8. Click on “Next”

9. You can now begin to edit your signature block. You can be as creative as you

10. like, but ideally you should include basic contact information.

11. When you are done editing your signature block, click on “Finish”

Organizing your e-mail with color

A good friend of mine provided this time-saving e-mail tip to me. I have not tried it out yet, but I think it can be useful. So, I will pass it along to faculty and staff.

If you are like me, then you likely have many e-mails in your Inbox; moreover, you probably spend a considerable chunk of your workday checking and managing e-mails. There’s a way for you to know which of your e-mails are being sent just to you and nobody else. (This may make prioritizing e-mail responses more efficient.) Messages that sent to only you can be shown in RED (or any color you choose) while messages that go to more than one person are shown in BLACK. This is how you do it:

1. Open up Microsoft Outlook and go to your Inbox folder

2. Click on Tools, then click on “Organize”

3. Choose the “Using Colors” link on the left side of the menu

4. The second bullet says: “Show messages sent only to me in…” Click on the drop down arrow and choose a color

5. Click the “turn on” button

6. Close the Organize window by clicking on the “X” in the right-hand corner

7. The messages sent only to you should now appear in the color you chose
   
   You can also mark emails from a certain sender with color as well. Here's how:
    

8.  Go through the first three steps as stated above

9. The first bullet says: Color messages from or sent to (select “from” in the drop down box), then in the next space, type the person’s name (last name, then a comma, then a space, then their first name) then select the color
   
   You may want to play around with the "organizing e-mail with color" function of your MS Outlook, in order to get it just right.

Respectfully submitted,

Dee Jackson
Mr. De'Marcus "Dee" Jackson, MS
Instructor of Psychology
Columbia State Community College
Office phone: (931) 766-1609, Lawrenceburg Campus
My personal cell phone: (931) 698-1659
My e-mail: djackson30@columbiastate.edu

My homepage: http://djackson30.columbiastate.edu
Psychology Department: http://www.columbiastate.edu/psychology

"Education, then, beyond all other devices of human origin, is the great equalizer of the conditions of men--the balance-wheel of the social machinery." -- Horace Mann