Category: E-mail

Gmail : Create an Email List

Its 2025 and I’ve never created an email list in Gmail despite using it for over a decade. Whats more it just took me half an hour to figure it out. So I thought I would just pull it together because it will probably be a while before I need to use it.

Synopsis – I’m used to email lists – Gmail doesn’t have this concept and calls them Labels instead.
Additionally Labels in Gmail are not the same as Labels in Google Contacts – We will be creating and editing a label in Google Contacts which is then referenced in Gmail.

First things first within your Google Menu go to Contacts – the icon looks as below (Note don’t go into Groups which has a similar icon)

Here we create the email list we wish to Create…

Click on the plus symbol next to the Labels item

You should be presented with the following dialog

Where it says New lable type in the name of the email list you wish to create..

Hit save and the label should appear on the left hand side under Labels..

Now you go to the Contacts on the left hand side and using the search facility look up the email you wish to include in the list here I have Royal Bank of Scotland for anonimity purposes.

You want to hit the Label button beneath the contact…

Next hit Apply

You should see a Working dialog that appears on the screen for a period after which the count next to the newly created label should increase by 1

e.g.

You can now go back to Googlemail and this “Label” will be available for selection in the To / CC and Bcc as here.

AHK – Useful AutoHotKeyScripts for Outlook specifically

Another set of very useful scripts mainly dealing with creating hotkeys for common Outlook tasks.

Note that if you are on a laptop you may have pre-mappings for the function keys in which case you will need to quite possibly go for alternatives.

F8::
Run C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\OUTLOOK.EXE /c ipm.note
return

F9:: ;Inbox
keystroke = ^1
parameters = 
Gosub open
Return

F10:: ;Calender
keystroke = ^2
parameters =  "outlook:calendar"
Gosub open
Return

F11:: ;Contacts
keystroke = ^3
parameters = outlook:contacts
Gosub open
Return


F12::
PROCESS, EXIST, OUTLOOK.EXE
PID := ERRORLEVEL
IF ERRORLEVEL <> 0
{
       LOOP,
      {
            WINSHOW, AHK_CLASS rctrl_renwnd32 
            WINACTIVATE, AHK_CLASS rctrl_renwnd32 
            WINWAITACTIVE, AHK_PID %PID% AHK_CLASS rctrl_renwnd32
            WINGETACTIVETITLE, TITLE
            WINCLOSE, %TITLE%
            WINWAIT,, Are you sure you want to permanently delete all the items and subfolders in the "Deleted Items" folder?,3
            CONTROLSEND, , {ENTER}, AHK_CLASS #32770, Are you sure you want to permanently delete all the items and subfolders in the "Deleted Items" folder?
            IF A_INDEX > 30
                  PROCESS, CLOSE, OUTLOOK.EXE

            PROCESS, EXIST, OUTLOOK.EXE
            IF ERRORLEVEL = 0
                  BREAK
      }
}
return

DetectHiddenWindows, On
Process, Exist, outlook.exe
If !ErrorLevel
   Run outlook.exe
Return

open:
Process, Exist, outlook.exe
If (ErrorLevel != 0)
{
	WinActivate ahk_class rctrl_renwnd32
	WinWaitActive ahk_class rctrl_renwnd32
	Send %keystroke%
}
else
	Run outlook.exe %parameters%
Return

Guidelines for E-mails

Not the most exciting of subjects but everyone is involved in communication whether its sorting out lunch with a friend through to organising massive engineering projects. Confusion and misinformation is always an ongoing risk resulting from bad communication which results in individuals either not getting on board with a topic or going off and doing needless work. Today I really rallied against the endless stream of emails I had been cc’d into. I realised that I am probably as guilty as others in doing this so I decided I should figure out some guidelines for tightening up my e-mail etiquette

My guidelines;

1)If you are replying delete generic titles and write a title which is more specific about what is contained in the e-mail. (Try not to use Re: if you have to state Reply )
2)Spend time making and crafting a really relevant reply which is as targeted as possible.
3)If possible delete the train wreck of replied e-mails – most of them are not read by anyone and quite often have all sorts of tags, addresses and generic images which are totally irrelevant.
4)Be economical in cc e-mails if you want to introduce others into a project – write a specific introduction e-mail for that individual explaining everything don’t just copy them into a massive e-mail and expect them to go back through and figure out what is going on.
5)If you have questions that you need answered really start with the question and explain the context.
6)Use pictures – They are useful and e-mails really support pictures very very well now.
7)If you have simple calculations from excel spreadsheets contain them as images in the e-mail attachments are annoying and take time to open up.
8)If you are working with people on a project you really need to have met the people. If they are in your building why not go and introduce yourself?
9)Hey use the phone its there it costs nothing again more important if you don’t know the person.
10)Don’t just write with questions – if you have an outcome that you think is important or you’ve received some positive feedback after project completion let the others on the project know about it.
11)Generally aim to be positive and supportive
12)If you make commitments try to remember them and stick to them.

VBA access code – Passing a selection of e-mail addresses to Outlook

This is similar to the previous post except uses the inbuilt SendObject object to pass the string sBcc directly to Outlook. Outlook picks up the variables and so there is no need to set up public variables.

Private Sub CommandGroupEmail_Click()
On Error GoTo Err_CommandGroupEmail_Click

DoCmd.DoMenuItem acFormBar, acRecordsMenu, acSaveRecord, , acMenuVer70

Dim MyDB As DAO.Database
Dim rsEmail As DAO.Recordset
Dim sBcc As String
Dim sSubject As String
Dim sMessageBody As String

Set MyDB = OpenDatabase("\\SERVERNAME\DIRECTORYPATH\" & "TARGET.MDB")
Set rsEmail = MyDB.OpenRecordset("SELECT ... STATEMENT", dbOpenSnapshot)

With rsEmail
.MoveFirst
Do Until rsEmail.EOF
If IsNull(![E-mail]) = False Then
sBcc = sBcc & rsEmail![E-mail] & ";"
sSubject = ""
sMessageBody = ""
End If
.MoveNext
Loop
End With

DoCmd.SendObject , , , , , sBcc , sSubject, sMessageBody, True

Set MyDB = Nothing
Set rsEmail = Nothing

 
Exit_CommandGroupEmail_Click:
    Exit Sub

Err_CommandGroupEmail_Click:
    If (Err = 2467) Or (Err = 91) Or (Err = 2483) Then
      Resume Next
    End If
    Resume Exit_CommandGroupEmail_Click
    
End Sub