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The title of Kaitlin Duck Sherwood's new book, "Overcome Email Overload With Eudora 5," is accurate enough, but it doesn't quite do the book justice. An alternate title might have been: "How To Manage Your Email Efficiently With Eudora 5," because Ms. Sherwood's tutorial goes far beyond the nominal topic of email overload. She has provided a concise but thorough resource on how to manage email traffic in general, and how to configure Eudora 5 in particular.
Eudora is, in my opinion, the best all-round email program available -- the one to have if you're only having one. Other email clients may do some things better or slicker, but I've encountered none that handles email management as comprehensively as Eudora does. Another big Eudora 5 advantage is that it supports both in Mac OS (Classic and X), and Windows, and works pretty much the same (although not 100 percent the same) on both platforms. Kaitlin Duck Sherwood is an e-mail expert. Her web-based "The Beginner's Guide To Effective Email" gets 600,000 hits per year. Her original concept for this book was to produce a guide to writing more effective e-mail, but preliminary market research feedback revealed that "almost nobody was interested in a book on writing email well," but nearly everyone felt overwhelmed by the volume of incoming email they have to deal with. Consequently, Ms. Sherwood refocused the book on how to deal with email overload, although those interested in the original topic will still find lots of useful tips on effective email composition. 
Email volume has swollen tremendously in the past half-decade. According to a study by Ferris Research, the average office worker now spends over two hours a day dealing with e-mail. I get 80 -100 e-mail messages on average day, and some days a lot more than that, not counting spam, which probably accounts for nearly that volume again. Most folks who are serious users of the Internet are in the same boat. Just sorting and culling this onslaught of incoming information, let alone reading or responding to it, can be a real time-burner. "It's unfortunate that some people think they can do anything about their floods of e-mail," says Ms. Sherwood, "there is actually a lot you can do. Even something as simple as adding "no reply needed" can cut down on the number of messages you get. You should not lose hope!" Ms.Sherwood also recommends the use of filters to automatically group related message files in Eudora. However, she cautions against the most common use of filters. "A lot of authorities advised against using filters to file messages before you read them," she says. " However, many people have a hard time keeping track of their active messages if they are spread across multiple folders." Good advice. Instead, Sherwood suggests using filters to assign incoming messages to categories, then sorting the in box by category. " This lets you continue to use e-mail just as you always have, but your messages will be organized. If you choose your categories so that they sort in order of importance, then your in box in box will be prioritized as well," she says. That's the sort of advice Overcome Email Overload is full of. Using Eudora 5, and armed with the technologies described in the book, you can organize and automate the sorting and culling process to a considerable degree. The book assumes that you are familiar with the basic operation of Eudora 5, but you don't need to be an expert or a power user. All you need to know about using Eudora's advanced email management features is clearly explained, with lots of illustrated screen shots. However, even if you ARE already a your power user, three-quarters of "Overcome Email Overload" is about e-mail strategies -- not program configuration, so there will still be plenty of content for you to get your teeth into. Ms. Sherwood begins by explaining the aforementioned email filters, which are instructions you can configure in Eudora to organize, sort, and prioritize your incoming mail automatically. Chapters 2 and 3 are the most technical chapters in the book, and tell you all you need to know about setting up effective filtering strategies in Eudora 5. In Chapter 4, Ms. Sherwood provides a tutorial on setting up keyboard and mouse shortcuts to speed up navigation through messages and mailboxes. Moving along past program configuration issues, Chapter 5 addresses strategies for reducing the volume of incoming mail, what Chapter 6 shows you how to reduce the amount of time you spend composing email replies, while still effectively responding to messages that matter. Mr. Wood tells you how to recognize which messages don't require response, how to recognize the right time to respond, and how to prepare boilerplate responses to commonly asked questions. Chapter 7 - "Reduce Ambiguity," counsels the reader on providing adequate context, asking detailed questions, saying what action you want, and the use of emphasis. Ms. Sherwood's original focus for this book resurfaces in Chapters 8 through 10, which comprise a tutorial on how to write better and more effective email messages, which will often have the collateral effect of reducing incoming email mall volume generated by unclear communication on your part. If you think that people who argue for care and attention to proper grammar and spelling in email messages are tedious pedants, reading these chapters may change your mind a bit. And on the other hand, if you ARE a tedious pedant (such do exist), they may also help enlighten you as to when non-conventional grammar and usage may actually result in more effective and efficient conveyance of information. Chapter 8, "Make Messages Legible," contains a sensible and too-little-adhered-to caveat about the use of styled text and formatted email, which Eudora 5 supports, but which many email clients do not. Happily, Eudora incorporates a handy keyboard command (Command, Option, +) and toolbar button that will strip formatting from outgoing messages, or you can send two messages in one, with the first version plain text and the second version styled, using Eudora's "Send Plain & Styled Both" configuration, although this is arguably a waste of bandwidth. IMHO, you should only send styled or formatted email if you know for sure that your recipient has the software to display it. Plain text should be everyone's email default. Ditto for using monospaced, fixed-width fonts if you want your messages to be legible to everyone. In Chapter 9, Ms. Sherwood also discusses making URL references live links, how to send attachments (don't, unless it's absolutely necessary). As Ms. Sherwood puts it: "If some of your correspondents are low on disk space or have slow Internet connections, they will not be happy to receive a large attachment -- like a 200 MB video -- no matter how funny it is." There is also a helpful and important little tutorial on managing word wrap issues, and a section on quoting styles. Chapter 10, " Get And Keep Attention," deals with the effective use of subject headers, proper forms of address, identifying yourself to strangers and raising your perceived status, using priority levels, making your message is easy to read, composing email that recipients will want to read and be glad they did, while avoiding gratuitous prolixity, and not getting "paralyzed by perfectionism." Chapter 11 is for email users in a corporate environment, and discusses techniques for improving email efficiency in that million. There are also two appendices, the first containing a glossary of email-related terms, and the second a discussion of Eudora mailboxes and labels. Throughout the book, Ms. Sherwood supplies insights and strategies for coping with the number one e-mail plague -- spam or junk e-mail. Kaitlin Duck Sherwood writes in an easy, conversational tone, and her tutorials on proper software configuration are explained in plain English, without a lot of computer jargon, but also without being patronizingly dumbed-down. In summary, I couldn't find much not to like about "Overcome Email Overload With Eudora 5." It lives up to its billing, and a good deal more. At U.S. $29.95/Can $44.95, it's a bit on the pricey side for a 260 page volume, but the email management techniques and strategies it describes and teaches will save you and many hours if implemented, and will make it cheap at the price. I'm giving Kaitlin Duck Sherwood's Overcome Email Overload five smileys.  Overcome Email Overload with Eudora 5
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