Rackspace Email & Apps Blog

Recent Posts in the ‘Tips & Advice’ Category

Spring Cleaning: Time to de-clutter your inbox

Mar 2nd, 2010 in Tips & Advice by Megan Wohlford

You know that Grandma who hoards everything? She probably has newspapers from a random Tuesday in 1993 just sitting around. You know those newspapers are useless; she knows they are useless, but years pass and there they sit. Why? Just in case.

The same thing happens with our inboxes. We keep our useless emails just like Grandma keeps her old newspapers. They fill our folders, they sabotage our searches and they just plain get in the way. But we keep them. Why? Just in case.

Email archiving solutions like Rackspace Archiving allow you to finally get rid of those dated emails. As emails come in, they get “journaled” or copied to an archiving portal where they remain stored and searchable for as long as you wish. This means you only keep the emails you know you’ll need and delete the rest.

Can you imagine? Searches would render 20 results instead of 150, making important emails accessible in seconds, rather than minutes. Folders would actually help you manage your emails again, rather than producing more clutter. So, cut the ties to those insignificant messages. And don’t worry; if you need them-we’ll have them. Just in case.

The Power of IMAP + Sync

Feb 10th, 2010 in Tips & Advice by Cameron Nouri

From: Matt Pease (Rackspace customer and customer advocate sidekick!)
Twitter ID: @Dragon2611

I switched to [Rackspace Email & Apps] about a month ago. Even though I could fairly easily run my own SMTP server, I chose Rackspace since it meant I could get support if anything went wrong. Plus, I’d rather get on with what I’d rather be doing, rather than worrying about email.

Since I work across multiple computers, I always use IMAP. That way, I can still use a local email client [(e.g., Outlook, Thunderbird)] on each computer, while still keeping my email in sync. And Rackspace’s “Sync for Outlook” plugin ensures that my Calendar and Contacts get sync’d, too, without the need for expensive Exchange servers.

So, yesterday . . .

I was sitting at my home computer playing a game. I’d left Outlook running in the background to ensure that, if any email came in, I’d be alerted.

After finishing the game, I found that Outlook had crashed. After troubleshooting everything—from a simple reboot to creating a new profile—I was able to determine that the problem was, most likely, a corrupt profile. I even tried Microsoft’s PST repair tool, but Outlook still wasn’t behaving.

No worries, though. Since all of my email, calendar, and contact data is on the Rackspace server, all I needed to do was 1) create a new profile 2) set up IMAP to access my email data and 3) run the Sync for Outlook plugin (from Rackspace), using the “Recover Data” option, to download my calendar and contact data.

Thanks to IMAP and Sync for Outlook, the whole process of re-configuring Outlook took only a few minutes, whereas I could have spent hours trying to otherwise recover my locally stored mail/PST data.

3 Comments

Get Organized with Customized Microsoft Outlook Rules

Jan 21st, 2010 in Tips & Advice by Michael Ferranti

I love the idea of organization. But, somehow, the reality of it never quite works for me. Until now. My New Year’s Resolution this year is to get organized and I’m starting with my email.

Like you, I get tons of email. Email from my boss. Email from my wife. Email for some service I signed up for and have just been too busy to opt out of.

To help organize all this email, I’ve set up rules in Outlook. Rules are a like having an awesome secretary who knows when to put your calls through and when to tell the person calling that you’re at the dentist. Really, besides using Hosted Exchange to get rid of the headaches associated with running your own mail server, Outlook rules are one of the simplest things you can do to get back to doing the things that matter.

Top 8 Rules You Can Use To Get Organized in Microsoft Outlook

File any email where my name is CC:d in the “My CC:’d emails” folder: Download Rule
File any email where I am the only recipient in the “Me, Myself and I” folder: Download Rule
File any email sent with high importance in the “Quick, the house is burning down” folder and flag for follow-up (just in case you missed it coming in) : Download Rule
File any email from my wife or husband or significant other or, oh…you get the point, in the “Love of My Life” folder : Download Rule
File any email with the word “Project” in the subject in the “My Projects” folder: Download Rule
Flag any email from my boss as high importance: Download Rule
Flag any email from my boss as low importance (Hey, we’ve all got different bosses, so wasn’t sure which you’d prefer!): Download Rule
Delay delivery of all emails except those marked as high importance by 1 minute—just in case I said something I’ll regret: Download Rule

Can’t decide which rules you want? Download All

There are just a few steps that you need to follow to import these rules into Outlook and get them up and running (Note: These steps are designed for Outlook 2007).

1) Click on the above rule you want to download, or download all. To specify where you want to save the file, right-click the ‘Download Rule’ link and ‘Save link as…’. Once you’ve saved the file, unzip it so that you’ll be able to import the rule into Outlook.

2) Open Outlook, go to Tools > Rules and Alerts > Options > Import Rules. Find the file that you downloaded and click ‘Open’, then ‘OK.’

3) Make sure that the rule is enabled by selected the check box next to the rule (as in Step 1).

4) Chances are you will have to modify each rule slightly to make it work for your exact situation. For example, you probably don’t have a folder called “Me, Myself and I” already, as in the below example. To create this folder, click on the blue text (as in Step 2), select “New” (as in Step 3), and finally, select your Inbox (as in Step 4), and name the folder “Me, Myself and I” or anything else that you’d like (maybe “Mine and only Mine” or simply “My Emails”).

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

5) For rules that specify to do something with an email coming from or going to a specific email address, follow the same general steps as above, except rather than creating a folder, specify the email address for your exact situation (see Steps 5 and 6 below).

Step 5

Step 6

What rules have you created in Outlook that you can’t live without? Let us know by submitting a comment. Happy Organizing this New Year!

11 Comments

Search All Your Rackspace Email on Your iPhone with reMail

Dec 16th, 2009 in Tips & Advice by Cameron Nouri

You know this situation: You’re traveling and you need to look up your flight confirmation, meeting time, or hotel reservation. All this information is in your email. We partnered up with the team at reMail to offer Rackspace Email customers a solution to this problem—and get a great deal at the same time!

reMail is an iPhone application that downloads all your email to your phone and lets you search it instantly. If you’re a frequent traveler, having all your emails on your phone is a big deal: Your life is in your email. reMail puts all your email in your pocket.

reMail also offers the most powerful search features – much better than the iPhone’s built-in client: You can search for fields, use boolean operators, and type in “ste*” to find both “steve” and “stephen”.

And now reMail integrates with Rackspace Email. Rackspace customers can download reMail in the App Store and add Rackspace Email support for $0.99 (instead of $3.99 for other types of email accounts).

1 Comment

Why Philosophy Matters (for business and you)

Nov 6th, 2009 in Tips & Advice by Michael Ferranti

Philosophy is important. It changes history because big ideas lead to big actions. Some of the most transformative political movements in history started as a purely philosophical project.

The closest thing to philosophy in business is a company’s mission statement. These statements lay out a vision of what the company wants to be, not just what it is. One can use a firm’s mission statement to learn about the company and its competencies beyond what’s contained in its product offering.

Flying high?

Compare the mission statements of Delta and Southwest Airlines. First Delta:

We—Delta’s employees, customers, and community partners together form a force for positive local and global change, dedicated to bettering standards of living and the environment where we and our customers live and work.

Now Southwest:

The mission of Southwest Airlines is dedication to the highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit.

Everyone knows that Southwest is widely regarded as a great U.S. airline; Delta is not. Could one deduce this from their mission statements? Of course! What the heck does “bettering standards of living and the environment” have to do with an airline? In short, nothing. It’s a noble goal and I applaud any company that embraces social responsibility among their goals. But as the central theme of their mission? How does that win customers and build enterprise value? This mission statement shows a lack of focus that might partially explain why Delta is in the financial trouble it is.

Southwest’s mission on the other hand is clear, to the point and makes sense in the context of their industry. One normally does not think of low-cost carriers as great service companies, but Southwest’s “disruptive technology” was service—so focusing on that element, rather than simply on cost or speed of service is reasonable, and differentiating.

Try before you buy

The take-away from this brief comparison is that, as a customer, an easy way to “try before you buy” is to look at the company’s mission statement. Does the statement provide a clear picture of how the business creates value? If the company does everything it says it will do, will you win? If the answer to these questions is not “yes,” then you may need to think about going with a different company. When the philosophy is not compelling, can you expect big actions are a result?

At Rackspace, we take philosophy seriously. It’s a part of everything we do here and drives our decision making process every day. So what’s our mission here at Rackspace? To state it simply — our mission is to be recognized as one of the world’s greatest service companies.

Learn more about how we are delivering on our mission at Rackspace.

2 Comments

Scheduling Meetings in Outlook with Rackspace Email

Oct 20th, 2009 in Tips & Advice by Rex Card

With the smell of freshly brewed coffee in the air, I open up Microsoft Outlook and head straight to my calendar to start scheduling meetings. Being a technical project manager, part of my job includes scheduling meetings—and in any given session, I easily schedule 5+ meetings for 15+ folks.

When scheduling a meeting, it is, of course, important to find a time when everyone can meet. Microsoft Exchange customers are already familiar with using Outlook to schedule a meeting based on others’ schedules. But, did you know that Rackspace Email customers can use Outlook to do that, too?

With Sync for Outlook, I can easily sync my co-workers’ 65+ calendars, adding them to my Outlook. And because I use Automatic Sync, I don’t even need to push a button—it automatically syncs the data in the background, so I can go on with my work. Since my Outlook calendar data is kept up-to-date, I’m always ready whenever I need to schedule a meeting that will work for everyone.

2 Comments

[Email Tip] Where did that URL go again?

Oct 5th, 2009 in Tips & Advice by Korey Mercier

There’s nothing more non-productive than digging through emails looking for that all-important link that someone sent you a while back, when you actually need it now. That’s what Bookmarks are for, right? But what if you’re not at your own computer, or you’re like me and you use several computers with multiple browsers? As it turns out, Rackspace Email solves this problem. If you have a Rackspace Email account and you use the Webmail interface, you’re all set. Just use Tasks! Tasks?

Yes, within Webmail there’s a tab called Tasks which allows you to manage multiple lists of items you want to track, ostensibly for things like groceries, books you intend to read, to-do items, or episodes of the West Wing you somehow missed. Personally I created a list called “My Bookmarks” where I store items like “#Rackspace Email & Apps – http://www.rackspace.com/email_hosting“. This is the cool part. Once my “bookmark” gets added to the list, the URL in it becomes a live link! To top it off, if I need to remember some obscure login for the site that I entered, I can put that information in the Notes section of the Task so it will appear when I rollover the little “note” icon on the left. I now have an always-available, fully functional, private Bookmarks list, complete with necessary authentication information.

As if all that wasn’t enough, I use Sync for BlacksBerry to put my Calendar, Contacts, and Tasks on my phone where I usually need them. Now when I use the Tasks application that came with my Blackberry Bold I can see a complete list of my Bookmarks (easily identified by a ‘#’ prefix) and even follow them using my mobile browser!

Are you using our Rackspace Email & Apps products in strange and productive ways? We want to hear about it! Tell us using the comments section below.

Launch: Auto Delete Invitations

Sep 22nd, 2009 in Product Enhancements, Tips & Advice by Matt Pfeil

I receive several event invitations a week—sometimes even several a day. Every time I get an invitation, I either accept or decline, and then I delete the email. The way I see it, if I can’t attend the event, I don’t need to keep the invitation. And if I accept the invitation, the event information is transferred to my calendar.

So, for people like me, Rackspace Email has released a new webmail calendar feature that saves me a few valuable seconds. With the new “Autodelete Invites” option, I can automatically delete the invitation email as soon as I’ve accepted or declined the invitation.

To check it out, just log into Rackspace Email and select Settings / General Settings / Calendar.