Maintaining email threads for knuckleheads?

  • Thread starter Thread starter RipVanWinkle
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RipVanWinkle

I notice that Google's new G-Mail offers a feature defined as "Keep it all
in context. Each message is grouped with all its replies and displayed as a
conversation." Is there a freeware program that will do this with my
current, non-Google email?

Here's the problem, I run a small business and receive a dozen or more
emails every day. Frequently a client will write and forget to include his
name or zip code so I will write back and ask for that. A few days later I
get a response email that simply says "My zip code is 23211" and no other
information. Anything out there that will join disjointed emails like that?
Thanks.
 
RipVanWinkle said:
I notice that Google's new G-Mail offers a feature defined as "Keep it all
in context. Each message is grouped with all its replies and displayed as a
conversation." Is there a freeware program that will do this with my
current, non-Google email?

Here's the problem, I run a small business and receive a dozen or more
emails every day. Frequently a client will write and forget to include his
name or zip code so I will write back and ask for that. A few days later I
get a response email that simply says "My zip code is 23211" and no other
information. Anything out there that will join disjointed emails like that?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Depending on your email client, couldn't you just click on the "sender"
column header to sort by sender? That should group emails by sender.
 
That would mean searching through perhaps hundreds of stored emails to find
the sender. I was hoping for something more automatic, especially something
that would actually join the separate emails.
 
RipVanWinkle scribebat:
Each message is grouped with all its replies and displayed as a
conversation." Is there a freeware program that will do this with my
current, non-Google email?
Click to expand...

Sylpheed or Sylpheed-Claws does this. http://claws-w32.sourceforge.net/

It works only as long as the "reply" function is used - it is not
ordered by subject, but by referencing messages. So even if two
customers use the same subject, but each replies to its message,
Sylpheed will sort them into different threads. (Works as well when the
subject is changed)

But! This does not work in the inbox, but only when you move the message
into a folder you created yourself. :( (It is quite easy to write a
filter to move all new mails automatically in such a folder, though)
 
RipVanWinkle said:
That would mean searching through perhaps hundreds of stored emails to find
the sender. I was hoping for something more automatic, especially something
that would actually join the separate emails.
Click to expand...

Sort by sender should display all emails alphabetically by sender. Just
scroll down to the first letter of the sender you are looking for.
 
AyntRyte said:
Sort by sender should display all emails alphabetically by sender. Just
scroll down to the first letter of the sender you are looking for.
Click to expand...

If the email client is really good it is even easier.
Select the mysterious email, sort after sender (by clicking on sender
column, for example), and now you should still see the selected message
and all other messages from the same sender should be together with the
selected message. Then it is easy to see the context and easy to
understand what message from the same sender it is a continuation of.
 
RipVanWinkle said:
I notice that Google's new G-Mail offers a feature defined as "Keep
it all in context. Each message is grouped with all its replies and
displayed as a conversation." Is there a freeware program that will
do this with my current, non-Google email?
Click to expand...

Yes, Outlook Express will do this if you sort by View>>Current
View>>Sort by Conversation
 
Yes, Outlook Express will do this if you sort by View>>Current
View>>Sort by Conversation
Click to expand...

I think most e-mail clients will sort by thread or conversation. It's
tricky with e-mail because the References, In-Reply-To, and other
headers which indicate associations between e-mails are all optional;
different clients send with different headers, and some without any
such headers. GMail seems to use those headers as well as the Subject
to group e-mails into conversations, and does a better job (AFAICT so
far) than any clients I've seen. I was pleasantly surprised to see
this, since Google Groups' threading continues to be pretty bad.
 
I am using Outlook Express and I will use the suggestions mentioned here to
help solve the problem. It's not the best solution but it's a start. Thank
you all for your help.

Rip
 
RipVanWinkle said:
I am using Outlook Express and I will use the suggestions mentioned
here to help solve the problem. It's not the best solution but it's
a start. Thank you all for your help.

Rip
Click to expand...

Since you use OE as I do, here is a site you must bookmark to learn much
more about things you can do with it. As much as OE is shit up in this
newsgroup, you would think it's absolutely worthless, but it can do quite a
few things nicely.
http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/
 
I notice that Google's new G-Mail offers a feature defined as "Keep it all
in context. Each message is grouped with all its replies and displayed as a
conversation." Is there a freeware program that will do this with my
current, non-Google email?
Click to expand...

< snip >

Dialog :

http://www.40tude.com/dialog/


Regards, John.

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