[mso] Group Rules...Please read
- From: "Linda F. Johnson" <linda@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "MSO Freelist Group" <mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 1 Oct 2003 15:31:44 -0400
From Linda, the List Owner:
This is mailed out once a month, automatically. Please read this
information carefully as it answers most questions group members have and
will help you understand how to be a productive part of this group.
1. The group is friendly and no steps will be taken to avoid fun,
supportive posts. This is good for all and I, personally, prefer chatty,
friendly groups over cold, strictly-business groups.
2. However, this group is about MICROSOFT OFFICE so I will take steps to
keep this group on track in that way. The reason for this is I know many in
this group also belong to many other groups and their mail volume is high.
They do not come to this group to read about Windows problems, or hardware
problems, or Adobe PhotoShop plugins. Believe me, we all love to read about
this stuff, but we don't want to read it here. Also, the advice you get
from other groups geared towards these questions will probably be better and
more complete, so take these questions elsewhere, PLEASE.
I know sometimes it's hard to determine if your question or problem is
Office related, Windows related, or Hardware related, so I will give you
some general pointers:
a. If your question is about Outlook Express, this is NOT Office
related. Outlook Express is part of Windows/Internet Explorer. Outlook is
the email program that is part of Office. Outlook and Outlook Express are
two very different programs. Same goes for FrontPage Express....this is
very different from FrontPage. FrontPage questions are welcome here.
FrontPage Express questions may not get addressed.
b. Microsoft Works is NOT the same as Microsoft Office. Yes, I know
Works 2000 includes Word 2000, but it is a very abbreviated version and many
of the features are missing. For example, the Mail Merge feature has very
different options. If you are having a problem with the version of Word
that is part of Works, you MUST specify that this is the version you have or
our instructions to you will not make any sense in some instances.
c. If the problem you are having is only happening in one or more of
your Office programs and not happening anywhere else, then there is a good
chance that it is an Office related problem and should be addressed here.
The first thing you should do, before posting your problem to this group, is
see if the problem also occurs in another program that is not part of
Office. If this is the case, then your problem is probably more hardware or
operating system related and not an Office problem at all. For example:
"My printer is giving me errors when I try to print from Excel and Adobe
PhotoShop" is probably not a problem to be brought to this group. However,
"My printer prints fine from all programs except Excel" is definitely
something that should be shared here.
d. If you are still not sure if it's an Office question or not, write
to me at mso-moderators@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and ask me. I will let you know and,
if I feel it is not appropriate for the group, in most cases I will give you
suggestions of groups that might be more appropriate. The group I recommend
you join for your Windows questions is WinTips and Tricks which you can
subscribe to by sending a blank email to
WinTips-Tricks-subscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
or by visiting this group's Yahoo page at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WinTips-Tricks
e. Though we all recognize the importance of keeping uptodate on the
latest viruses, this is also OT (off-topic) in this group. Unless you are
referring to a specific problem caused to one of your Office programs by a
virus, please take your virus alerts and virus questions to another group.
A good group to join for virus information is hacfix:
http://www.hackfix.org/list_virushelp.html
3. SPAM WILL NOT BE TOLERATED IN THIS GROUP. If you send unsolicited
advertisements to this group, you will be put on moderated status the first
time. The second time you will be banned. Period.
4. However, if someone posts a question and you feel your website or even
your paid service would help this person, it IS acceptable to post this. If
you are not sure if it is appropriate, write to me at
linda@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and I will give you my decision as quickly
as possible.
5. WAREZ AND PIRATED SOFTWARE WILL NOT BE DISCUSSED IN THIS GROUP. Again,
if you send intentional posts for any illegal copies of software to this
group, you will be warned and put on moderated status the first time. The
second time you will be banned. All posts of this type will be immediately
deleted from the archives of this group.
6. THIS IS NOT A MICROSOFT-BASHING GROUP. I know we all have problems with
some of the MS products and I understand the need to vent occasionally, but
this group is here for people who want to learn how to better use and
understand these programs and plain ol' bashing just isn't productive.
Let's try to maintain a positive, helpful atmosphere in here. (If you want
to bash something, go to another group and bash AOL.....only teasin', my AOL
friends *wink*).
7. When you post to the group, please make your subject line clear and
informative. Subject lines that are empty or just say "HELP!!!" very often
get ignored or deleted by members who are busy and only scan the mails for
topics they might be able to contribute to. A subject line that says
"Unable to save my Word 2000 documents" would get more attention.
8. Be sure to include lots of details when you explain your problem and let
us know what version of the program you are using. Though "I can't print
from Excel" is a good subject line, it is totally inadequate as the body of
the message. Be sure to include the version of your software, hardware and
operating system specs, complete error messages, and details, details,
details!
9. Feel free to lurk. Never feel like you are forced to participate. But,
if you do have a question, never feel like it is stupid. All questions are
considered equal in this group.
10. If you go on vacation, go to the homepage for this group and change your
mail status to "Vacation". This will stop the mail from coming to your
inbox while you are away and you can switch it back when you get back.
//www.freelists.org/webpage/mso
11. Also, at the home page you will see instructions for changing your
group settings (to Hidden, Digest, Vacation [which is freelists' version of
No Mail], etc.). Please take time to familiarize yourself with them.
12. To prevent viruses, etc. from being passed around this list, I have
disallowed attachments. However, the group has a files section at
smartgroups.com. To be able to use the files section for sharing files
with the group, send a request to mso-moderators@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and you
will be sent an invitation with instructions. Once you are a member of
the files group, you can go here to upload/download files:
http://www.smartgroups.com/vault/msofiles
13. When you post tips or advice from a website or online newsletter,
PLEASE credit your source, by giving the full URL (link) to the site where
you got the information.
___________________________________
DO NOT INCLUDE THIS GROUP IN YOUR "OUT OF OFFICE" AUTORESPONDER. If you do
this, I will change your status to "Vacation" and you will have to switch it
back when you return. Please make this easier on me and do this yourself
before you leave or simply omit this group from your autoresponder. The
members of the group do not need to receive this autoresponse from you over
and over and over....
___________________________________
PROPER FORMAT FOR REPLYING TO GROUP POSTS:
When replying to a post, leave enough of the original question/problem so
that people know what you are replying to. However do not leave the entire
email intact so it includes a trail of 15 messages. This makes reading
very difficult for digest members. On the other hand, leaving NONE of
the
original post also causes confusion for those (like me) who are very busy
and do not have the time to look back through all the previous posts to
remember what you are replying to:
EXAMPLE OF INCORRECT REPLY FORMATS:
Sending a one-line reply like "I don't understand what you are saying" or
"That didn't work" without including any of the previous post. This makes
NO sense.
Sending a reply which includes a trail of posts that is very long. This is
confusing for digest users, since this trail is repeated over and over in
their digest mail and it is hard for them to find your comments amongst the
confusion.
EXAMPLE OF WHAT I SEE AS THE BEST FORMAT:
Here's what I try to remember to do when I reply:
I hit the reply button. Then I scroll down and copy one sentence that shows
what I am replying to and I paste that at the top of my message (and usually
put it between brackets or something, like <<How do I do that?>> so it is
not confused with my reply). Then I reply to that and scroll down and leave
the one message I am replying to intact, then highlight the rest of what
follows and delete it.
This is not the only format that works and others may prefer a different
way, but just use common sense and consider our digest members and please
try to remember to be courteous.
_________________________
If you post to this group using Outlook 2002, you may see lots of equal
signs in your post after freelists gets done playing around with it. For an
explanation of why this happens and how to fix it, read this article,
written for us by member, Greg Chapman:
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v28/greg28.htm
_________________________
Well, that's about all I have the energy to write right now. Please read
this every month when it is sent so you can see if I added anything new.
Glad to have you all among us. Let me know if you think of anything I can
do to make this group more helpful for you.
Linda
List owner
Linda's Computer Stop
http://personal-computer-tutor.com <http://personal-computer-tutor.com/>
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To be able to use the files section for sharing files with the group, send a
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