American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

Gents.

I have quite a busy schedule regarding e-mails. And an even busier schedule maintaining Games.

I try to maintain an Excel Spreadsheet, recording Turns received and Turns due/sent out. i am hopeless at keeping it up to date for longer than a week or so. The Flesh is willing - byt the brain goes out to Lunch! [:o)]

Does anyone out there know of an AUTOMATIC function within Outlook etc. that can be user-set to collect and hold e-mails sent within say . . the last 7 days?

Sounds lazy . . I know! But with the volume I send/receive and my lack of personal organisation . . t'would be very helpful to have such a function.

Or do I just haffta get better at maintaining the Spreadsheet?

Many Thanks chap.

Pat.

Patrick G.M.Carroll,
Brigadier General.
Carroll's Corps,(II)
"Spartan Southrons"
Army of Georgia.
C.S.A.Cabinet Secretary

" When My Country takes it's rightful place, amongst the Nations of the World, then and only then, let My Epitaph be written. "

Here is my system, that should also work with Outlook, by adding different folders, within Outlook. I do not always play the turn as I get the games.

When I get game emails in my inbox, I download the game file to a folder called NEWGAME. I then place the EMAIL into a folder named GAMETURNS, within my email program.

I then UNZIP the game file into the apropriate game folder.

When I am ready to play, I go into my email program and go to the GAMETURNS folder and check for the oldest game turn and play that particular game.

I also have a folder called GAME_FILE_SEND and copy the recently played turn to that folder. I always send the turn as soon as I play it.

Now, I go back into the email program and reply to my opponents email and then place that email into another folder named DONETURNS.

So, I always check the email folder GAMETURNS for UNPLAYED turns.

In this way, my record of turns DUE is in the GAMETURNS email folder. This folder is easily checked when I am ready to play and by moving the email out of that folder, it always has unplayed game emails showing.

At one time, I did try a spreadsheet, written notes, a written list of games and their turns and finally settled on the above system. I sometimes have over 15 different games going and this system works well for me.

So, within your Outlook, make a GAMETURNS folder and a DONETURNS folder.

On your game drive, make a NEWGAME folder and make that the default for downloading game files. Make a folder called GAME_FILE_SEND and make that the default for attachments to the reply.

In your email program, you would have the following folders:

GAMETURNS (for all new turns)
DONETURNS (for all completed game turns)

I hope the above is understandable. It is an easy system to set up and easy to maintain a flow of games. (Easy for me to say, as I have used this system for over 6 years.<g>)

OUTLOOK also (IIRC) saves all SENT emails in a "SENT" folder. I think that is an OPTION, but it might be automatic. I have not used Outlook for several years, so my memory of it is slightly hazy.[:D]

Now, I think there is a MESSAGE RULES function in OUTLOOK, where you can specify certain specific emails, by sender or by subject, will always be sent to specific inbox folders, but that requires some work, because your game files come from several people and have no set subject, so the message rules would be difficult to establish.

<b><font color="gold">Ernie Sands
LtGen, Commanding, Army of Ohio

ACWGC Cabinet member
</b></font id="gold">

I just make a Outlook folder for each opponent. Then I set a mail rule for each opponent so that when their email comes in it is automatically directed to their folder. There it will show up as an unread message. I leave it showing as unread (even if I read it and have to mark it unread again) until I play it. One quick glance shows me who I owe turns to. I then drag the return message from the sent box to the appropriate game folder then I can just pop into the folder and see who sent the last message if I haven't heard from someone in a while to see if I'm waiting on them or if I screwed up and some how marked their message read.

General Mark Nelms
6/3/IX/AoO
"Blackhawk Brigade"

My system is as simple as it gets. Unplayed turns are in the inbox. Once they are played, they are archived in folders. So everything in the inbox is still to be played. Inbox empty: no game turns. (Happens rarely.)

Gen. Walter, USA
<i>The Blue Blitz</i>
Reserve Artillery, AoS

Have a similar system with my emails.

I have a folder named Incoming where I place the email after downloading the zipfile. Also have a folder for each current game. After I play a turn I send the reply and move the email to the folder for that game. This way I have all the files for a game incase we have to go back for some reason. When I finish a game and place the results in my game records file I delete the folder for that game.

So if I'm not sure if I owe someone a turn all I have to do is check the Incoming folder. And if it seems like a while since I got a reply I can check the various game folders and send notes to opponents who haven't answered in a while.

Gen. Ken Miller



Army of the Shenandoah

Here is a good article on the use of Outlook:

http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=631

<b><font color="gold">Ernie Sands
LtGen, Commanding, Army of Ohio

ACWGC Cabinet member
</b></font id="gold">

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by D.S. Walter</i>
<br />My system is as simple as it gets. Unplayed turns are in the inbox. Once they are played, they are archived in folders. So everything in the inbox is still to be played. Inbox empty: no game turns. (Happens rarely.)

Gen. Walter, USA
<i>The Blue Blitz</i>
Reserve Artillery, AoS



<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

MY SYSTEM EXCATLY! My problem as well LOL [8D]

Colonel D.H. Smith
3rd Cavalry Divison,III Corps,AoA

http://sapper99.com

Another Oulook feature, I find useful for Multi-player games is to add a flag on turns received from opponents, which keeps the mail at the top of the inbox, reminding me to expect a turn from my partners.

I will also flag an individual game, if I knew I may be delayed in getting to it.

But for most games I don't save the individual emails. When I'm done with a turn, the incoming email goes into the delete file and I keep a copy of everyting I send out. My delete and sent mail files usually have emails from the last 90 days.

Lt Gen Bob Breen
Commanding XIX Corps, AoS
"Defenders of the Right"

Hey General Pat Suh,
I use a large note book, each page has the name of the player, game at the top. then down the side I record the turn as I play them. then when I'm done i record the turn and when I send it I record the date and put a check mark next to it. if it don't have a check mark then I know that it needs to be sent.

Lt. Col. Gery Bastiani
Fightin' Carolinians
II/2/4 AotM CSA

"I rather die then be whipped - J.E.B Stuart