Anne's unfortunate incident should be a reminder to us all: "hit the wrong
button.  has happened to all of us but perhaps not so disastrously"

Unfortunately this HAS happened to everyone.  Technology is wonderful and yes,
it can be a disaster.  Such is the price of the electronic age.

Since our list mothers are away I thought I'd give a few tips on preventing
some of the snags in using email/Lactnet.
1.  Don't compose your mail on line.  Once you hit the send button its too
late.
2.  Before you sign on to send you mail--check the addresses.  If you have AOL
as your ISP--look in the mail waiting to be sent tray: addresses are listed
next to the title of the email.
3.  Avoid hitting the *reply* or *reply all* or *forward* button (this is how
entire digests get copied into Lactnet posts).  Instead create a new document
and copy and paste what you need into your new mail.  I've had a few posts
come out with weird symbols on the list when I have copied and pasted from my
word processing program.  The only way around it for me is to first copy into
a new word processing document using the *paste text only* command--that
deletes all the formatting.  Then I have to copy and paste from the text only
document into the email program.
4.  Turn off all special features:  HTML coding, colored backgrounds, colored
type.  Set font for Geneva or whatever font your program uses as a default.
5.  If you have a spell checker use it.  Unfortunately if something is spelled
right it won't pick up on the fact that it is the wrong word.  AOL has a
setting (preferences:Mail) to spell check mail before sending.

One other time saver tip: if you find you have little time to read lactnet and
have a text to speech program, let the computer read it to you.  Some words
sound really strange like breastfeeding comes out *breestfeeding* but you get
used to it.  (I know some people who use speech recognition programs to
dictate their email while they do other things--hands free.)
Hope all this helps
Marie Davis