(Editors Note: This article includes instructions for Outlook Express, Netscape Communicator, AOL, and ACT! users).

Has your online address book become unmanageable?

Do you ever look at all email addresses and wonder, "Who are all these people?"

Do you have difficulty locating someone in your address book that you need to send mail to NOW?

Do you know you can sort your addresses by first and last name, name, email address and more?

Set a date and time with yourself that you will do following exercises to organize and clean-up your electronic address book.

First you want to go and view your address book, see what kind of shape it's in.

Mine, for example, had 755 email addresses. Some had first name, some last, but most of them just had email addresses. One reason for that is that I have selected option to automatically add email address of anyone that sends me email (I've since turned this option off). I also found numerous duplicates and people that I didn't even know, let alone communicate with.

First let me demonstrate all different ways you can view or sort your address book:

OUTLOOK EXPRESS Users:

>>Open Outlook Express >>CLICK Tools at top of screen >>CLICK Address Book

A new window opens and you are presented with your Address Book.

Notice columns have headings of NAME, E-MAIL Address, Business Phone, and Home Phone. Note: Don't worry if yours are a little different.

>>Place your mouse pointer at top of E-Mail Address column and CLICK. Now all your E-Mail addresses will be sorted in either ascending or descending order. CLICK again, and reverse happens.

Each column can be sorted in ascending or descending order by placing your pointer on top of column you want to sort by and CLICKING. You can also do this by CLICKING on VIEW (while in your address book) and CLICK Sort By.

Now, you can simply arrow down through each E-Mail address, deleting or editing as you go.

To DELETE an E-Mail Address:

>>CLICK on "person" to highlight and CLICK Delete at top of screen or DELete key on your keyboard.

To EDIT an E-Mail Address:

>>Double CLICK on "person" and CLICK on NAME Tab to edit any information.

Now you might be like me, and not want to sit in front of computer screen to edit and delete, although you will have to do this eventually. When I was cleaning up mine, I was getting ready to go to doctors where I knew I would have to sit and wait. So I Exported my address book, printed it out, and did my editing on paper while sitting at doctors. When I came back to my office I simply went through my edited list, deleting and editing my address book on screen.

To EXPORT your address book:

We see results of this daily: Email ads so poorly written we instantly delete them and web sites with so many typos we have no confidence in business’ abilities or integrity. In short, lost sales. (The author of a guide I recently read about spotting scams on Web mentioned that some things they all seem to have in common are misused and misspelled words, misused or missing punctuation and typos—sloppy work.) I’ve seen web sites that seemed to be written by people whose first language was something other than English and whole message was lost.

And here’s one worth a chuckle—or a shake of head: While reading an eBook telling me how to write one and stressing importance of proofreading, I saw more typos and misused words and punctuation than I could count. Now, how much should I trust this man’s advice? In fact, I’ve found that MOST eBooks telling us how to make money on Internet are put together so haphazardly I’m becoming convinced there IS no way to make money using their methods. Anyone who throws together their information in such a hurry they don’t even proofread it doesn’t gain much credibility with me. And probably don’t with you, either.