Asking for help - how to write an effective e-mail

Our server receives a very high volume of e-mail messages. Much of the material that arrives in our inbox is SPAM, propaganda, or infected with a virus. One of the most challenging aspects of doing e-mail support is identifying the legitimate requests among the pile of junk messages that we receive.

You can improve your odds of receiving a useful response from our support staff by following these tips:

• Do your homework

  A substantial portion of our e-mail replies are links to appropriate pages here in this FAQ or on our forums. Use the search facilities on our web site to see if you can find an answer to your question on your own.

• Send to the correct e-mail address

  Our support page provides the proper contact information.

• Turn off your spam filters for our e-mail address

  It is not uncommon for someone to send a help request, but then their mail server refuses to accept our reply. Please try not to make this mistake.

• Use a meaningful subject line

  We receive a substantial amount of e-mail with titles such as "Question", "Help", "Hello", or no subject line at all. A descriptive and accurate subject line is more likely to trigger a prompt reply on our part.

• Mention the product by name

  Mention our product by name. This helps to prevent your e-mail from being falsely interpreted as SPAM. It also assists our support staff in responding to your query.

• In a reply, include the original message below your reply

  Sometimes we get brief replies with no trace of the original message. We deal with a large volume of e-mail. Do not assume that we will understand your reply without reviewing the earlier e-mail discussion.

• Tell us what kind of computer you have

  If you are having a problem or encountering an error, it is important for you to include details about your computer, such as the Operating System version, processor, and memory specifications.

• Try to be brief, but descriptive

  Include important details with your question, but try not to over do it. Try to limit your e-mail to one or two questions, and clearly explain the details of your question. If you have a problem, give full details of what you are trying to do, what you have tried, and quote any error messages you received.

• *Attach a .nwc example, but not other file types**

  If you are working with a particular NWC file, then consider attaching it to your message. This can often greatly improve the usefulness of the reply you get back from support.

  However, do not attach pictures or screen captures of your work. For some reason, many requests include screen shots of NWC, rather than the actual file. This is almost never helpful, and the large attachments might cause your e-mail to be completely ignored by our server.

  Lastly, do not send any other types of attachments, such as *.zip files. Our e-mail server ignores messages that include such attachments.