How to have important Emails read to you over the phone when you are away from your PC

Posted by Paul on Sep 01, 2006    How to have important Emails read to you over the phone when you are away from your PC

There are many mobile devices around that can receive email, but there seem to be very few people taking advantage of this capability. Why is that? Here are some guesses: Most emails just aren’t important enough that we should be interrupted by them when we are out doing something else; Emails are hard to read and manage on those dinky little screens. Last but not least, if you want to stay organized, and you like to keep old emails for reference and follow-up, there’s just no easy way to do that if your PC and your mobile device are both hooked up to the same email account.

In truth, the vast majority of email just isn’t worth receiving on your mobile device. It can wait until you get back to your PC. That’s one of the great benefits of email – you’re contactable but you don’t have to respond straight away, and people don’t expect you to respond straight away.

However, some emails are important. My daughter emailed me from school the other day saying she’d forgotten her sports uniform and needed it up at the school by 10am. That might not seem important to you, but it was to her. You probably have people you know from whom you would like to get all emails straight away, or you may have particular topics that are important that you would like to receive emails about immediately.

The following steps show you how to start having emails sent to your phone. The email (or selected portions of it) will be read to you. If you prefer, you can use similar steps to have important emails sent to you via SMS. (Note: The following instructions assume that you already have Outlook 2000/XP/2003/2007 installed).

1. Follow these instructions to set up Skype if you don’t already use it.

2. To have email forwarded to your phone, you will need to purchase some Skype Credit if you don’t already have it. You can buy Skype Credit here. If you’re doing this for the first time, just buy the minimum amount so you can give it a try without too much of an outlay. (NOTE: There are exceptions – sometimes Skype runs promotional offers that allow you to call phones for free).

3. If you don’t already have Skylook, download and install it from here.

4. Start Outlook. If you are running Skylook for the first time, you will see the Skylook licensing wizard and the Skylook Welcome wizard. Follow the prompts to ensure you have Skylook set up the way you want.

5. Click the “Alerts>Advanced Alerts…” button in the Skylook toolbar:
Advanced Alerts Menu

6. Choose “Email” from the list of options, then click “Next”:
Advanced Alerts Wizard Email Option

7. Enter some search text. Only emails that contain your search text in the subject, body or sender name or email address will be forwarded to your phone.
Email Alert Search Text

8. Fill out this wizard page as shown (using your phone number instead of the one shown):
Email Alert Phone Number

9. Fill out the next wizard page as shown:
Email Alert Data

10. Accept the default settings in the next page:
Email Alert Timing

11. Enter a name for the alert, then click “Finish”:
Email Alert Name
12. To test Email forwarding, set your Skype status to “Away” by clicking the bottom left hand corner of the Skype application as shown below, so that Skylook thinks you are away from your PC:
Switch to Away Status

13. Send yourself an email containing the search text you entered above, or wait for one to arrive that contains the search text.

14. Soon after the email is received, the phone number you entered should ring. Answer the call and listen to your email. (NOTE: If you receive emails from Skype contacts, and you have linked the Skype contact to an Outlook contact, you will also have the option to call the Skype contact back, by pressing “1″ on your phone).

15. If you did not receive a phone call, check the Outlook inbox. If Skylook had problems calling your phone (e.g. if the number is invalid), the details of the problem are placed in a new inbox item for you to review.

16. Once you’ve finished trying this, don’t forget to set your Skype status back to “Online”. By default, Skype switches your status to “Away” automatically if your computer is left idle for more than five minutes. (Note: You may wonder what happens with emails that come in during the five minute gap – don’t worry, Skylook forwards these emails also, as soon as Skype switches your status to “Away”).

If you need additional help, just email us at skylook@skylook.biz for assistance.