Dear Mac Manners,

A friend often forwards messages to me, but more often than not I have to scroll through the message to find the text I want to read. Do you have any advice for avoiding this that I can pass along?

Perplexed in Poughkeepsie

Dear Perplexed, You might simply explain that there are two problems with forwarding messages in this manner. The first is that when you forward a message without editing it, you forward the sender's e-mail address (or, worse, multiple senders' addresses), too. Secondly, when a message has been forwarded a few times, the important material is often pushed to the bottom. No one really wants to read line after line of "Hey, check this out!" It's for this reason that we should edit out the dross before clicking on Send.

Dear Mac Manners,