Today I don my Emily Post hat to discuss what I like to call 'netiquette' — the new etiquette of the Internet.

'Please' and 'thank you,' proper business attire, and impeccably presented resumes have long separated the polite from the rude and the winners from the losers in job searching. We all know to extend a hand for a firm handshake, to smile appropriately but not too much and to make eye contact.

This ingrained business etiquette is geared to in-person interviews, snail mail communications and telephone protocols. But what about today's business environment, where so much communication takes place on the Internet? Although there are many advantages to Internet communications and e-mail in particular, one disadvantage is the lack of face-to-face or even voice-to-voice interaction. It's all too easy to misinterpret the tone or implication inherent in many e-mail messages. Read on for 'netiquette' pointers to keep you well-mannered and successful in your Internet job search.

Understand style implications. When posting your resume or responding to an online job ad, use the normal arrangement of uppercase and lowercase letters. Do not use ALL CAPS. All caps are the electronic equivalent of shouting at the recipient. It is rude as well as hard to read.

Practice safe e-mailing. Make sure that your virus protection is current. Sending a potential employer or hiring agent a computer virus is not going to help your candidacy.

Follow instructions. When you're asked to submit a resume, don't refer the hiring agent to your Web resume or personal Web site. Most of the time, the person contacting you is not the person who will make the hiring decision. Instead, they're asking you to provide something tangible that they can pass along to the decision maker. And, remember that hiring managers are just as busy as you are — they don't have time to surf the Internet!

Send your resume in the correct format. If an employer requests your resume in text-only or ASCII format, be sure to comply. If you don't know how to reformat your resume into the requested mode, find out. You may want to impress the recipient with fancy resume formatting but, in the electronic environment, the recipient could often care less. The hiring agent wants data in a form that can be easily converted to whatever database he might be using. Word processing programs like WordPerfect contain hidden commands that cause some strange results in databases.

On the other hand, you may also be asked to submit a resume as a Word document. Plan ahead and have your resume saved as both a text-only file ( .txt) and as a Word file ( .doc). Again, if you don't know how to do this, ask an expert or someone you trust for help. If you're asked to send the resume by copying and pasting it into the body of an e-mail message, it's in your best interest to do so. Many recipients don't want to take the extra time to download and open files. That extra time may not seem like much to you, but multiply it by the 100 resumes that the hiring agent receives each day and you'll understand the request!

Respond to the right person. When you locate a job ad on the Web that asks you to respond by U.S. mail, don't look around for a back door such as e-mailing your resume to the Webmaster. If the company wanted the Webmaster to receive the resume, it would have directed you accordingly. You can try to beat the system, but hiring agents know how they want to receive resumes.

Don't send multiple copies. When you have an opportunity to submit a resume via e-mail, do not send the resume multiple times. Once is sufficient. If changes are made to the resume, sending one update is acceptable, with a note identifying the resume as updated.

Remember: Multiple or repeated resumes clog up the hiring agent's e-mail and database, making it likely that your second submission will be deleted or ignored. If you're insistent on resubmitting your resume, it's generally agreed that 90 days is the appropriate time to wait before doing so.

Avoid cover letters. Cover letters should be omitted unless they're specifically asked for, or contain critical information that is not included in your resume. If you do include one, keep it short, to the point and factual.

Do unto others. As in any social situation, treat others as you would like to be treated, follow the rules and more doors will open for you.