Sending Email

Sending an email is simple and fast. In Microsoft Outlook, click on "New" and in Thunderbird, click on "Write". Click on the little picture of an address book and select an address to send the email to or write the address in manually.

More Email Tips:

1. Write something meaningful in the subject box.
   People read the subject line and decide to open, reply, or trash an email.
   Good: "Coming to visit on September 12"
   Bad: "Guess who's coming for dinner?"
   Bad: "URGENT!"
2. Keep it readable.
   Use capitalization and correct spelling.
   Add a line between paragraphs.
   Don't type in all capital letters. In the Internet world, all-caps means shouting.
3. Avoid attachments whenever possible. (See the section below on "Attachments")
   Attachments can contain viruses and can take a long time to load depending on their size.
4. Check your email for spelling and grammatical errors.
   The spell checker in your email program won't catch every mistake.
5. Do not assume privacy.
   Don't send anything over email that you wouldn't want printed in your local newspaper.
6. Respond in a timely manner.
   
7. Know the difference between CC and BCC.
   CC stands for Carbon Copy which means people whose email addresses appear after the CC: label will receive a copy of the email. The CC header would also appear inside the header of the received message for everyone to see.
   BCC stands for Blind Carbon Copy which is similar to CC except that the email addresses of the people listed in this field do not appear in the received message header. The recipients in the TO or CC fields will not know a copy was sent to these BCC addresses.






Dealing with Email Attachments




Attachments are files you include with an email message. Family photos are a very popular type of attachment. Follow these basic tips when dealing with attachments in an email message, no matter what email program you're using:

• Do not open any attachment unless you know who it's from and you were expecting it. Let the person know in advance when you send attachments. If you receive an attachment you weren't expecting, check to see if the person really sent it.
• If you receive an email message with an attachment from someone you don't know, delete it immediately.
• Keep your anti-virus and antispyware software updated.
• Use an email program with spam filtering built-in, such as Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird. Web based email services like Gmail (Google) and Yahoo! Mail also feature spam filtering.




How to send attachments (documents, spreadsheets, photos or most types of files) by email (most email programs work the same way):

1. Open your email program, open a new message window and write your message.
2. Click on the attachment icon (the paper clip) or "Insert" the file by selecting from the drop down menu.
3. Browse your hard drive to locate the file you want to attach.
4. Click it to highlight the name, then click the Insert button.
5. An icon or message should appear showing that the file has been attached.
6. The attachment icon appears in the message.
7. Click the "SEND" button.




Sending Digital Photos as Email Attachments

So you've just used your new digital camera and you want to send the latest photos of your grand kids to Aunt Tilly. Unfortunately, digital camera photos are extremely large in physical size. Of course, you want to take your enormous multi-megapixel files straight from the camera and attach them to an email. Poor Aunt Tilly may not appreciate this, especially if her ISP puts a limit on the size of email attachments she can receive. Many times, these large attachments will clog the inbox, making it impossible to access remaining mail.

Here are possible solutions to this problem:

1. The most popular way is to reduce the size of copies of your photos so that they will take less time to download.


2. You could post your photos to a photo-sharing site. Posting photos to the web is a better solution if you have many photos or want to share the same photos with many people. Most photo-sharing sites will automatically reduce large images.
Flickr is one of the most popular photo-sharing sites. Flickr is owned by Yahoo and is free. Your photo albums can be private or public.

3. Post your photos on your own personal web site. This option requires the most technical skill. Check with your ISP to see if you already have personal Web space. Very often, your Internet provider will give you 10 - 25 megabytes of web space included with your account. All you have to do is follow the directions your ISP should have provided you for uploading your photo gallery to the Internet. Then just give Aunt Tilly the web address (provided by your ISP) of your photo gallery and she can see them whenever she wants.



Web-based Email




Web-based email is stored remotely on a mail server, which means that it is accessible anywhere there is an Internet connection and a web browser.




Advantages of Web-based Email

• Centralized maintenance of the email program
• Backups, upgrades and security fixes are done automatically.
• Many web-based email providers offer spam and virus prevention.




Disadvantages of Web-based Email

• The user must be online to read and write email.
• The user cannot keep the messages on their local hard drive.
• Web-based email accounts are often targets of spam.

Web-based email accounts can be set up simply and quickly and can provide a degree of anonymity. The ability to use it anywhere means it is harder to trace the individual who uses it.




Popular Web-based Email Providers

Gmail (Google)
Rating:
Price: FREE


Yahoo! Mail
Rating:
Price: FREE





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