1. E-mail at a Glance: Why Use E-mail?

Electronic mail, or e-mail, is the most frequently used service on the Internet for many reasons:

Send a message any time, anywhere and the recipient can read it at his or

her convenience.

Send the same message to multiple recipients. Forward information without retyping it. E-mail is fast, usually taking no more than a few seconds to be received.

Attach digital files to your messages, including electronic documents, video clips, music and photos.

Send messages around the world as easily as to someone down the block.

2. E-mail at a Glance: How E-mail Works

Like a postal address, an e-mail address specifies the destination of an electronic message.

An Internet e-mail address looks like this: user name@domain name The user name is a unique name that identifies the recipient. The domain name is the address. Many people can share the same domain

name.

E-mail is sent and received through electronic "post offices" known as mail

servers.

To read your e-mail, you download it from the mail server. For Web-based e-mail services, like Hotmail or Gmail, you can read your messages directly on a web page.

Once you enter the address of the recipient, compose your message, and click Send, your e-mail software handles the delivery.

If the message can not be delivered, for example because of an incorrect

address, you typically receive a message explaining why.

3. E-mail at a Glance: How Reliable is E-mail?

E-mail reaches the recipient most of the time, but delivery is not

guaranteed. Sometimes spam filtering software may block a message or direct it to the recipient's Junk Mail folder.

If the message does not reach its destination the first time, the mail server

sends it again.

If the message is not delivered, you usually receive a message explaining the problem, along with the full text of the original message. You can correct the problem--typically an incorrect e-mail address--and resend it.

4. E-mail at a Glance: How Private Is E-mail?

There is no guarantee of e-mail privacy. A message can be intercepted and

read as it makes its way over the Internet to its final destination. Consider e-mail as you would a postcard.

The safest way to send sensitive or confidential information via e-mail is by

usingencryption software.

Some companies consider e-mail to be the same as paper mail and reserve the right to review all electronic correspondence.

When you delete a message from your computer, a copy of the message

may stillremain on the mail server and can be retrieved.

5. E-mail at a Glance: Anatomy of a Message

The software program you use to send, receive, and manage electronic

messages is called an e-mail client. To send a message, you enter information similar to the heading of a typical memo.

To: contains the e-mail address of the recipient. This is a mandatory entry.

CC:, short for Carbon Copy, contains the e-mail addresses for people other

than the primary recipients. This is optional.

BCC:, short for Blind Carbon Copy, contains the e-mail addresses of other recipients who receive copies, but their names and addresses are hidden from all other recipients. This is optional.

Subject: contains the main topic of the message. Keep this brief. Recipients see this in their summary of incoming messages.

Attachment contains the names of files that you may be sending, for

example, a Worddocument or a photo.

Body contains the message itself, which can be of any length.

6. E-mail at a Glance: E-mail Addresses

Here is how to interpret the parts of an e-mail address:

tina@upandawayballoon.com

tina --The user name of the e-mail account holder is a unique, assigned

name that can be a real name, initials, a nickname, or a descriptive word such as "information."

@ --The axon sign is required in all Internet e-mail addresses. It allows the e-

mail software to distinguish between the user name and the domain name.

upandawayballoon.com --The domain name identifies the company, organization or e-mail service of the account holder.

7. E-mail at a Glance: Finding Addresses

There is no comprehensive listing of all e-mail addresses, but here are some ways to find someone's address: It may seem obvious, but the easiest way to get someone's address is to just ask. If you already know the person, pick up the phone and call.

Try Yahoo! People Search--a free, easy-to-use directory for locating both email, street addresses and phone numbers.

Many people list their e-mail address on their business cards, so look there.

Or go to the company website and see if there is a staff directory.

If you have received a message from someone in the past, it contains the person's address. Many e-mail programs, like Outlook and Yahoo! Mail, automatically record the sender's address in your address book.

8. E-mail at a Glance: Signatures

E-mail can include a "signature" at the end of the message. It is not a hand-

written signature, but text that provides useful information about you.

An e-mail signature may include your name, title, phone and fax numbers, street address, website address and any other information you want to include.

Using the signature feature saves time since you do not have to retype

the textevery time you send a message. It is automatically added to the end of your message.

Some e-mail programs let you store more than one signature file.

9. E-mail at a Glance: E-mail Etiquette

To improve the impact of your messages and avoid trouble, there are a few unwritten rules, called netiquette (networking etiquette) you should be aware of:

Clearly summarize your message in the subject line.

Keep your messages short and focussed. Recipients tend to ignore long messages.

Do not write in all CAPITAL LETTERS. Capital letters are used for emphasis

and are considered equivalent to SHOUTING. IT IS ALSO DIFFICULT TO READ.

Do not write anything you would not say in public. It is easy for recipients to forward messages to others, which could leave you in an embarrassing position if you divulge personal or confidential information.

Include your name at the bottom of a message.

10. Using E-mail Software

Most e-mail programs have many features in common. Once you know one program, you can easily use others. Launching your e-mail program is usually as simple as clicking the e-mail icon on your desktop. Write a message by clicking the Compose Mail, New Message or similar button.

Type the e-mail addresses of the recipients in the To field, or use the

address book--a handy feature of your e-mail program that stores frequently used addresses--to select one or more e-mail addresses.

In the CC field, enter the address of anyone you want to receive a copy of

the message. Type the e-mail address or choose it from your address book.

Type the subject of the message.

Now type your message. You can edit it as you would a word processing document. You can also copy text from another message or document and paste it into the message box.

Finally, click the Send button. Enable your spellchecker program to run before the message goes off into cyber space.

11. E-mail at a Glance: Reading Messages

Messages are organized in folders or boxes. Received mail is typically kept in an Inbox; outgoing mail is stored in an Outbox; sent mail is filed in a Sent box, and discarded mail may be kept in a Deleted Mail box.

When you open your e-mail program, it lists the messages in your Inbox. From here you can read, reply to, and manage your e-mail.

To read an e-mail, you typically double-click the envelope icon or the

Subject line of the message. This opens a new window containing the header and body of the message.

To review mail in other folders or boxes, click or (double-click) the folder.

Then click the message that interests you.

12. E-mail at a Glance: Replying to Messages

After you have read a message, you may want to respond.

The window with the e-mail you are reading typically has a Reply button. Click this button to open a new window. The To and Subject lines are automatically filled in with the e-mail address of the sender and the subject of the message.

You might also have a Reply To All or similar button that also opens a new window. In this case, all the addresses in the CC list are included in the To and CC lines.

In some programs, the original message appears automatically. Other programs have a Quote or Include Original Message button. By clicking this button, the text of the original e-mail appears in the body of the reply, usually marked in a different font or color, or with a special character, such as the greater than sign (>) at the beginning of each line.

You can choose to place your reply before or after the original text.

To respond to a series of ideas or questions, intersperse your reply with the original text. Typically, your replies appear in a different color or font, making it easier to identify.

13. E-mail at a Glance: Deciphering Error Messages

If an e-mail is returned to you, most likely it will contain an explanation.

User unknown: The message arrived at the mail server, but the server could not find the recipient. Check the user name part of the e-mail address for errors and try sending the message again. Also, double check the domain name to ensure that you are sending it to the right organisation.

Host unknown: Your mail server could not locate the server's computer

address based on the domain name. Check the domain name in the e-mail address for errors and try again.

Message has not been delivered, but will try again. Your mail server

failed to deliver the message, but will continue to resend it. This error message indicates a temporary communications problem that may clear up by itself. For example, this message is generated when the recipient's mail server is not functioning or is disconnected from the Internet.

14. E-mail at a Glance: Sending Attachments

In addition to sending text messages, most e-mail programs allow you to attach word processing documents, spreadsheets, graphics, audio, video, and other electronic files to your message. To attach a file: Click the Attachment or Include File icon, often represented by a paper clip. This feature is often located on the toolbar or on a pull-down menu.

Locate the file on your computer's hard drive or other storage device from the window that opens requesting the name of the file.

Select the file you want from the file attachment window. An icon

representing the file may appear in the body of your message, or the name of the file appears in the Attachment line of your message window.

Files sent as attachments need to be encoded. E-mail software usually does

this automatically.

15. E-mail at a Glance: Opening Attachments

To view an attached file, click the file icon or save the file to your hard drive,

then use the appropriate software program to open it.

With most e-mail software, you open an attachment by double-clicking the icon for the file. This typically brings up a dialog box allowing you to decide what you want to do with the file.

Attached files must be decoded. This usually happens automatically.

If you open an attachment that looks like random characters and symbols, it probablyhas not been decoded correctly or you may be viewing it with the wrong software program.

Use Caution: Your computer can contract a virus when you open an attached file. If you do not know or trust the person who sent the e-mail, delete the attachment to avoid infection.

16. E-mail at a Glance: Embedding a Web Link

Some e-mail programs let you put a link to a web page in the message,

making it easy for the recipient to access Web resources.

Most e-mail programs support hyperlinks embedded in the message text.

If hyperlinks are supported, the recipient can just click the link and a web browseropens to the referenced page.

To create a hyperlink, either type the URL (the complete address of a web

page, such as http://www.learnthenet.in/) or copy and paste the URL from the address box of your web browser.

The URL may appear like regular text in your outgoing message, but the

recipient sees the hyperlink in a special font, color, or underlined.

E-mail at a Glance: Your Addresses Book

E-mail programs have an address book feature where you can record the

e-mail addresses and other information of people you contact frequently.

By using the address book you will not have to retype an e-mail address each time you want to send a message. This saves time and avoids returned mail due to typing mistakes.

With some programs, you can store multiple e-mail addresses for each personand additional information, such as a company name, telephone number, and street address.

With most programs, you can create a set of e-mail addresses called a group. When you address a message to a group, the message is automatically addressed to all the people in the group. This is sometimes referred to as a mailing list.

As your list grows, use the Search or Find function in the address book to

locate an e-mail address based on a person's first or last name.