What is e-mail? (using Outlook Express)
1. When you want to send a letter to a friend you write it, put it in an envelope, stamp it and put it in the post box. From there the postman picks it up, takes it to a sorting office from where it gets sent
to a sorting office near to the recipient.
At the far end it gets sorted into the postman's routes and he takes it and puts it through your friend's letter box. Your friend opens it and reads it. They may want to reply or they may not.
2. E-mail is very similar except that you write your letter on the computer and it is sent down your telephone wire electronically using the Internet where it is sorted (on a server), depending on the friend's e-mail address, and stored. When they access their e-mail it is sent on to the friend's computer where it can be read on screen, or it can be printed out to read.
3. Your computer needs to have a modem fitted which is
connected to the telephone line. It can be a dial-up
(slower) or a broadband (faster) modem. Your computer connects to the Internet using the modem.
4. You need to have an e-mail account and address. To
get these you will need to set up an account with an Internet Service Provider (ISP) such as BT, AOL, Tiscali, Pipex, TalkTalk and many others. And you need to know your friend's e-mail address.
computer which will access the e-mails. This may be provided by the Internet Service Provider or you can use Outlook Express. This document describes how to use Outlook Express.
6. Explanation of the Inbox, Outbox etc.
When you first open the program Outlook Express
the Window will look something like this.
Left-click on the
Inbox which will let you see the facilities available. (Your computer may already be set
up to go to the Inbox first).
The Inbox is where Emails received are stored and the
Outbox is where Emails to be sent are stored. When they
have been sent they are stored in Sent Items. Inbox,
Outbox etc are called Folders. To see what is in them you double click on them.
If you want to write an Email but don't want to send it
immediately then you can Save it in the Drafts Folder
where you can access it again to amend or send. Left-click on File in the New Message window and then Save.
When you delete an Email it is put into the Deleted
Items Folder. This is a temporary store which can be
Emptied to totally delete. To delete an Email right-click on
You can create folders to store your Emails just like with other files. Suppose you want to collect together all your
e-mails from your friend Jim. Right-click on Inbox and
left-click on New-Folder... in the drop-down menu which
appears. In the Create Folder window type “Jim” in the
Folder Name: field and left-click on OK. This adds a
folder Jim to the Inbox. Each time you get an Email from
Jim you will then be able to drag it into the folder Jim.
This can be done
autom-atically if you set up a Rule.
Left-click on Tools, select
Message Rules and then
Mail....
A Window appears with various options.
This allows you to set up when e-mails will go into
7. Writing a new message
To write an e-mail left-click on the button Create Mail.
8. Left-click on the lower field and start typing your message. If you wish you can
select a different font and use various
formats such as Bold.
If these options are not shown then left-click on the Menu Format and then on Rich Text (HTML)
9. Adding the recipient's Email address to the message
Left-click in the To field and type in your
friend's E-mail address. E-mail
addresses always have an “@” in them. 10. Message titles
Left-click in the Subject field and type in the
subject of your e-mail. 11. Spell checking
In order to check your spelling in the New Message window (now called by the name of your
Subject) left-click on Tools and then on Spelling...
Alternatively press F7. A Spelling Window
appears with the first
example of incorrect text (highlighted in the New
Message Window)
shown as Not In Dictionary. Left-click on Change to
accept the suggested correction and the Spelling Window jumps to the next incorrect word. Each time you have the option to select from the Suggestions (by left-clicking on the one you choose) then to Change or to Ignore the Suggestions altogether. When you are happy left-click on Cancel.
12. Copying and pasting, and editing your text
You may want to take some text from another document to
include in your Email. First you highlight the text ie in the
document by dragging your mouse with the left button pressed across the text. Now press Control (Ctrl) followed by C whilst still holding Ctrl down (Ctrl C) and then select the Email New Message Window and left-click where you
want the text to appear in your Email. Then press Ctrl V to
paste it in. If you want to cut out text in your Email you
can highlight it and then press Backspace or press Ctrl X. 13. How to send a message
When you are happy with your e-mail then left-click on the
Send button.
The e-mail will be will be temporarily saved in the Outbox
Folder and sent provided you are on-line (connected to
the Internet). You left-click the Send/Receive button and
it will then be saved in the Sent Items Folder so you can
refer to it later. You will find that the first time you do this a Wizard appears which allows you to set up your account. Ask your usual source of help to take you through this.
You can have accounts either with your Internet Service
Provider with an Email address e.g.
an Email address e.g. [email protected]. With the latter you have to go on to the web rather than using
Outlook Express to access your Emails, having registered
to set up your Email address.
14. Add addresses to the address book
Your friends' e-mail addresses can be stored in the Address Book. To access this left-click on the Addresses button.
15. The addresses can be saved in various
Contact Folders. Let's assume that we want
to save them in the Shared Contacts
Folder. Left-click on this and then left-click
on New.
A drop-down Menu allows selection of New Contact.
16. A
Properties
window appears which allows
typing in of details as shown.
17. When the e-mail
address has been added
to the box E-mail Addresses, left-click on Add to include it. Once all the details have been included left-click on the
OK button. It will be saved as the Default Email address.
18. If you ever want to delete an address from the
Address
Book you
right click on the name and then left-click on Delete.
19. Using the address book when composing messages
Once e-mail addresses have been added to the address book then, when creating e-mails, instead of typing in the full e-mail address they can be included by left-clicking the
button and selecting from the Address book.
Select Shared Contacts, then left-click on the required
e-mail address, then left-click on the To: -> button which
puts the address into the Message Recipients box and
then left-click on OK which puts the address into the To
20. Use of the CC and BCC fields
You may want to send your e-mail to lots of people. If so then select more than one e-mail address to put into the
To field.
The Cc field can be used if you want to “carbon copy”
someone for information only.
The Bcc field can be used if you want to “blind carbon
copy” someone ie not let the other recipients know this person is receiving the e-mail.
21. Creating a distribution list
You can create a distribution list which you can use to send
to a number of people. After left-clicking on New on the
drop-down Menu select New Group and type in the name
of the Group. Left-click on Select Members and follow
the instructions to make up the Group. Once the Group
Group add the name of the Group to the To field. 22. Adding an attachment to an Email
When you write a letter, sometimes you may want to
enclose a photo or a copy of a document. You can do this with e-mail as well providing that you have your photo or
document as a file on your computer or on a disc.
Look for the Attach button and left-click on it.
You may have to maximise the New Message Window to see it.
This will bring up a
Window, Insert
Attachment, which allows you to Browse for the file you want.
23. When you have found the file that you want to attach you are best to ensure that the file is not in use and has been saved; so close down the file and the Application it is
used in. Then left-click the Attach button. The Attach
field will appear under the Subject field with the
Then you send the Email in the usual way. 24. How to check for new messages
To receive e-mails, connect to the Internet and left-click on the Send/Receive button. (They may appear
automatically if the correct Option has already been set
up). New e-mails will appear in the Inbox. Double click on
these to open them to read them. 25. How to open a message
You will be able to see the text of an Email message
without opening it in the Preview Pane (if it has been set
up) by left-clicking on the Email in the Inbox. The
Preview Pane is shown either at the side or below the
Email. It is only advisable to use the Preview Pane if
your Virus Checker is on.
Double click on messages in the Inbox to open them to
read them in a separate window and to be able to access any attachment.
26. Opening mail attachments
When an Email has an Attachment (a file which comes
with the message) it is shown below the Subject line. This
could just be opened by double-clicking on it but do not do
this. It must be Virus Checked first so copy it into a
Folder in My Documents and then do the check before
opening it. (It may have been checked by your Virus
Checker but it's best to double check).
You can copy it by selecting My Documents and then
dragging the file from the Email to the chosen Folder.
If your computer has a Virus Checker (e.g. AVG Free)
Folder) an option to Scan is given. Left-click on
this. If
everything is alright then a message
comes up e.g. “No threats found”. Close this Window and
then you can open the file from the Folder in the normal
way. If a virus is found then on no account should the file
be opened. It and the original Email should be deleted
immediately.
27. Replying to an incoming message, replying 'to all'
If you want to reply to an e-mail look for the Reply button
which if you left-click on it will put the
sender's e-mail address into the To
field. The Subject field will have Re:
followed by the original subject. You can then type your reply in the space above the original message. Left-clicking on Reply will send the reply to the original sender.
Left-clicking on the Reply All button will send the reply to all
the recipients as well.
28. Forwarding a message to third parties
Similarly if you want to send the original message on to
29. Some of the more common icons you may see when looking at the
e-mails in your Inbox are shown
here (from Outlook Express Help).
30. You will notice that Priority can be set. (Setting Priority
indicates to the recipient how urgent the message is). This
is done by left-clicking on Priority whilst in the New
Message window. You may have to maximise the
New Message Window to see it. Left-click on the
Menu arrow as shown to allow setting of High, Normal
31. Searching for a message
Maybe you can't find that message which had some important information. You can search for a message in various ways. If it was an incoming message then left-click
on the Inbox. Or if it was an outgoing message then
left-click on the Outbox. If you are not sure then left-click on
Local Folders. Then
left-click on Edit, then drag the pointer down to Find and then drag it to
Message and left-click.
This will bring up a Find Message Window which allows
Ensure that the box Include subfolders is ticked. This
means that if you have created Folders within the Folder
that you selected, eg the Inbox, the message will still be
found.
Let's assume you remember that the information is in an incoming message from a friend eg Martha Lester-Cribb
whose name and Email address are in your Email
Address Book. Then in the From: box type any part of
her name or Email address e.g. “Martha” (without the
quotes) and left-click on Find Now. You will then be
shown a list of possible Emails also showing in which
Folder they are. You can then open these in turn to find what you were looking for. Alternatively, you can add more detail to the search by typing in the other boxes or
selecting a date Received before: or Received after:.
Suppose you remembered that the Email mentions a party
either in the Subject or the text of the Message then you can type “party” in either of these boxes. Try this out in the various ways and you will soon find that elusive
Email unless of course you have deleted it. However, all is
not lost if you have not emptied the Deleted Items
Folder and you may still find it in that. 32. Sorting messages
An example is shown in the following Window where a
search for the text “microsoft” was made in Local Folders
You will see that the Email was found in the Inbox and is shown with various columns of information such as who it
was From, the Subject, when it was Received and the
Folder (Inbox) it is held in. If there were a number of
Emails shown then these could be sorted by left-clicking on the title of one of these columns. Supposing you wanted
them in date order then left-click on Received and they
will be sorted in that order (descending date). If you left-click again on that column title they will be sorted by ascending date. The same type of sorting can be done
within the Folder itself rather than in the Find Message
Window.
33. Dangers of spam and viruses
Once you connect to the Internet it is possible for people to find your e-mail address and you may start getting
something, or trying to access your computer. Usually your Internet Service Provider will have some sort of Spam Filter
which will give an indication when Spam is suspected. The
e-mail will come into the Inbox with eg “[Probable Spam]”
in front of the Subject. You can then choose to ignore it. It
is good practice not to open Spam e-mails in case a virus
may be attached. A Rule may be set up to store all the
e-mails indicated as Spam in a Folder called Spam. They
34. Using anti-virus protection
One of the most useful pieces of free Anti-Virus software is called AVG Free. You can download this from
http://free.grisoft.com/ Because it is free you only get the updates about once a week but for home use this is usually sufficient.
Left-click on Download! and follow the instructions.
Once installed AVG Free will scan
your Emails for viruses as they
come in and go out. If a virus is
found it will flag this up for you to take the appropriate precautions
such as deleting the Email or file.
Remember to empty the
Deleted Items Folder regularly to completely get rid of the
offending Email. To do this
Items Folder, then left-click on Empty 'Deleted Items' Folder.
35. Sometimes e-mails don't reach their destinations.
Perhaps you mistyped the e-mail address. In this case you may get a message saying that the address was not
recognised and you will have to create the message again or forward the original message.
36. Organising the list of emails
When you look at a folder of emails there a number of columns – From, Subject and Received (date).
Normally these are ordered in date order but they can be ordered in alphabetical order of From or Subject as well by left-clicking on the required column. This can be useful if you want to look through all emails from a certain person. 37. Backing up and archiving emails
Refer to the Pass IT On instruction BU1 “Backups and why you should”. This explains how to create a Folder My
Emails to backup emails.
If you wish to archive emails then copy them from the Folder My Emails to the medium on which you wish to archive them.
