Section 14.3. Writing and Sending Messages


14.3. Writing and Sending Messages

Once you've gone to all the trouble to set up and configure your email account, odds are you're going to want to tell everyone you know to drop you a line. Here's how to create and send a message of your own.

  1. Open your email program or go to the Web site of the Webmail company you use. Log in and create a new outgoing message (see Figure 14-5) .

    You do that by clicking a New or Create Mail button, or by choosing File New Message (or however your program phrases it).

    Figure 14-5. A message has two sections: the header, which holds information about the message; and the body, the big empty white area that contains the message itself. In addition, the mail window has a toolbar, which you can use to access other features for composing and sending messages. The signature pop-up menu doesn't exist until you create a signature (Section 14.3).
  2. Type an email address into the "To:" box .

    If somebody's name is in your address book, just type the first couple letters of the name; most email programs automatically complete the address. (If the first guess is wrong, just type another letter or two until the program revises its guess.)

    If you're typing in the address manually, remember that there are no spaces in email addresses; everything's squished together on either side of the @ symbol.

    As in most dialog boxes, you can jump from blank to blank (from the "To:" field to the "CC:" field, for example) by pressing the Tab key.

    To send this message to more than one person, separate their addresses with commas: bob@earthlink.net, billg@microsoft.com, steve@apple.com.

  3. If you want to send a "carbon copy" to other people, add their addresses in the "CC:" or " BCC:" fields in the message header .

    CC stands for carbon copy . Getting an email message where your name's in the CC line implies: "I sent you a copy because I thought you'd want to know about this correspondence, but I'm not expecting you to reply."

    UP TO SPEED
    Blind Carbon Copies

    A blind carbon copy is a secret copy. This feature lets you send a copy of a message to somebody without any of the other recipients knowing that you did so. To view this field when composing a message, choose the BCC option, which is usually in your email program's View menu.

    You can use the BCC field to quietly signal to a third party that a message has been sent. For example, if you send your co-worker a message that says, "Chris, it bothers me that you've been cheating the customers," you could BCC your supervisor to clue her in without getting into trouble with Chris.

    The BCC box is useful in other ways, too. Many people send email messages (containing corny jokes, for example) to a long list of recipients. You, the recipient, have to scroll through a very long list of names the sender placed in the "To:" or "CC:" field. But if the sender used the "BCC:" field to hold all the recipients' email addresses, you, the recipient, won't see any names but your own at the top of the email. (Unfortunately, spammers have also learned this trick.)


  4. Title the message with a few short words in the subject line .

    It's courteous to put some thought into the subject line (use "Change in plans for next week" instead of "Yo"). Don't leave it blank; you'll just annoy your recipient.

    Another justification for good subject lines: Spammers often resort to crafty tactics to get their junk messages read by using subject lines like "Did you get my photos?", "About last night," or "Account update information." You can make sure your message gets read by being more specific.

  5. Choose an email format .

    There are two kinds of email: plain text and formatted . Plain text messages are faster to send and open, are universally compatible with the world's email programs, and are greatly preferred by many veteran computer fans. And even though the message is plain, you can still attach pictures and other files.

    (Resourceful geeks have even learned how to fake some formatting in plain messages: They use capitals instead of italics [GO HOME], "smileys" instead of pictures [ :-) ], and asterisks for emphasis [I *love* Swiss cheese!].)

    By contrast, formatted messages sometimes open slowly, and, in some email programs, the formatting doesn't come through at all.

    You can control which kind of mail you send on a message-by-message basis (look for a Format menu), or you can change the factory setting for new outgoing messages (check the program's Options or Preferences dialog box).

    By the way: If you plan to send formatted mail, remember that your recipients won't see the fonts you use unless their machines have the same ones installed.

    The bottom line: HTML works best for party flyers or casual email between friends . If you're sending the email to somebody at work, stick with plain text; some corporate email programs strip HTML messages of their formatting, turning your colorful stationery back into plain text.

  6. Type your message into the message body box .

    Click into the message body below the header and start typing. You can also copy and paste in Web links or chunks of text from other documents.

    If your mail program has a spell checker, you can use it to weed out embarrassing typos.

  7. Add a signature (optional) .

    Signatures are bits of text that get stamped at the bottom of your outgoing email messages. A signature may contain a name, postal address, a pithy quote, or even a scan of your real signature.

    You can set up a signature (or a choice of several) in your email program's preferences. You generally have the choice of adding a signature manually to each message or, to save yourself the trouble, having it auto-stamped at the bottom of every message you fire off.

  8. Attach a file, if you like .

    You can paper-clip business cards, photos, spreadsheets, and other documents to paper-based memos or mail, so why not with email?

    To attach a file from your hard drive to a message, you justattach it. The procedure varies from mail program to mail program, but an Attach button ( bearing a paper-clip icon) is usually involved. A Choose dialog box then appears, so that you can navigate to the desired file.

    Most email programs also let you drag file icons into the waiting message window directly from your desktop (see Figure 14-6).

    Figure 14-6. As demonstrated in Thunderbird here, you can attach files by dragging them from the desktop and dropping them on the open message window. If the file you want to attach is buried six folders deep on your computer, though, clicking the email program's Attach button and navigating through your hard drive to the file's location may be quicker.

    Tip: On the Mac, you can drag file attachments directly from any desktop window onto the icon of your email program (on the Dock). The program is smart enough to know what you mean: "Attach these files to the message I'm working on."

    After you attach a file, you see its icon and file name on your email message. If you grabbed the wrong file and need to detach it, right-click its name and choose Remove from the shortcut menu, or click the icon and press Delete on the keyboard. You're not deleting the original file from your computer; you're just deleting the copy from the message.


    Tip: It's not a sure thing that your recipient will be able to open the file you're sending. Most people can open common formats like photos, text files, and Microsoft Office (Word/Excel/Power-Point) files. But if you send a file that requires a less common program to opena sheet-music program, for examplethe recipient probably won't be able to open it. Even movie files aren't a sure thing because there are so many different formats, each of which requires a special program to open. There's more on working with photos, sharing them online, and sending them as file attachments in Section 13.4.
  9. Send your message .

    Click the Send or Send/Receive button to shoot your message across the Net and into the inbox of your recipient.


Tip: If you connect to the Internet via dial-up modem, you can address and compose a bunch of messages before you go online; the emails collect in your outbox. After you go online, the messages in your outbox actually go out .

14.3.1. Email Etiquette

Because email is a written form of communication, it's less expressive than spoken communication; you lose subtle aspects like nuance, emphasis, inflection , facial expressions, and body language. If you're naturally and good-naturedly sarcastic when you speak, you may come off as caustic and negative in email. Many huffy exchanges and flame wars (Section 14.4) arise when people misunderstand each other's tone as expressed by email.

If you know your recipients quite well, sarcasm is fine and probably expected. Otherwise, you may want to stick with a more straightforward approach when emailing people you don't know that well.

Other Miss Mail Manners tips to keep in mind:

  • Keep your messages short . Not many people want to scroll through 11 screens of message text waiting for you to stumble upon your point. Keeping your messages brief and direct makes them more memorable. Reading text onscreen is tiring for some people, who may take a gander and file your message away for later (or never) reading.

  • TURN OFF THE CAPS LOCK ! In cyberspace , everyone can hear you screamand that's what USING ALL CAPS HAS COME TO SIGNIFY ONLINE. It's harsh , hard to read, unnecessary in most cases, and it looks like a telegram from the 1930s.

  • Reply to an existing message instead of making a new one . Replying to a message keeps the same subject line and usually includes the previous text, which makes it easier to track ongoing conversations and sort mail. (If you've been sending and responding to the same message for 20 or 30 passes , though, deleting the most ancient text from the body is fineand often appreciated by your recipient because it keeps message size and length smaller.)

    Once you break the message thread by continuing the conversation with a new subject line, the conversation can splinter. Web-based email services like Gmail (Section 14.1.4.2) depend on having the same subject line in order to group your messages together properly.

  • Don't forward chain messages or hoaxes . Email has become overrun not just by spam, but also by ridiculous hoaxes and chain letters.

    Some of these bogus messagesabout PC-destroying viruses, bootlegging the Mrs. Field's cookie recipe, or getting free money from Microsofthave been circulating for decades, but that doesn't make them true. These messages urge you for forward copies to all your friends; a telltale sign of a hoax is hundreds of addresses in the header from all that forwarding.

    If you're curious that a warning message may be real, check the urban legend debunkers and Internet hoax stompers over at Snopes (www. snopes .com), a site that collects the most popular missives and properly deflates them.

  • Don't send too many attachments . Just as rambling on and on makes your message longer than it probably needs to be, attaching a ton of photos or other files can annoy your recipients, who may have slow Internet connections, mailboxes stuffed to the max, or no interest in 17 pictures of your gerbil running on its wheel.




The Internet. The Missing Manual
iPhone: The Missing Manual, 4th Edition
ISBN: 1449393659
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 147
Authors: David Pogue

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