Creating and Sending Messages

Regardless of the type of e-mail account you have, as long as you have an Internet connection you can send e-mail messages to people within your organization and around the world. You can personalize your messages by using an individual font style or color, and by inserting your contact information in the form of an e-mail signature or business card. (You can apply other formatting, such as themes and page backgrounds, but these won't always appear to e-mail recipients as you intend them to, and they can make your communications appear less professional.) You can format the text of your message to make it more readable, by including headings, lists, or tables, and represent information graphically by including charts, pictures, clip art, and other types of graphics. You can attach files to your message and link to other information such as files or Web pages.

See Also For more information about formatting messages, see "Personalizing the Appearance of Messages" later in this chapter.

Addressing Messages

Addressing an e-mail message is as simple as typing the intended recipient's e-mail address into the To box. If you want to send a message to more than one person, indicate a different level of involvement for certain recipients, or include certain people without other recipients knowing, here are some tips.

By default, Outlook requires that you separate multiple e-mail addresses with semicolons. If you prefer, you can instruct Outlook to accept both semicolons and commas. To do this:

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.

2. In the Options dialog box, on the Preferences tab, click E-mail Options.

3. In the E-mail Options dialog box, click Advanced E-mail Options.

4. In the When sending a message area, select the Allow comma as address separator check box, and then click OK in each of the three open dialog boxes.

As you type a name or an e-mail address into the To, Cc, or Bcc box, Outlook displays matching addresses in a list below the box. Select a name or e-mail address from the list and then press Tab or Enter to insert the entire name or address in the box.

If your e-mail account is part of an Exchange Server network, you can send messages to another person on the same network by typing only his or her e-mail alias (for example, joan)-the at symbol (@) and domain name aren't required.

If a message recipient's address is in your address book, you can type the person's name and Outlook will look for the corresponding e-mail address. (You can either wait for Outlook to validate the name or press Ctrl+K to immediately validate the names and addresses in the address boxes.) By default, Outlook searches your Global Address List and main address book. To have Outlook also search other address books:

1. On the Tools menu, click Address Book.

2. In the Address Book window, on the Tools menu, click Options.

3. In the Addressing dialog box, click Add.

4. In the Add Address List dialog box, click the address list you want to add, click Add, and then click Close.

5. In the Addressing dialog box, click OK, and then close the Address Book window.

If the address book does not contain an entry for a name that you type in the To, Cc, or Bcc box of a new message, when you send the message, Outlook prompts you to select an address book entry or provide a full e-mail address.

Sending Courtesy Copies

To send a courtesy copy of a message to a person, enter his or her e-mail address in the Cc box. This is commonly referred to as "CCing" a person. You might CC someone to provide him or her with information but indicate that you don't require his or her involvement in the conversation. To send a message to a person without making it known to other recipients, enter the person's e-mail address in the Bcc box to send a "blind" courtesy copy (also known as "BCCing" a person). Outlook does not display the Bcc field by default. To display the Bcc field:

1. Display a message window.

2. On the Options tab, in the Fields group, click the Show Bcc button.

Addresses entered in the Bcc box can't be seen by other message recipients. They also aren't included in any replies to the original message.

Saving Message Drafts

Until you save or send a message, Outlook maintains a temporary copy of it in your Drafts folder. If you close Outlook (or if a problem causes Outlook to close or your computer to shut down) before you send the message, the draft retains most or all of your work. When the first draft of a message is saved (either automatically or manually), a banner appears in the message header with the notation "This message has not been sent."

You can save a message draft at any time by clicking the Save button on the Quick Access Toolbar in the message window, or by closing the message window and then clicking Yes in the Microsoft Office Outlook message box asking whether to keep the draft. (If you click No, Outlook deletes the draft.) To restart work on a draft message, display the Mail module, click the Drafts folder in the Navigation Pane, and then double-click the message you want to open.

Troubleshooting 

Some users running Adobe Acrobat version 6 or 7 might experience problems when creating new messages or responding to messages in Outlook 2007. If you have Adobe Acrobat installed and experience these types of problems, try uninstalling the Adobe Outlook add-ins.

In this exercise, you will compose and send a new e-mail message. There are no practice files for this exercise.

BE SURE TO start Outlook and display the Inbox before beginning this exercise.

1. On the Standard toolbar, click the New Mail Message button.

   A new message window opens.

   

   Tip 

   By clicking the New Mail Message arrow, you can choose to create other types of Outlook items such as appointments, contacts, tasks, notes, or faxes, as well as organizational items such as folders and data files.

2. In the To box, type your own e-mail address.

3. In the Subject box, type SBS Tradeshow Schedule.

   Important 

   The subject of this message begins with SBS so that you can easily differentiate it from other messages in your Inbox and Sent Items folders.

4. In the content pane, type The following people will be working at the tradeshow: and press the key twice. Then type the following names, pressing once after each of the first four names, and twice at the end: Anna, Barry, Carl, Denis, Emma.

5. Select the list of names. Then on the Message tab, in the Basic Text group, click the Bullets button (not its arrow).

   Tip 

   The Bullets button is also available in the Paragraph group on the Format Text tab.

   Outlook converts the list of names to a simple bulleted list.

   Tip 

   In this book, when we give instructions to implement a command, we tell you on what tab and in which group the command button appears. When directing you to use multiple command buttons on the same tab, we might omit the tab name to avoid needless repetition.

6. With the bulleted list still selected, in the Basic Text group, click the Bullets arrow.

   

   Notice the types of bullets available in the Bullet Library. You can change the list to use any of these bullets by clicking the bullet you want.

7. In the Bullets gallery, point to Change List Level.

   You can demote (or promote) a list item to any of nine levels, differentiated by the bullet character and indent level.

8. Press twice to close the Bullets gallery without making changes.

9. Press to move the insertion point to the end of the message. Type Giveaways are: and then press twice.

10. On the Insert tab, in the Tables group, click the Table button.

11. On the Insert Table menu, point to the third cell in the second row.

    A preview of the table appears in the message window behind the Insert Table menu. This is a display of the new live preview functionality available in many parts of Outlook and other programs in the 2007 Microsoft Office system. You can use live preview to see the effect of an option before you actually select it.

    

12. Click the selected cell to insert the table in the message.

    The Table Tools contextual tabs, Design and Layout, appear on the Ribbon. Contextual tabs appear only when the element they control is active (selected). Contextual tabs are differentiated from standard tabs by color: the contextual group name is highlighted and the active tab is colored. Contextual groups are differentiated from each other by color.

13. Enter the following information in the table:

    9:00–11:00	12:00–2:00	3:00–5:00
    Mouse pads	T-shirts	Pens

    

14. In the message header, click the Send button.

    Outlook closes the message window and sends the message. When you receive the message in your Inbox, leave it there for use in a later exercise.