Basic Email Features

Virtually all email programs include some version of these universal features.

 

Folders and Mailboxes

Folders and mailboxes are used to store and organize your email messages.

• Inbox: The original destination of new email messages that are sent to you. The inbox also holds old/read email that you haven’t deleted or moved to another folder.

• Outbox (or Drafts): Contains email that you have composed and/or addressed but have not yet sent.

• Sent messages: Contains email that you have sent.

• Trash: Holds email that you have deleted. In most email programs, messages aren’t deleted completely until you empty the trash.

• Folders: Other storage bins for storage and organization of email messages. Most email programs let you create and name as many folders as you like. Within each folder, you can sort emails by subject, date, sender, and other fields. Most folders have expiration dates that determine how long the messages stored within them are saved.

  • The inbox, outbox, sent messages, and trash are all folders. However, they are default folders that you typically cannot delete or modify.

 

Creating a New Email Message

In most email programs, you create a new email message by clicking on “compose” or “new message.” Each message has a sender (you) and a recipient (the person you’re emailing). To specify a recipient, type the recipient’s email address (e.g., jane.doe@sparknotes.com) in the recipient line.

• Subject line: If you want, you can title your email with a subject (e.g., “Meeting at 4:00,” “Party tonight,” “Customer service request”), which will appear along with the new email in the recipient’s inbox. Subject lines aren’t required but often are helpful to the recipient.

• Send: When you’ve finished composing an email, click “send” to deliver it.

 

Other Sending Options

• Forward: Sends an existing email on to any number of new recipients.

• Reply: Sends a reply to the sender of an existing message.

• Reply to all (or Reply to recipients ):Sends a reply both to the sender of an existing message and to all the other recipients of the existing message (e.g., if Dave sends an email to you and Lisa, “reply to all” will send your reply to both Dave and Lisa).

• Carbon copy (CC): Sends a duplicate copy of an email to a person or people other than the main recipient. CCs are typically used in cases when people other than the recipient might want to know that an email has been sent or be aware of the email’s contents.

• Blind carbon copy (BCC): Same as CC, except the name of the person or people to whom the message has been BCC’d is hidden from the other recipients. The BCC option provides added confidentiality and is often used in business emails.

• Request return receipt: Arranges for you to receive a notice when the recipient opens the email you have sent. Use this option sparingly. Unless your email is truly time-sensitive, you probably don’t need to know the exact moment it’s read. Most email programs tell the recipient that you’ve requested a return receipt, and the recipient might find such monitoring intrusive.

• Attachments (enclosures): Data files (Word^® documents, pictures, music/sound files, Excel^® spreadsheets, etc.) that you send to your recipient along with an email. The recipient can then download and save the enclosure to his computer for subsequent use.

• Signature: Attaches text, which you specify, to the bottom of each message you send. Signatures are commonly used to attach name, title, and contact info to business emails.

  A sample signature might appear as follows:

  Sarah Ellison
  Account Executive
  Mercer & Phoenix Ltd.
  Phone: (212) 555-5402
  Fax: (212) 555-5403