Functioning and Housekeeping

When you receive an email you will decide whether or not you need to ,or wish to reply to the sender.You can forward the message to 1 or many other people.

By using the reply function in your email program you can write a message and send it off to the person who originally contacted you.If you choose to you can add make a carbon copy and either send it to a third person or if you wish you can send it to yourself.In computer speak this is called a CC.

You can also use the function called BCC,blind carbon copy.When you use this the various recipients of your message only see their own address and name.

It may be desirable to include all the names and addresses in some situations,but in others it could be inappropriate to do so.If your are sending out a social club newsletter,or an update on a family function,then it may be helpful for everyone to know who else is involved.

It would be a good idea to use BCC if your are sending out a resume to several different employers.It may suggest that you are taking a scatter gun approach to your job search,if other company names are on the email.

Attachments.

You can send a file as an attachment.I regularly send photos and videos to friends and family.Whenever possible try to find out what system the other people are using because sending the same things to everyone does not work and can be very frustrating.For instance I know that my friend in Germany has a high speed Internet connection and his PC will handle everything you throw at it.On the other hand,my friend just 4Ks down the road is on dial up,so sending him videos is a waste of his time.

Use RTF "rich text file" format when sending emails as this can be read by other computers.Keep in mind that the other persons knowledge may be very basic.Use courtesy and consideration,people tend to forgive technical mistakes but if you are downright obtuse you wont experience this technology at it's full potential.


Always be aware of the potential for viruses and other nasty things being propagated by email.I have an anti-virus program installed and running in real time as well as the programs that the email applications themselves use.I also run an ad ware and spy ware program at least twice a day.This not only keeps your own system clean but reduces the chances of you infecting anyone else.Good house keeping is very important on the net.

Filters.

You can choose to set your email program to accept anything and everything that shows up .The SPAM filters on most applications only do so much,so I choose to round things up before all the rubbish goes into my Inbox.Any email with the words "single,money,dating or romance" go straight to the spam bucket.I may look at the titles later on,but usually anything with these words are invariably scams.

Signatures.

You may choose to use a little text file as a signature to include on some or all of your emails.I use a more formal "moniker" when I am corresponding with my ISP for example than when I am emailing friends.Anyway Internode probably wouldn't know who Ratty is,but my friends know,it's just the old river rat, at it again.