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 Updated 18/7/05

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Email - How to Send Electronic Mail
(the first steps) 
 

E-Mail is a way you can send a letter to a friend, organization, or just about anyone today by typing on your computer. What your computer needs is a modem, a telephone connection, and a connection to a server on the Internet. An e-mail program allows you to send mail electronically, through your computer and telephone line to any computer with an e-mail connection, anywhere in the world.

There are many E-mail programs. Some, such as Netscape Mail, are associated with a major browser Internet program. Others, such as Eudora and Pegasus are programs within themselves and deal with e-mail only.

Here is how you send an e-mail message using the E-mail of Netscape. Netscape has many different versions, each one has slight differences.

Let’s have a look at Netscape’s e-mail program.
 

Once you’ve opened Netscape Communicator, there are two ways of getting to the e-mail program.

First:
 

  1. Look for the word 'Communicator' on the Menu Bar.
  2. Click on it and then click on 'Message Mailbox'.

 

-or-
 

Second: 1. Look at the bottom right corner of your Netscape Communicator screen and click on the letter icon (second from the left).
 

 
 


This is  Netscape's mail program:


Just by clickin on the icons (from right to left) you can:


 

  1. get your mail,
  2. write a new message
  3. reply to the sender
  4. forward the message to someone else
  5. place your message in a file
  6. go to the next message
  7. print the message
  8. show security information
  9. delete the message
  10. stop incoming date


The Menu Bar allows you to do the same things, but also allows you to manage your files and letters

Let’s look:

Under File you can:
 

  1. Open you web browser
  2. Prepare a new Mail Message
  3. Create a new folder
  4. Add a Folder (directory)
  5. Save a message
  6. Empty your trash (this is very important to do, as every letter you delete, in Netscape, is sent first to this folder and you have to tell the program to delete the trash.)

In other words, manage all your mail.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 

Editing your mail is done here. All messages work like your word processor with cutting and pasting as options.

 
 


 
 

View gives you several options, but the most important one is Sort. Clicking on 'sort' allows you to categories you mail by date, subject, sender, or message number.
 
 

Go helps to move to different messages within the mail program.
 
 
 

Message allows you to manage to whom you’ll reply, 
only the sender or everyone.
If you want to forward the message to another person,
click on Forward and then fill in the address.

 
 

 The rest of Menu Bar titles is for managing the Netscape program and managing you Windows
(This is similar in all Windows’ program.)
 


 
 

  Now let’s get ready to send a letter.

Click on the “To Mail’ icon and the following window will appear:
The icons will allow you to:

  1. send the letter
  2. quote the letter you are replying to
  3. add an address from your Address Book
  4. attach a file or web page
  5. save the message
  6. check security information
  7. stop sending data

 
 
 

***If you are writing this letter on-line (connected to the internet), don’t forget to click SEND only after you finish writing your message.
***If you are writing the letter off-line (not connected to the internet), click on File and then Send Later. This will place your letter in the Outbox, to be sent the next time you are on-line.

 


The Address Book To manage your e-mail addresses, open your Address Book by clicking on Window on the Menu Bar and click on Address Book.


 
 
 
 

To add a new e-mail address to you Address Book just click on New Card and fill in the details and click OK. This new address will be entered automatically.
 
 
 
 

***Click with the left mouse button on the "FROM" address in you letter and the detail section of your address book will open asking to 'OK' adding this address to your book. You can change any details that you want at this time.

 
 
 

Assignment:

Let’s write a letter:

After clicking on To Mail: you will get a blank message as you saw on the previous page

Having saved all your addresses,
click on Address.

Select your address by clicking who you want to write to, then click on To: and then OK. The address will be placed in the Mail To slot in the message.

Add additional address by clicking on an address and then Cc:, and OK.
 


 

Back to the main letter

The Subject area should be filled in with a brief explanation of what is in your message. When you open an e-mail letter as you saw one page two, the subject of the message is displayed giving the reader an idea of what the message is. This is very important as some people get as many as 40 to 50 letters a day and delete messages that aren’t important and read first those that are. An appropriate brief message in the Subject area is a courtesy and helpful.

In the open area, you can fill in the bulk of your message. Remember that all e-mail isn’t completely secure, meaning someone else may read your mail.

**If you include an Internet address in your letter, the reader will receive it in hypertext, and if they are connected to the Internet, they can click on that address and their browser will open to that page on the net.

After you have concluded your message, click on Send in the Tool Bar. If you forgot to fill in the Subject, a dialogue box will open asking you if you want to fill in one before the message is sent
 

Sending an Attachment

After filling in the address and subject:
 

1. Click on the Attach icon at the top of the e-mail message.

2. Decide if you want to attach a: 
 

3. If you want to attach a file, click on File and then locate the file on your hard disk that you want to send with your letter.Click on the file you want to send and click Open.

 

4. The file will appear in your message as an attachment.


 Upon receiving the e-mail message, there will be an attachment icon on the message. Clicking on this icon or on the reference to the document or other file will open the program that is necessary for reading the attachment i.e. a Word document will open Word or a PowerPoint presentation will open the PowerPoint program.

  Enjoy sending e-mail around the world or across the street. It's just that easy.
 

 

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For questions or feedback regarding this web contact Gail Mann
Last updated: 31/12/01 21:16

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