For those of you who know what ‘emails’ are, I advise you to read this!
E-mail (short for electronic mail) is now one of the main ways we communicate with each other, expanding are communication boarders to a whole new level. While extremely useful, email can be dangerous and a pain in the ass to deal with. Below is useful information that is worth knowing or reviewing, as well as questions you might have felt too embarrassed to ask about.
How to email:
To start, you must create an account with one of the many online or internet service providers, such as AOL (aol.com), Yahoo (yahoo.com), or MSN (msn.com). From there, you are free to write emails to all your friends and family. In an email, you can send not only text but media content, which includes pictures, sounds (music), and short video. However, the more media content you include in your email, the longer it will take to actually send the email as oppose to just sending text. Don’t let this hold you back though! Many people send media content via email; depending on how fast your internet speed, media will be sent faster.
Addresses:
Mail and E-mail are similar: when mailing a letter to a friend, you have to specify his/her address so he/she gets your letter; when sending an email to a friend, you have to specify his/her email address so he/she gets your email. Below is an example of this blog's email address:
jabcomputerblog@aol.com
If you wanted to send an email to me, then you would send it to the above address. If you typed in the address wrongly, then obviously it will go to the wrong person or the email won’t go through at all. Note that capitalization of the email address does NOT matter, so you could type
JaBComPutERBLog@aol.com if you wanted to. If your friend or family member does not have an email address, then you cannot send an email to that person.
Subject Line:
Every email you send should have a subject. This is what your email is about. For example, if I was emailing a friend about a pie fair, then my subject would be along the lines of, “Pie fair”. Note that emails do not have to have a subject; it is only useful for letting the person know what your email is about before they open it.
Cc and Bcc:
Usually under the subject line or a button on the side, these are for sending the same copy of your email to many other people.
Cc- stands for Carbon Copy. In the Cc line, you must put all the email addresses you want to send your email to. Separate the email addresses by a comma. Note that all the recipients of your email (those that were entered in the Cc field) will see who else you sent the email to. For example:
To: exampleA@aol.com
Cc: exampleB@aol.com, exampleC@aol.com
In this example, I have sent an email to ‘A’. I have also sent the same copy to ‘B’ and ‘C’. Recipient A knows that I sent the email to B and C, while recipient B knows that I sent the email to A and C, and recipient C also knows that I sent the email to A and B. So everyone knows that I sent the email to everyone. If you want to keep it private, then go to Bcc.
Bcc- stands for Blind Carbon Copy. In the Bcc line, you must also put all the email addresses you want to send your email to. Separate the email addresses by a comma. The difference from Cc is that all the recipients cannot see who else you are sending the email to. I will use the same example:
To: exampleA@aol.com
Bcc: exampleB@aol.com, exampleC@aol.com
In this example, I have sent an email to ‘A’. I have also sent the same copy to ‘B’ and ‘C’. Recipient A does not know that I sent the email to B and C, but recipient B and C do know that I sent the email to A. This is because A is in the ‘To’ field. However, B does not know I sent the email to C, and C does not know I sent the email to B.
If you wanted to keep it even more private, then you can put your own email address in the ‘To’ field. The email would also be sent to yourself, but no one would know that you sent the email to multiple people. So all the recipients (A, B, and C) will think that the email was only sent to him. Note that there is no limit to how many email addresses you can put in the Cc and Bcc lines. If this was confusing then carefully read the examples again. Cc and Bcc aren’t used as often as the ‘To’ field, despite the fact that you can put multiple names in the ‘To’ field as well. Note that the email addresses are fully shared by all the recipients.
Forward and Reply:
Reply- If a friend sends you an email asking if you wanted to go to the park this evening, then you would have to reply, right? This is done easily by selecting the email in your inbox and clicking the “Reply” button. It should then open up to a new mail window where you can write back to your friend. The ‘To’ line should already contain your friend’s email address, and the subject line should automatically read, “Re: Park this evening”. When your friend receives the email, he will see his original email below your reply email. If he wants, he can choose to reply to your reply, and the subject should read “Re: re: Park this evening”. When you receive his email in your inbox, then you will see his original email, your reply email, and on top his reply-reply email. Note that this is all in the same email. You can reply to each other an infinite number of times.
Forward- Let’s say you receive an email about pie. You have another friend who happens to love pie, and you think that this friend should see this email. This is where forwarding an email comes in handy. You select the email in your inbox that you want to forward, then you find the “Forward” button, and a new mail window should open up. The ‘To’ line should already contain your pie-loving friend’s email address, and the subject line should automatically read, “Fwd: Pie lovers should read this!” You don’t have to write anything (unless you want to add additional comments, such as ‘This email is for you’). All you do is press “Send” and your friend will get that email and any other additional comments you made. Note that the email address of the person who originally wrote the email about pie will be shown. You can forward a forwarded email; so the subject would read, “Fwd: Fw: Pie Lovers should read this!”.
The Old, the New, the Sent, the Deleted, and last and certainly least—the Spam:
Within your mailbox you will find a section for New mail, Old mail, Sent mail, Recently Deleted mail, and your Spam Folder. I will explain each:
New mail and Old mail- Sometimes combined into one large section, these sections hold all your new mail (mail you haven’t read yet or have read but chose to “Keep as New”) and your old mail (mail you have read and wish to keep). These sections are also referred to as an inbox.
Sent mail- In this section you will find all the emails that you sent to people. Sometimes referred as an outbox.
Recently Deleted mail- When you delete an email, it will move to your Recently Deleted mail section. Over time, your recently deleted emails will automatically be permanently deleted (think of this section as sort of like an incinerator). If you want to permanently delete an email immediately, then you delete it once it is already in the Recently Deleted mail section. If you accidentally delete an email that you wanted to keep, then go to the recently deleted mail section, select the email, and click “Keep as New”, which will move the email to the ‘New Mail’ section.
Spam Folder- the word ‘spam’ is actually a trademark for canned chopped meat that was pressed into a loaf. But in computer terms, spam refers to junk emails. Think of your spam folder as sort of like a prison. Depending on your email provider and your spam filter settings, emails with specific and suspicious subject lines and/or email addresses will be automatically sent to your spam folder. Sometimes, emails that are sent to the spam folder are actually innocent and emails that you want to read. There is usually a “Not Spam” button somewhere in the spam folder, which will send the selected innocent email to the “New Mail” section where it can be read and kept safely. But most of the time, emails in the spam folder are actually that pesky junk mail. Note: just because an email is not in the spam folder doesn’t mean that it isn’t spam! In fact, lots of times spam ends up in your “New Mail” folder, where it is your job to sort through your emails, find the spam, and delete it! Or in the prison analogy I used, find the convict, find the evidence, and sentence it to the death penalty (or to jail)!
But what evidence do you look for to tell whether it’s a spam?
Look at the ‘From’ column. Don’t recognize the email address? Does it look fishy? It’s probably spam, and you should delete it. Do not open it, just delete it.
You could also look at the subject line. “Free Weight Loss Coupon, Register Fast and Easy!” is obviously crap and not worth you viewing. This kind of spam is mostly comprised of scams, some of which are trying to rip you off or steal your personal information. Again, do not open it, just delete it.
IMPORTANT—Dangers of Email:
Usually contained within an attached spam email, some junk emails contain viruses or scams that can screw you up—big time! How to avoid them? Follow these guidelines:
Delete any emails that have an email address that your not familiar with
Emails that have a catchy subject line (such as “Free TV”) are usually scams. Sometimes the subject line is a trick (such as “Osama Captured”), and when you open the email up, bye-bye computer, hello stupidity). So don’t open the email and delete them.
If you open an email (that is from an unknown email address) and see an attachment, DON’T DOWNLOAD IT! You could be downloading a virus onto your computer, which then in turn could corrupt your computer’s hard drive, delete files, slow down your computer, advertise randomly on your computer (which can get quite annoying), and/or even steal your personal information that might be stored on your computer! Downloading an unknown attachment is a huge no-no. Only download an attachment if and only if you know that the person who sent you the email is trustworthy (such as a family member or close friend).
Sometimes emails might contain an invitation to some sort of party, or perhaps a date? And sometimes, if you’re instant-messaging, you might receive an IM (instant message) from some person with a confusing email address “X342GFX24” or a provocative one, such as “hot69girl” (these are examples only, not real addresses as far as I’m concerned). It may be tempting to answer them or reply to the email, but resist that urge! Many of them are scammers, abusers, pedophiles, rapists, murderers, necrophiliacs—you get the idea. Anyway, these sickos are hard to veer away from once you’ve been hooked. They will stalk you (through email) and harass you. Remember that a real human being is talking to you on the other end, which can be quite scary if you think about it. Emails and instant-messaging are very dangerous if you don’t know the guidelines. So be smart, and don’t fall into a trap!
How to Attach a File:
If you want to include a document, picture, music, short video clip, or just any other file, then follow these easy steps:
1. Look for a button within your ‘email composition window’ (the window where you type the emails) that says ‘Attachments’, or perhaps a picture of a paperclip. It will then bring up a browsing window, where you can then search for the file and click ‘open’; or, it might bring up a window with a button called ‘Browse’, to which you will then click that and search for the file.
2. It should then be self explanatory from there. Click ‘send’ to the send the email with the attachment enclosed.
Your email questions have hopefully been answered. If not, feel free to post question in comments. Happy emailing!
Note that depending on the circumstances and the computer, other options may be available in the drop-down menu, such as extra or fewer video options or things like "Undo Delete." Note that the below information will apply to the standard options that are the most likely to appear in the drop-down menu.
Yeah, it's nice. But how about something else for a change?
Uses: mainly for connecting external devices (like USB), such as hard drives, cameras, camcorders, iPods, and other devices, most essentially related to performing complicated and fast tasks (which require a fast connection, hence the nickname "firewire").
