Sending Email
After you've set up your email account, you can compose a message and send it.To compose and send a message:1. | Choose Message > New Message (or press Ctrl+N).or ![]() Figure 14.6. The two sections of a message are theheaders (top), which contains information about the message, and the body (bottom), which contains the message itself. Each message window contains its own menu bar and toolbar.![]() |
2. | Type the recipient's email address in the To box.To send the message to more than one person, separate the addresses with semicolons (;).As you type, Outlook Express auto-completes each address (or ordinary name) with an entry from your address book. If auto-complete guesses wrong, keep typing; if it guesses right, press Tab to jump to the Cc box, or press the semicolon to stay in the To box and type another address. |
3. | To send a copy of the message to other recipients, type additional email addresses in the Cc box, pressing Tab when you're finished.Each address auto-completes as before. Cc (carbon-copy) recipients receive the same message as To recipients, but Cc lets them know that you sent them the message as a courtesy and that you're not expecting them to reply. |
4. | Type the message's topic in the Subject box; then press Tab.Recipients appreciate a descriptive subject rather than, say, "Hi," which makes your mail look like junk. |
5. | Type the text of your message. You can use Cut, Copy, Paste, and all the standard editing techniques. |
6. | ![]() |
Compressing Files and Folders" in Chapter 5). See also "Receiving Attachments" later in this chapter.
Figure 14.7. Attached files appear in the Attach header. To remove a file from the outgoing message, right-click its icon; then choose Remove.


Figure 14.8. To scroll quickly to a contact name, type its first few letters. Right-click a name to send email, edit it, or delete it. Double-clicking a name opens a new, blank message window addressed to the contact.


Plain Text o240?
You can format your message body as plain text o240. Plain-text messages contain only unadorned text without italics, boldface, colors, custom font sizes, and so on. HTMLthe language used to format web pagespermits fancy formatting. In general, use plain text because:Some older email programs (especially on Unix) can't rea226 formatting.Amateuris230 formatting irritates recipients.Most junk email (spam) use241 formatting. Your HTML messages may be caught by filtering software and routedunreadto the recipient's trash.<238 formatting is inconsistent across programs. What looks good on your screen might look bad on your recipient's.Extra formatting increases download and display times.To change the default format for all new messages, choose Tools > Options > Send tab > Mail Sending Format section; selec242 or Plain Text; then click OK (see Figure 14.21 later in this chapter).No matter what the default format, you can switch it for individual messages: In the New Message window, choose Format > Plain Text or Format > Rich Text (HTML). Choosin229 activates th227 toolbar, with buttons for styles, formatting, hyperlinks, and so on. Choosing Plain Text brings up a warning that certain embellishments, such as images, won't be possible.