Windows XP [Electronic resources] : Visual Quickstart Guide, Second Edition

Chris Fehily

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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 Click Create Mail on the toolbar. A new message window appears (Figure 14.6 ). Figure 14.6. The two sections of a message are the headers (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.	Click Send on the toolbar (or press Alt+S). Your PC sends the message over the internet, first connecting to it if necessary.

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.

To embed (rather than attach) an image in a message, while in the message body, choose Format > Rich Text (HTML); choose Insert > Picture; browse to the image to insert; then click OK. Your recipient won't have to open a viewing program to see the picture.

Names that you add to your address book (press Ctrl+Shift+B or click Addresses on the toolbar) appear in your Contacts list (Figure 14.8 ) and let Outlook Express auto-complete email addresses. To add the sender of a message to your address book quickly, right-click the message in the Message list; then choose Add Sender to Address Book.

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.

If Microsoft Word is installed on your PC, click Spelling on the toolbar (or press F7) to spell-check your message.

signature is a distinctive bit of textusually, your choice of contact information, a Bartlett's quotation, or something flippantadded at the bottom of outgoing messages. To create signatures, choose Tools > Options > Signatures tab > New; then type a signature in the Edit Signature box. Click New again if you want to create multiple signatures. You can add a signature to

all messages by checking Add Signatures to All Outgoing Messages in this dialog box or to individual messages by choosing Insert > Signature in the New Message window.

The Bcc (blind carbon copy) header is hidden by default. To show it, choose View > All Headers in the message window. Bcc recipients receive the same message as To and Cc recipients, but

secretly, without the other recipients' knowing. If you send, say, a joke or announcement to many recipients, it's polite to put them

all in the Bcc list; then no one has to scroll through the long list of To or Cc names that appears at the top of the message, and individual email addresses aren't revealed to the entire list.

To save an incomplete message in the Drafts folder, choose File > Save, and finish composing it later.

To keep a copy of all outgoing messages, choose Tools > Options > Send tab > check Save Copy of Sent Messages in the "Sent Items" Folder.

If you've defined multiple email accounts and want to send from an account other than the current one, click the From box; then click the account that you want to use.

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="">

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.