Internet Express 3: Email

Internet Express: Lesson 1 | Internet Express: Lesson 2 | Internet Express: Lesson 3 Email, otherwise known as electronic mail, is popular today because it’s quicker than traditional (“snail”) mail, and easy to use. Often, people who can’t be bothered to pick up a pen and paper will send their relatives and friends email messages. Today, we’ll learn how to use Yahoo! Mail, one of the most popular free email web sites. Accessing Yahoo! Mail Yahoo! Mail Layout Opening Email Messages Email Addresses Sending an Email Message Attaching a File to a Message Deleting Messages Exiting a Yahoo! Mail Account Starting a New Yahoo! Mail Account Learning More About Email I. Accessing Yahoo! Mail The direct Web address for Yahoo! Mail is: mail.yahoo.com. You can also navigate to this web page by going to the Yahoo! web site, www.yahoo.com, and clicking on the “Mail” icon near the top right part of the screen with your mouse. (It looks like a flying envelope.) Please visit this web site now. Your instructor signed into a Yahoo! Mail account for you before you came to the class today. So, when you type in mail.yahoo.com in the address bar, your screen should look something like this: II. Layout of Yahoo! Mail Before you read the email message, let’s talk about what some of the buttons and folders mean. Buttons (in the blue bar along the top of the screen): Check Mail: click here to see if you have new email messages in your Inbox folder Compose: click here to write a new email message Folders: (on the left side of the screen): Inbox: where new mail appears Draft: where messages you haven’t finished writing are stored Sent: where copies of messages you’ve sent are stored Bulk: where messages Yahoo! thinks are spam (unsolicited mass mailings of email) are directed Trash: where messages you’ve deleted from your Inbox go The other feature you’ll want to notice on this screen is the little bar near the top of the screen that lets you know how much space you have left in your account for messages, like this: 0% of 1.0 GB One gigabyte (GB) of space is quite a bit of space online, but it’s a good idea to move messages you don’t need anymore to the Trash folder, and then delete them by clicking on the “Empty” link next to that folder. That way, if someone sends you a message with a lot of photos attached to it, your email account will be able to handle it. We’ll practice doing this later. III. Opening Email Messages Okay, now it’s time to read the message(s) in your Inbox. To do this, click on the “Inbox” link with your left mouse button in either the Folder list or in the middle section under where it says, “Welcome, Station!” Your screen should now look something like this: When you enter your Inbox, Yahoo! tells you the following about the messages it contains: who sent you the message (“Sender”) what the message is about (“Subject”) when the message was sent (“Date”) how large the message is (“Size”) To read a message, click on the blue link under “Subject” for that message. In this case, you’d click on the link that looks like this: learning about email. Now, click on the subject link for the first message in your Inbox folder, and read the message. If there are more messages there, read them, too. If you wanted to send a message someone sent you to another person (or people), you’d click on the “Forward” button that appears above the text of the message, then follow the steps listed below for sending a message. IV. Email Addresses An email address is made up of two parts: The username, or account name, is chosen by the person who created the email account. The Internet service provider (ISP) is the name of the company, organization, or Internet service that hosts an email address (provides it with storage space for messages). The two parts are connected by an “@”. Type this symbol by pressing one of the “Shift” keys on your keyboard, and holding it down while you press the “2” key. Email addresses never have spaces in them, though sometimes people include an underline mark, like this, “__” to symbolize a space, in their account names. Here’s an example of what an email address looks like: The best way to find out someone’s email address is to ask him or her, or give the person your email address and ask him or her to send you a message. V. Sending an Email Message Next, we’ll learn how to type in a person’s email address, and send a message to him or her. Click on the Compose button now. A screen like this will appear: The long white box next to “To:” is where you type the email address(es) of the person or people who will receive your message. If you are typing in more than one address, follow each address with a comma and a space to separate them. If you set up your own Yahoo! Mail account (which we’ll discuss later), you’ll probably want to set up an Address Book. This lets you store people’s email addresses, and give people you write to often nicknames, so you won’t have to type in their email addresses each time. Once you’ve started an Address Book (which we won’t do today), click on the “Insert Addresses” link above the “To” box to bring up your list of people’s addresses. Click on the “Add CC” link to the right of the “Insert Addresses” link to send someone an exact copy of a message. (“CC” means “carbon copy.”) Click on the “Add BCC” link to the right of the “Add CC” link to send someone a copy of a message without including information about who else has been sent the message. (“BCC” means “blind carbon copy.”) It’s a good idea to do this when you forward a message that’s already been sent to many people, so your recipient(s) won’t have to scroll through a long list of other people’s email addresses in order to read your message. To skip down to the next box, either click in that box, or use the “Tab” key on your keyboard to move down. It’s a good idea to type something in the white box next to where it says “Subject,” especially if you want a reply to a specific question. This will let your recipient(s) know what your message will be about. Typing in a detailed subject for your message will also make it stand out from unsolicited email (spam). The large white box below all of the little symbol buttons (which we won’t use today) is where you type your message. If you get interrupted in the middle of a message, click on the “Save as a Draft” button near the top or bottom of the screen. This puts the message in the Draft folder, where you can open the message and finish typing it later. If you change your mind about sending a message, click on the “Cancel” button, and the message will not be sent. To send a message, click on the “Send” button. Now, let’s try sending each other email messages. Your instructor will give you the email address of another person in the class. Complete these steps: 1. Type the person’s email address in the “To” box. 2. Click in the “Subject” box, and type in a subject for your message. 3. Click in the larger white box further down the screen, and type your message there. 4. When you are done, click the “Send” button. VI. Attaching a File to an Email Message Once everyone is done sending a message, we’ll move on to the next topic: sending attachments. Your instructor will demonstrate how this is done, so please watch the screen at the front of the room now. To send a photo, document, or file, click on the “Attach Files” button above the big white box where you’ve typed a message. A screen like this will appear: To choose the location of the file, click on the “Browse” button. (If you use a floppy disk, you’ll access the A: drive.) When you’re done choosing files, click on the “Attach Files” button. After the files have been attached to the message, click the “Continue to Message” button, and proceed as you would with sending a regular email message. Now, click on the “Check Messages” button, to see if you have any new messages. VII. Deleting Messages Once you have read all of your messages, please move them to the Trash folder, then empty the Trash: 1. Click on the checkbox above the list of messages in your Inbox, next to the “Send” link. This will select all of the messages. 2. Click the “Delete” button above or below the message list. 3. Click on the “Empty” link next to the Trash folder in the folder list to permanently delete them. If you only wanted to delete certain messages, you’d click on the checkboxes next to the messages you wish to delete. Today, though, please delete all of them. VIII. Exiting a Yahoo! Email Account The final step in using email is to sign out of your account. Doing this protects your privacy, especially when you check your email in a public place. To do this, click on the small “Sign Out” link near the top of the screen. IX. Starting a New Yahoo! Mail Account To establish your own Yahoo! Mail account, visit mail.yahoo.com when you are not logged into a Yahoo! Mail account. Click on the “Sign Up Now” button, and pick the free account option. Yahoo! will ask you for a Yahoo! ID (or user name), a password, some identifying information, and some demographic information to give to its advertisers. Click here for direct access to the page where you can set up a free Yahoo! email account. If you set up an account, write down your Yahoo! ID and password for future reference. You’ll need to type in each of these when you want to sign in and see if you have any new email messages. X. Learning More about Email For more information about Yahoo! Mail, visit the Yahoo! Mail Tutorials page (http://help.yahoo.com/us/tutorials/mail/index.html), or the Yahoo! Mail Help pages (http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/mail/). The best way to grow comfortable with email is to use it regularly. The library also offers books and videos about email.