The basics: Sending an email message

The first half of this chapter addresses everything you need to know about sending email messages. Here are the basics:

1. In any mail folder, click the New Email button on the Home tab (or press Ctrl+N).

   A Message window like the one in Figure 3-1 appears. You can open this window in a folder apart from mail folders by clicking the New Items button and choosing Email Message on the drop-down list (or by pressing Ctrl+Shift+M). The New Items button is located on the Home tab.

2. Enter the recipient’s email address in the To text box.

   The next topic in this chapter, “Addressing an email message,” explains the numerous ways to address an email message. You can address the same message to more than one person by entering more than one address in the To text box. For that matter, you can send copies of the message and blind copies of the message to others (see “Sending copies and blind copies of messages,” later in this chapter).

3. In the Subject text box, enter a descriptive title for the message.

   When your message arrives on the other end, the recipient sees the subject first. Enter a descriptive subject that helps the recipient prioritize the message. After you enter the subject, it appears in the title bar of the Message window.

4. Type the message.

   Whatever you do, don’t forget to enter the message itself! You can spell-check your message by pressing F7 or clicking the Spelling & Grammar button on the Review tab.

5. Click the Send button (or press Alt+S).

   Messages remain in the Outbox folder if you postpone sending them or if Outlook can’t send them right away because your computer isn’t connected to the Internet.

If you decide in the middle of writing a message to write the rest of it later, click the Save button on the Quick Access toolbar (or press Ctrl+S) and close the Message window. The message lands in the Drafts folder. When you’re ready to finish writing the message, open the Drafts folder and double-click your unfinished message to resume writing it.

Copies of the email messages you send are kept in the Sent Items folder, where you can review messages you sent.

Addressing an email message

How do you address an email message in the To text box of the Message window (to see the Message window, refer to Figure 3-1)? Let me count the ways:

• Type a person’s name from the Contacts folder: Simply type a person’s name, as shown in Figure 3-2. If the name is on file in the Contacts folder, a drop-down list with the name appears, and you can select the name on the drop-down list.
• Get the address (or addresses) from the Contacts folder: Click the To (or Cc) button to send a message to someone whose name is on file in your Contacts folder. You see the Select Names dialog box, as shown in Figure 3-2. Click or Ctrl+click to select the names of people to whom you want to send the message. Then click the To button (or the Cc or Bcc button) to enter addresses in the To text box (or the Cc or Bcc text box) of the Message window. Click OK to return to the Message window. This is the easiest way to address an email message to several different people.
• Type the address: Type the address if you know it offhand. You can paste an address into the Message window by right-clicking and choosing the Paste command.
• Reply to a message sent to you: Select the message in the Inbox folder and click the Reply button. The Message window opens with the address of the person to whom you’re replying already entered in the To text box. You can also click the Reply All button to reply to enter the email addresses of all the people to whom the original message was sent.

You can create contact groups for sending the same email message to a group of people without having to enter an address for each recipient. For information about contact groups, see Chapter 2 of this minibook.

Sending copies and blind copies of messages

When you send a copy of a message, the person who receives the message knows that copies have been sent because the names of people to whom copies were sent appear at the top of the email message. But when you send blind copies, the person who receives the message doesn’t know that others received it. Send a blind copy when you prefer the recipient not to know that others also received the message.

Follow these instructions to send copies and blind copies of messages:

• Send a copy of a message: Enter email addresses in the Cc text box of the Message window, or in the Select Names dialog box (refer to Figure 3-2), select names and then click the Cc button.
• Send a blind copy of a message: Click the Bcc button in the Message window to open the Select Names dialog box (refer to Figure 3-2), select names, and click the Bcc button or else enter addresses in the Bcc text box.

Why are these buttons called Cc and Bcc? The Cc stands for “carbon copy” and the Bcc stands for “blind carbon copy.” These terms originated in the Mesozoic era when letters were composed on the typewriter, and to make a copy of a letter, you inserted carbon paper between two paper sheets and typed away.

Replying to and forwarding email messages

Replying to and forwarding messages is as easy as pie. For one thing, you don’t need to know the recipient’s email address to reply to a message. In the Inbox, select or open the message you want to reply to or forward and do the following on the Home tab, Message tab, or Reading pane:

• Reply to author: Click the Reply button (or press Ctrl+R). The Message window or Reading pane opens with the sender’s name already entered in the To box and the original message in the text box below. Write a reply and click the Send button.
• Reply to all parties who received the message: Click the Reply All button (or press Ctrl+Shift+R). The Message window or Reading pane opens with the names of all parties who received the message in the To and Cc boxes and the original message in the text box. Type your reply and click the Send button.

• Forward a message: Click the Forward button (or press Ctrl+F). The Message window or Reading pane opens with the text of the original message. Either enter an email address in the To text box or click the To button to open the Select Names dialog box and then select the names of the parties to whom the message will be forwarded. Add a word or two to the original message if you like; then click the Send button.

  Forwarding a message to a third party without the permission of the original author is a breach of etiquette and very bad manners. I could tell you a story about an email message of mine that an unwitting editor forwarded to a cantankerous publisher, but I’m saving that story for the soap opera edition of this book.

To add a sender’s name to the Contacts folder, right-click the name in the Message window and choose Add to Outlook Contacts.

Sending a file along with a message

Sending a file along with an email message is called attaching a file in Outlook lingo. You can send a file or several files along with an email message by following these steps:

1. In the Message window, go to the Message or Insert tab and click the Attach File button.

   A drop-down list appears with the names of files you sent recently. If the file you want to send is on the list, select its name and be done with it; if the file’s name isn’t on the list, keep reading.

2. Choose Browse This PC (or if you keep files on OneDrive, choose Browse Web Locations and select OneDrive on the submenu).

   You see the Insert File dialog box.

3. Locate and select the file that you want to send along with your email message.

   Ctrl+click filenames to select more than one file.

4. Click the Insert button.

   The name of the file (or files) appears in the Attached text box in the Message window. Address the message and type a note to send along with the file. You can open the drop-down list on a filename in the Attach text box and choose Open to open a file you’re about to send. Or, if you change your mind about sending the file, you can choose Remove Attachment.

Here’s a fast way to attach a file to a message: Find the file in File Explorer and drag it into the Message window. The file’s name appears in the Attach box as though you placed it there by clicking the Attach File button.

Including a photo in an email message

As shown in Figure 3-3, you can include a photo in the body of an email message. Follow these steps:

1. In the Message window, go to the Insert tab.
2. Click in the body of the email message where you want the picture to go.

3. Click the Pictures button.

   You see the Insert Picture dialog box. If the Pictures button is grayed out and you can’t click it, go to the Format Text tab and click the Aa HTML button. Choosing Aa HTML as the format for email messages enables you to send photos in the body of email messages.

4. Locate and select the digital picture you want to send; then click the Insert button.

   The picture lands in the Message window. Book 8, Chapter 3 explains how to manipulate graphic images in Outlook and the other Office applications.

Want to remove a picture from an email message? Select it and press the Delete key.

Getting your email

Starting in the Inbox folder on the Send/Receive tab, here are all the different ways to collect email messages that were sent to you:

• Collect all email: Click the Send/Receive All Folders button (or press F9). Mail is sent from and delivered to all your email accounts.
• Collect mail for the Inbox folder only: Click the Update Folder button (or press Shift+F9).
• Send all unsent mail: Click the Send All button.
• Collect email from a single account (if you have more than one): Click the Send/Receive Groups button, and on the drop-down list, choose the name of a group or an email account.

Being notified that email has arrived

Take the email arrival quiz. Winners get the displeasure of knowing that they understand far more than is healthy about Outlook. You can tell when email has arrived in the Inbox folder because

1. You hear this sound: ding.
2. The mouse cursor briefly changes to a little envelope.
3. A little envelope appears in the notification area to the left of the Windows clock. (You can double-click the envelope to open the Inbox folder.)
4. A pop-up desktop alert with the sender’s name, the message’s subject, and the text of the message appears briefly on your desktop.
5. All of the above.

The answer is E, “All of the above,” but if four arrival notices strike you as excessive, you can eliminate one or two. On the File tab, choose Options, and in the Mail category of the Options dialog box, go the Message Arrival area and change the settings.

Opening a file you received

Follow these instructions to open a file that was sent to you:

• Double-click the filename.
• Click to select the filename, and on the (Attachment Tools) Attachments tab, click the Open button.
• Open the drop-down list on the filename and choose Open on the shortcut menu (refer to Figure 3-5).

As long as the file being sent to you is a Word, PowerPoint, Excel, or Publisher file, you can preview it inside the Message window or Reading pane. To do so, click the filename (or choose Preview on the file’s drop-down list). Click Back to Message to see the message again, not the file preview.

Saving a file you received

Follow these instructions to save a file that was sent to you in a folder of your choice:

• Click to select the filename, and on the (Attachment Tools) Attachments tab, click the Save As button and save the file using the Save Attachment dialog box. Click the Save All Attachments button to save more than one file.
• Open the filename’s drop-down list (refer to Figure 3-5), choose Save As, and save the file in the Save Attachment dialog box. Choose Save All Attachments to save more than one file.

Flagging email messages

One way to call attention to email messages is to flag them. Flag a message, for example, to mark it as urgent. After you flag a message, you can arrange messages by their flag status in the Inbox folder. Follow these instructions to flag an email message:

• Starting in the Message window: Click the Follow Up button and choose Flag Message on the drop-down list, as shown in Figure 3-6.
• Starting in the Inbox folder: Select the message, and on the Home tab, click the Follow Up button and choose a flag. You can also right-click, choose Follow Up, and choose a flag.

To “unflag” a message, click the Follow Up button and choose Clear Flag, or right-click and choose Clear Flag. Later in this chapter, “Rules for earmarking messages as they arrive” explains how you can flag messages automatically as they arrive.

Rules for earmarking messages as they arrive

To help you organize messages better, Outlook gives you the opportunity to earmark messages in various ways and even move messages as they arrive automatically to folders apart from the Inbox folder. Being able to move messages immediately to a folder is a great way to keep email concerning different projects separate. If you belong to a newsgroup that sends many messages per day, being able to move those messages instantly into their own folder is a real blessing because newsgroup messages have a habit of cluttering the Inbox folder.

To earmark messages for special treatment, Outlook has you create so-called rules. You can create a rule to

• Move email from a particular person automatically to a folder.
• Be alerted when email arrives from a certain person or the Subject line of a message includes a certain word. As shown in Figure 3-7, a New Item Alerts message appears in the lower-right corner of your screen to alert you.

Follow these instructions to create a rule so that incoming email messages are given special treatment:

1. Select an email message from a person whose messages require a rule.

   You can skip this step if your goal is to create a rule for messages that contain a certain word in the Subject line.

2. On the Home tab, click the Rules button.

3. Choose an option on the drop-down list.

   Choose an option to move messages to a folder or be alerted about messages.

   • Automatically move messages from this person to a folder: Choose Always Move Messages From, and in the Rules and Alerts dialog box, select a folder. (Later in this chapter, “Creating a new folder for storing email” explains how to create a folder of your own.)
   • Be alerted about messages: Choose Create Rule. You see the Create Rule dialog box shown in Figure 3-7. Fill in the dialog box and click OK.

To change or delete a rule, go to the Home tab, click the Rules button, and choose Manage Rules & Alerts. On the Email Rules tab of the Rules and Alerts dialog box, select a rule and change, copy, or delete it.

Moving email messages to different folders

Open or select the message you want to move and use one of these techniques to move an email message to a different folder:

• On the Home tab or a Message window, click the Move button and choose a folder name on the drop-down list. If the folder’s name isn’t on the list, choose Other Folder and select a folder in the Move Item To dialog box.
• Right-click, choose Move, and select a folder name or choose Other Folder and select a folder in the Move Item To dialog box.
• Display the folder you want to receive the message in the Folder pane. Then drag the message from the Inbox to the folder in the Folder pane.

Earlier in this chapter, “Rules for earmarking messages as they arrive” explains how to move email messages automatically to folders as email is sent to you.

Creating a new folder for storing email

Follow these steps to create a new folder:

1. On the Folder tab, click the New Folder button.

   You see the Create New Folder dialog box, as shown in Figure 3-8. You can also open this dialog box by pressing Ctrl+Shift+E or right-clicking a folder in the Folder list and choosing New Folder.

2. Select the folder that the new folder will go inside.

   To create a first-level folder, select the name of the topmost folder in the hierarchy.

3. Enter a name for the folder.
4. Click OK.

To delete a folder you created, open it, go to the Folder tab, and click the Delete Folder button. Items in the folder are deleted along with the folder itself. To rename a folder, open it, go to the Folder tab, click the Rename Folder button, and enter a new name.

Defining what constitutes junk email

Outlook maintains a Safe Senders and a Blocked Senders list to help distinguish email from junk email. To help Outlook recognize junk email and route it to the Junk E-mail folder, you can take these measures to add addresses to the lists:

• Add a sender to the Safe Senders list: Senders on this list are deemed legitimate, and their email messages are always routed to the Inbox folder. In the Message window or Home tab of a mail folder, click the Junk button and choose Never Block Sender. Choose this option if you find a legitimate email message in the Junk E-mail folder.
• Add an address to the Blocked Senders list: Email from senders on the Blocked Senders list goes straight to the Junk E-mail folder. In the Message window or Home tab of a mail folder, click the Junk button and choose Block Sender.
• Editing the Safe Senders and Blocked Senders lists: Click the Junk button and choose Junk E-mail Options. The Junk E-mail Options dialog box opens. On the Safe Senders and Blocked Senders tab, select email addresses as necessary and click the Remove button.

To quickly move an email message from the Junk E-mail folder to the Inbox folder, click the Junk button and choose Not Junk on the drop-down list. The Mark As Not Junk dialog box appears. Click the Always Trust E-mail From check box and click OK.

Preventative medicine for junk email

As zealous as Outlook is about preventing junk email, the program can’t really do the job. Junk emailers change addresses frequently. They are clever about putting words in the subject lines of their messages so that the messages aren’t recognized as spam. The only foolproof way to keep your email address free of junk email is to follow these suggestions:

• Use a secondary email address: Create a secondary email account and give its email address to businesses and merchants on the Internet who might sell your address to spammers or might themselves be spammers. The Internet offers many places to create free web-based email accounts. For example, check out Gmail (http://gmail.google.com) and Yahoo Mail (http://mail.yahoo.com). Never give your primary email address to strangers.
• Don’t reply to spam: Don’t reply to junk email messages under any circumstances. By replying, all you do is alert the spammer to the fact that your email address is legitimate, and that makes you a target of even more spam.
• Don’t unsubscribe to junk email messages: Some spam messages contain an Unsubscribe link that you can click to prevent more messages from coming. The links are a ruse. All you do by clicking them is make spammers aware that your email address is live and therefore worth targeting with more spam.
• Don’t buy anything advertised by spam: Even if the message is selling what looks to be a terrific bargain, resist the temptation. By buying, you expose yourself to all the risks of replying to junk email.
• Be careful where (and how) you post your email address: Spammers gather email addresses from the Internet. They get the addresses from web pages, newsgroups, chat rooms, and message boards. Harvestware, a variety of spamware, can scour the Internet for the telltale “at” symbol (@) found in email addresses and copy those addresses back to a spammer’s computer. If you have to post your email address on the Internet, get around the problem by putting blank spaces between the letters in your address, or spell out the address like so:

  johndoe at earthlink dot net