Email Basics
by Dave Clingman
 

Published in Guadalajara Reporter,
March 27, 2010

Communicating with people around the world is fast and easy with electronic mail, "email" for short.  You probably know that email is sending letters digitally over the internet.  For the basics of writing and sending an email, click this link:
www.learnthenet.com/english/html/92email.htm

You can do many things with email.  You can send one email to more than one person at the same time by using the CC and BCC options.  You can vary the font you use in your message.  You can send files, such as photos or documents, along with the email.  You can show emotions by using emoticons.  And much more.

Remember those thin messy black pages we would place between pieces of paper when we wanted to make multiple copies in our typewriters?  At the bottom of the letter we would type "c.c." and then someone's name to alert the recipient that others were also receiving a copy.  "c.c." stands for "Carbon Copy", because those thin pages were called "Carbon Paper".  Today with email, we still call it a "CC" when we send a copy to someone else.  "BCC", which stands for "Blind Carbon Copy", is used to send a copy of an email to someone without others knowing.  While you are addressing an email, click on the word "To" at the left of the email address, select the CC or BCC option, and then type the email address.

While writing an email, you can use different fonts and colors, including bold, italics and underlining.  Highlight the word or phrase for which you want to change the font, and then click on the appropriate button on the Formatting Bar.  If you don't see the Formatting Bar, click on the small word at the top of your window "View", and then select Formatting Bar.

You can send a file by "attaching" it to the email.  After addressing and writing your email, just click on the "Attach" button in your email program and then find the file you want to send.  Be aware that large files will take a long time to be sent from your computer, and if your recipient has a slow internet connection, it might take a very long time for them to download the email.

Emoticons are cool.  A past disadvantage of email was that the recipient couldn't guess if a phrase was written seriously, ironically, in anger or in jest.  This caused miscommunication and many upset people.  Now "emoticons" have been developed to help with this.  :-)  means you're happy about what you wrote.  :-( means you're not happy.  ;-) is winking, showing that you aren't really serious about what you wrote.  The emoticons are easily deciphered by looking at them sideways.

Hopefully at least one of these uses of email is new to you.  If not, the next Bits & Bytes article will cover important "netiquette" rules for email.

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