Email Tips and Tricks
Why is email different? back to top
People in this day and age are used to communicating
in person or by telephone, able to see the expression on someone's face or hear
the tone of their voice. That kind of immediate feedback has caused us to lose
the art of written communication. It is my contention that people from the
1800s (once they learned to use the technology) would be more comfortable and
effective using email than we are today, because the written word was the
primary means of communication for them. We in the Twentieth Century have lost
the art of letter-writing, and with it the turns of phrase and verbal
expression that convey the same eloquence as facial or tonal expressions.
Now, it is likely that this will be remedied
soon, with the advent of desktop video cameras and better conferencing
software, not to mention video phones for personal use. But these things won't
be available for public consumption for one or two years at least. I'd say five
years, but I, like everyone else, keep underestimating the speed with which
technology moves.
Creating a signature file back to top
In order to create a signature file (the
ending information for email messages), you need to open a new document in your
word processor and enter some form of the following information:
Name
Address and/or telephone number (if appropriate)
Email address (even though your email program will insert it into a message,
it's polite to list it again)
(I myself also insert my family motto, which is "Often wrong, but never in
doubt!")
Then save the file AS A TEXT FILE
in a location where you can find it again (you should have had file management
in learning Windows 95/98). You'll need to know where this file is located in
order to cause your email program to append it to your messages.
Appending a signature file in Netscape back to top
- Open Netscape
- Click on Edit, then Preferences
- Click on the plus sign next to Mail & Groups
- Click on Identity
- Click in the space (pane) that says Signature File
- Click on Choose and choose your file
- Click OK to close Preferences window
Appending a signature file in Explorer's Outlook Express(not part of Explorer, but a separate program) back to top
- Open Outlook Express
- Click on Tools, then Options, the click the Signatures
tab.
- Click the box next to Add Signatures..." and click the
button next to File, then browse for the file, choose it, and click
OK.
Replying to an email back to top
When someone sends you an email, it contains
their return address. Therefore, in order to answer them, you can simply click
on the "Reply" button. Every email management program has one. Both
Netscape Mail Manager and Internet Explorer's Outlook Express (which I
recommend over Outlook) have buttons that say Reply. Simple enough!
Using this button will cause a message box
to open, showing the address of the person who sent you email and quoting the
message they sent you (default option in most mail managers, but can get overly
long in complex correspondence. You'll see). Please read your browser's Help to
find out how to turn off the auto quote function, if you don't like having all
those extra words.
Storing email messages back to top
After you've been sending and receiving
email for a while, you'll have more messages that you want to keep than can be stored
in the inbox. Both Netscape and Internet Explorer's Outlook Express provide a
storage system for email messages using the folder metaphor. Please read your
email program's help to find out more about creating folders. The folder
hierarchy looks just like the display in Windows Explorer, or the directory
tree on a Macintosh. If you are familiar with file management, you'll
appreciate this feature.
Attaching files to email messages
back to top
As mentioned before, you can attach music,
text files, photographs, or anything else (anything that can be stored on a
computer) to email. Both Internet Explorer and Netscape use a paper clip
graphic to indicate the button you have to click to attach documents. So, you
click on the paper clip, then select the file you want to attach, be it music
or a picture or a word processing document. Click "Open," and the
desired file is attached.
You can attach more than one file to a
message, but be aware that the larger the files attached, the longer it will
take to send and for your recipient to download the message. Some email
services have a limit of three megabytes (or less) that they will accept, so
you have to stay under that limit too. You can always compress a file using a
compression program such as WinZip for Windows, but discussion of compression
utilities are beyond the scope of this course.
What to do with email
attachments back to
top
OK, so someone's sent you an attachment in
email. Now what? Well, you have two primary choices, to view it in the email
message, or to save it for future reference.
First, you can look at it in the email
message. In Netscape, you do that by clicking "View"
"Attachments" and then select "As Links" or
"Inline" which means you want to see them in the message. Second, if
you choose "As Links," you can then click on the file and either open
it or save it, but REMEMBER WHERE YOU PUT IT!! This is the most common
mistake, saving it and losing it. Most files are automatically saved to
"My Documents," so if you can't find it elsewhere, try there! Good
luck!
The Address Book and Mailing Lists back to top
Both Netscape Communicator and Internet
Explorer offer address books. These are just what you think--collections of the
email addresses of the people to whom you write often. In Netscape, click on Communicator
in the menu bar and then Address Book on the resulting menu to make a
new card or a new list, then click the appropriate button for the action you
want to take.
To make a new card in Netscape:
- Click on New Card button.
- Enter the person's first name, then press Tab to go to the next
field. Continue entering desired information, and when you're done click OK
to save the address. Ignore any boxes you don't want to fill in, except of
course name and email!
To make a new list in Netscape:
- Click on the New List button. (The default setting adds the
list to your personal address book, which is probably where you want it to
be.)
- Enter a list name. You do not have to fill in the next two boxes.
- Click in the first empty box below and enter the first address you
want on the list. If you already have that address in your address book,
chances are that it will be displayed automatically after you have typed
in the first few characters. If that happens just press Enter. If
it's not, just finish entering the email address and press enter to go to
the next empty space. Enter as many addresses as you like, as it will keep
giving you a new empty box. When you're through, click OK to save
the list.
If the addresses of the people you're adding
to your list aren't yet in your address book, the mail manager will add them.
An example of a list: I have friends who share the same sense of humor I do, so
when I get a funny I like I forward it to my like-minded friends all at once,
because I took a minute to make up a list.
To make a new card in Explorer:
- Click on Tools on the menu bar, then Address Book.
- Click on New and then select New Contact.
- Fill in at least the first name, then click in the Add New pane
of the Email addresses section to insert the first address. Some people,
like myself, have two or more, so you may wish to add all the relevant
ones. After each, click Add.
- Click OK to save the information when you're through.
To make a new list (group) in Explorer's
Outlook Express:
- Click on Tools on the menu bar, then Address Book.
- Click on New and then select New Group
- Type in a name for the group.
- Select the first name to be included from list, or type each in
separately.
- Click OK to save the information when you're through.
After you make an entry in the address book
or make a list, when you type the first unique letters for the name of the
person or list, the mail manager will fill in the rest, saving you oodles of
typing. It's worth doing!
Additional tip--In Internet Explorer's
Outlook Express (my favorite mail manager), you can click on an option in Tools,
then the Send tab, and click the box next to the option to put people
you reply to in your address book. that adds the name of anyone that you reply
to into your address book. Very handy!
Viruses in email back to top
First of all, let's talk about the fact that
there aren't really as many viruses out there as the
media would have you think! NEVER forward a virus warning message to
anyone, because it is certainly a hoax---no matter how sincere it seems, or how
reputable the sender (professor, MIS professional, etc.). People who know
enough to know when a virus warning is real also know enough not to send virus
warnings through email. If you forward the warning, you're doing exactly what
the sick individual who thought up the threat wants you to do!
If there is a real virus floating around,
you will find it at http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/index.html in the virus hoax section, and it will also be
published in reputable newspapers, as the "Trojan Horse" email virus
(transmitted by spam, unwanted ads in email, which you should always throw away
anyway for just this reason) was on the CNN site recently. The page referenced
in the link is hosted by Symantec's Norton Antivirus, the largest and arguably
the most reputable purveyor of antivirus software in the industry. If they
don't know about it, it doesn't exist!
Again, please DO NOT FORWARD any
email warning you about a virus!!! You'll only encourage the people who invent
them!
Here's another source for information about viruses: ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-group/alt.newbie/Computer_Virus_FAQ_for_New_Users
Listservs/Mailing Lists back to top
(Excerpted from the introduction at http://www.liszt.com, which has compiled an index of over 90,000 mailing
lists!)
Note: Listservs and newsgroups
have nothing to do with chat rooms. Chat is live, newsgroups and listservs
operate over email or an email-like delivery method.
Internet mailing lists, or listservs,
aren't for ads, as some people mistakenly believe. Send any ads to the mailing
lists in Liszt, and demons will come and pull out your toenails. No, Internet
mailing lists are (usually) just communities of people sitting around
discussing one of their favorite topics by e-mail. For example, fans of
bluegrass music can join BGRASS-L, and meet other bluegrass fans, and talk
about bluegrass via e-mail.
Internet mailing lists have been around
since about 1975. It was the first and original type of online community,
pre-dating Usenet, IRC, and the rest of the gang. The mailing list format lends
itself to calm, thoughtful, literate, mature discussion, where relationships
between the list members actually grow and deepen over an extended period of
time. Most Internet experts feel that the mailing list format is the most
civilized type of online community.
So those are discussion groups. Another
common type of Internet mailing list is the newsletter or announcement format,
where a single writer (the listowner or moderator) broadcasts a periodical
e-mail to a willing audience (and the audience doesn't participate directly.)
You join a listserv by sending some type of
SUBSCRIBE message (they'll tell you what to do), and you unsubscribe the same
way. All messages are sent to a central point, where they are redistributed to
the subscribers of the listserv in the form of email, as compared to a
newsgroup, where people go to a specific site to read a group of messages.
There are many more ramifications to listservs, but this will get you started!
Newsgroups/Bulletins Boards
back to top
(Excerpted from the introduction at
http://www.hobsonsquare.com/ngintro.htm)
WARNING! Newsgroups often have sexual or obscene
content, and almost certainly profanity. Do not go to any unmoderated newsgroup
unless you are prepared to encounter these things. Now... what are they?
Newsgroups or Discussion Groups, as they are
sometimes called, are part of Usenet. A newsgroup is really nothing but a
collection of messages dealing with a particular subject. Groups designed for
the exchange of pictures usually, but not always have binaries in the group's
name like: alt.binaries.autographs. There are newsgroups where they discuss sports,
zebras, quilting, writing, various television shows---you name it, there's a
newsgroup for it!
There are two major classes of Newsgroups:
Moderated and Unmoderated.
Moderated groups
Almost exclusively, are plain text and are
more formal than the far more numerous unmoderated newsgroups. In Moderated
Newsgroups, one or more persons act as the moderator and control which articles
become available to the public. This tends to make the group more orderly since
posters know they need to get past the moderator before anyone else sees their
article, so people tend to be more careful to stay within the group's
guidelines.
Unmoderated groups
Are much more open. Anyone can post pretty
much whatever they want and anyone who has access to the group can read the
articles or see the pictures if they know how to decode them. This openness can
cause flames or attacks from others in the group if they think someone posted
inappropriate material, which is not always apparent from the Newsgroup's name
or made clear in the group's FAQ, assuming new posters bother to read
it...which most don't.
You also need to absorb the
"culture" of a newsgroup if you intend to post to it, so that you
don't get flamed. It's amazing how much getting a nasty message from a group of
strangers hurts. I know, I stepped into a newgroup with both feet in my mouth
and if email could kill, I'd be dead! Please visit http://www.hobsonsquare.com/ngintro.htm to read more about beginner mistakes and newsgroup
netiquette.
.
Links to other email
guides back to top
There are many more links which will be
helpful to the email beginner, including but not limited to:
A dictionary of computer terms at http://www.currents.net/resources/dictionary/dictionary.phtml
Ziff-Davis' help page at http://www.zdnet.com/zdhelp/welcome.html. ZDNet is very helpful in general about Internet
issues. They even have an online university for learning software.
And the many other WWW FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) listed at http://dir.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/World_Wide_Web/FAQs/
Acknowledgements back to top
I gratefully acknowledge gleaning parts of
this treatise on email from various sources on the Web. In particular, I
visited http://jade.wabash.edu/wabnet/info/netiquet.htm, http://email.tqn.com/msub10.htm, and got some graphics from http://www.barrysclipart.com, http://www.bellsnwhistles.com/ and http://www.clipart.com/, among other graphics sources too numerous to list (
and quite repetitive---they all post each other's graphics, so I don't feel too
guilty about not acknowledging them)
Another mystery solved... back to top
Sometimes when you're typing an email
message and you select and delete one word, then start to type the new word,
your new word just types over what you're replacing instead of pushing it to
the right. When that happens, push the INSERT key on your keyboard to change
modes from "Overstrike" to "Insert." This also works in
your word processor and any other software!
"