Email (electronic mail) is a way to send and receive messages
Email Addresses
· standard format: username, the @ (at) symbol and the email provider's domain
o username is the name you choose to identify yourself
o email provider is the website that hosts your email account
Email Providers
· Gmail: https://mail.google.com/mail/help/intl/en/about.html
· Yahoo: http://overview.mail.yahoo.com/
· Hotmail: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/hotmail/get-started
· email addresses hosted by a company, school, or organization
Email Productivity Feature Examples
· Address books
· Calendar
· Chat
· Public Profile
· Cloud computing with Gmail and Hotmail
Email Interface
The inbox is where you'll view and manage emails you receive
· Menu options
· Email sender, subject, date, attachment
· Folders / labels
The Compose pane is where you create a new email message, or reply or forward an email message that was sent to you.
· Click the Compose or New button
· Enter recipients email address, subject
· Message
o greeting, message, closing, name
o signature
· CC: (keep in loop) BCC: (large number of people or private)
· Attachments
· Spell check and formatting
The Message Pane is where you can read an email message and choose how to respond with a variety of commands.
· Reply, reply all, forward, delete, move
Basic Email Rules – can be modified depending on situation
· Use a brief but descriptive subject
· Use Greetings and closings
o Give only your preferred contact information in a signature
· Write clearly. It is easy for a person to misinterpret an email message.
· Formatting may not convert
· All Caps
· Before Sending an Email
o Make sure that the To, CC and BCC fields are correct
o Spell check and proofread
· Chain Emails
Business Email Etiquette (at work or applying for a job)
· Use a professional email address
· Your company can read your email
· Do not use a work email for personal communication
Email Safety
http://www.gcflearnfree.org/internetsafety/4.1
Email is not totally secure. Do not send social security numbers, credit card numbers or passwords.
· Spam – junk mail
· Phishing - Certain emails pretend to be from a bank or trusted source in order to steal your personal information.
o http://www.gcflearnfree.org/internetsafety/4.3
· Attachments - Some email attachments can contain viruses and other malware. It's generally safest not to open any attachment that you weren't expecting. If a friend sends you an attachment, you may want to ask them if they meant to send it before downloading.
o Don’t open attachments that you were not expecting
o Keep you anti-virus software up-to-date
o Keep your computer’s Firewall on
o Scan Attachments for viruses before downloading
Reference
http://www.gcflearnfree.org/email101/1