ELECTRONIC MAIL (WEEK THREE AND FOUR)

WEEK THREE AND FOUR

Electronic Mail

Electronic Mail (e-mail) is a system for sending and receiving messages online. Such messages could be text, graphics or otherwise to be sent or received through the internet. For anyone to be able to send or receive an e-mail, he or she must have an e-mail address.

14.2  Electronic Mail Services

1. Send and receive messages. You can send an e-mail message to anybody with an e-mail address. The message arrives in the recipient's e-mail inbox within seconds or minutes anywhere around the world. You too can receive an email from someone who knows your email address.
2. Send and receive files. Besides text, you can send almost any type of file using an e-mail. Such files include documents, pictures, and music. A file sent in an e-mail message is called an attachment.
3. Send messages to groups of people. You can also send an e-mail messages to so many people simultaneously. Recipients can reply thus making room for group discussions.
4. Forward messages. When you receive an e-mail message, you can forward it to others without retyping it.
5. E-mail is also free. Unlike sending a regular letter, no stamp or fee is required, no matter the destination. The only charges that apply are those that you pay for the Internet connection.

 

14.3 Advantages/ Disadvantages of Electronic Mail

Advantages of Electronic mails

1. E-mails are easy to use. You can organize your daily correspondence, send and receive electronic messages and save them on computers.
2. E-mails are fast. They are delivered immediately no matter the distance. No other form of written communication is as fast as an email.
3. The language used in e-mails is simple and informal.
4. When you reply to an email you can attach the original message so that when you answer the recipient knows what you are talking about. This is important if you get hundreds of e-mails a day.
5. E-mails do not use paper. They are environment friendly.
6. E-mails can also have pictures, files, images and videos attached to it. You can also send birthday cards or newsletters as e-mails.

(f)     Products can be advertised with electronic mails. Companies can

reach a lot of people and inform them in a short time.

Disadvantages of Electronic Mails

1. E-mails may carry viruses. These are small programs that harm your computer system. They can read out your e-mail address book and send themselves to a number of people around the world.
2. Many people send unwanted e-mails to others. These are called spam mails. It takes a lot of time to filter out the unwanted e-mails from those that are really important.

(c)      E-mails cannot really be used for official business   documents. They may be lost and you cannot sign them.

(d)      Your mailbox may get flooded with e-mails after a certain time so you have to empty it from time to time.

14.4  Creating an e-mail Account

To sign up an electronic mail account, you need the services of an e-mail account service provider. There are so many e-mail account providers however the top three web mail providers are Yahoo, Hotmail and Gmail. They are popular because they allow the user to have access on their mail account anytime. Their websites are yahoo.com, Hotmail.com and gmail.com

To sign up an account:

1. Yahoo! Mail: Click Create an Account

 

(b)     Hotmail: Click Sign Up

(c)     Gmail: Click Create an Account

For the purpose of this book, we will use Google to create a Gmail Account.

Click Create an account, a form which resembles as the one in Figure 14.1 (a) and (b) will appear on your computer screen. Fill it by typing in all the necessary data. After checking you submit it. 

 

Diagram

 

 

                              Please check the Google Account information you've entered above (feel free to change anything you like), and review the

Terms of Service below.

With Gmail, you won't see blinking banner ads. Instead, we display ads you might find useful that are relevant to the content of your messages. Learn more

 

Diagram

By clicking on 'I accept' below you are agreeing to the Terms of Service above and both the Program Policy and the Privacy Policy.

 

Fig 14.1(b)

Once all the data has been checked by the computer a message stating that the e-mail address is successful will be displayed on the computer screen. The e-mail address is what you will use to log into the computer anytime you want to send or check your mail.

 

14.5    Features of E-mail Addresses

To receive e-mails, you will need an e-mail account and an e-mail address. Also, if you want to send e-mails to other people, you will need to obtain their e-mail addresses. It's important to learn how to write e-mail addresses correctly, because if you do not enter them exactly right, your e-mails will not be delivered or they might be delivered to the wrong person.

 

E-mail addresses are always written in a standard format that includes a username, (a nickname you choose, not necessarily your real name) the § fat) symbol and the e-mail provider's domain. The username is the name you choose to identify yourself and the e-mail provider is the website that hosts your e-mail account. Some examples of e-mail addresses are james@gmail.com, samuel2012@yahoo.com, maryjohnson@hotmail.com and enquires@yahoo.com.

Note that many hosted web domains end with a suffix other than .com. Depending on the organization, your provider's domain might end with a suffix like .gov (for government websites), .edu (for education), .mil (for military) or .org (for non-profit organizations).

14.6 E-mail do’s

(a)     Keep e-mails clear and concise. Make sure that your recipient can tell what the e-mail is about. Avoid rambling, but provide enough detail to make the point of the e-mail clear.

(b)     Use relevant subject line. The subject line lets the recipient know what to expect in the e-mail. Make it clear and relevant.

(c)   Add greeting and closing line to your e-mail. Just like a written letter, it's nice to add a greeting such as "Dear Samuel," and a closing line such as "Sincerely" or "Thanks" followed by your name.

 

(d)      Resize large photos or diagrams before attaching them. Large photos/ diagrams take longer time to download, especially if someone is viewing them on a mobile device. If you want to send a large photo/diagram to someone, resize it before you attach it.

 

(e) Check your e-mail before you send it. Before sending your e-mail, make sure it's fr.ee of spelling and grammar errors. Also, for more important a-mails? take a moment to check the content and wording, to make sure that your message is presented the way you want. Remember, an e-mail generally can't be unsent!

 

(f) Check your recipients. Before you send an e-mail, double-check the To, Cc, and Bcc fields to make sure you're sending the e-mail to the right people. This is especially important when you're replying to a message, since it may automatically add unwanted recipients.

14.7 E-mail Don'ts

1. Don't use capital letters. Writing your e-mail in all using capital or uppercase letters is an equivalent to shouting. Your recipient may mistakenly think that you're angry, which can backfire (especially in a business e-mail). Also, e-mails written in all caps are harder to read.

 

2. Don't use an overly long signature. Elaborate signature which includes your name, title, address, multiple phone numbers, are not very necessary. Instead of including all of your contact information, it's better to focus on your most important or preferred contact information.

 

3. Don't use hard-to-read fonts or colors. Your e-mail service may have various text formatting options, but you should be aware that some of them may make your e-mails difficult to read. In many cases, too much text formatting can also look unprofessional or annoying.

 

4. Don't overuse Reply to All. Ask yourself whether ever person in the group needs to see your reply. If you're only intending the message for one person, use Reply. On the other hand, if you want to keep everybody in the group informed use Reply to All.
5. Don't try to cover too many topics. If you find that your e-mail is covering several unrelated topics, consider splitting it into separate e-mails.
6. Don't forward chain e-mails, even if they sound interesting. 'Chain e-mails can quickly spread throughout the world because they are forwarded to large numbers of people, who then forward            them to even more people, and so on. Many of them are hoaxes, and even the ones that aren't may irritate your recipients.

 

14.8  Sending an Electronic mail

After typing in the recipient’s address, subject and text in the e-mail program, the next thing is to send the mail. This is done by clicking on the send button. A message the mail has been sent will be seen on the screen if it is successful. However, if it is not successful a message mail failed will also be seen at the screen.

14.9  Checking an Electronic Mail

Windows Mail checks to see if you've received e-mail whenever you start tine program and every 30 minutes after that. When a mail is sent to you it appears in your Inbox. The Inbox is one of several folders that hold e-mail.

To see a list of e-mail you've received, click Inbox in the folders list. Your e-mail messages appear in the message list. The list shows who sent the mail, the subject, and when it was received.

 

To read a message, click on it in the message list. The contents of the message appear below the message list in the Preview pane. To read the message in a separate window, double-click on it in the message list.

14.10          Sending Attachments

E-mail attachments are the electronic equivalent of using a paper clip to attach something to a paper letter. Anything can be attached to an e-mail. The following are e-mail best practices of sending attachments, (a) Send files (pictures) in a format that the recipient can read: (b) Don’t send large files: (c) Explain in the body of your text that there is an attachment and what it's all about.

After you have scanned and saved your image to the hard drive, do the following to attach it to your out-going e-mail:

 

Diagram

 

 

_

Open your e-mail program ai start a new message.

After you have entered the recipient's address, a subject, and some text,

1. Click once on the

Paper clip icon

 

4. Click on the drive that contains the attachment.

6. Click once on the file you wish to attach, and then...
7. Click the Insert button.

That's it! Your file is now attached to-the e-mail. Finish your mail and send it.

 

 

 

 

14.11  Differences between E-mail and Website addresses

The following table will explain the difference between an e-mail address and a website address

Serial smber	Property	Website address	E-mail address
1	Example	“http//www.psicomputers/books”	Psi computers2004@vahoo.com
2	E-mail	Not Applicable	Yahoo.com
3	Protocol	http	Not Applicable
4	Server name	www.psicomputers	Not Applicable
5	File Name	“books”	Not Applicable
6	User name	Not Applicable	Psi_computers2004

 

14.12        Chatting

It is system which allows users to communicate in real time. Unlike the electronic mail, all messages show up immediately in the same window which makes conversation quicker and easier.

There are four different ways to begin chatting with any of your Yahoo! ontacts. Or with any of your Windows Live contacts (@hotmail, @msn, @!'ve)...

 

Step 1 On the left side of the page, under Contacts,    under "# Online", click a contact name

 

Example: Under Contacts, you might see "2 Online". This means two of your contacts are currently online. If you don't see their names, click the triangle to the left to list them. To start chatting, just click a name. A new tab opens up in your Mail window. Type your message at the bottom and hit "Enter" on your keyboard to send the message.

 

Step 2 Click the arrow on the right end of the New button to reveal a menu with these options: E-mail, Chat and Text Message (SMS).

 

Step 3 Click Chat. (Or, as a shortcut simply type the letter “c”). In the new tab that opens, enter the Yahoo! contact with whom you want to start chatting.