Sending and Receiving E-mails

Sending

You can send an empty mail by just typing in the e-mail addresses. But there is no point in sending empty letters, other than on All Fools Day, ain't it?

So we have to specify the TO address, the e-mail address of the person to whom the message is to be sent. The next thing is the actual message or BODY of the mail. Specify a SUBJECT for the e-mail, which will help the reader understand what the mail is all about. Enter addresses of CC or BCC recipients if any. Note that when you enter multiple e-mail addresses in a TO, CC or BCC field you have to enter a separator like a comma, semicolon or a blank space. The separator will depend on your e-mail service or program.

If your computer is running on Windows then there will a Send command under the File menu. (The menu is the strip of words like File Edit View Help that you have on the top of the program). If you are using pine you need to press Ctrl-X to send the mail. The command for sending will depend on the program you are using. If you are using Web mail, press the send button.

If you are using web mail find the send button and hit it. That's it.

Receiving and Reading

A letter addressed to you ends up in your letter box. Similarly, e-mails send to you generally come to the Inbox of your mail program.

The INBOX is one of the many folders in your mailbox. Folders are just places (like the directories in your computer which contain files) where you store messages. You can classify messages and arrange them in the different folders. You will learn more about folders in a coming chapter.

Most programs show only the sender's name and the subject in the beginning. You will have to select the subject, or in some programs the name of the sender, by double-clicking with the mouse.