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Ex 7.5.3 - E-mail Theory |
| KNOWLEDGE |
| ADVANTAGES OF E-MAIL SYSTEMS |
Some of the advantages of e-mail systems include:
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| NETWORK ETIQUETTE (NETIQUETTE) |
Network etiquette (netiquette) includes:
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| ATTACHMENT PROBLEMS |
When sending attachments with e-mails there are a number
of possible problems that can occure. These include:
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| TO, COPY (Cc), BLIND COPY (Bcc) |
| When sending e-mails there are a number of aspects to the e-mail that you need to understand and/or consider. These include: |
| To/From Clearly the person who the e-mail is to be sent to or who it has been sent by is important. The To/From box is usually at the top of the e-mail window and should be the first you complete. The address may be in the classic info@stworkbooks.co.uk format where the person or department it is from appears at the front, followed by the @ symbol followed by address of the business or e-mail provider. Alternatively it may just say Paul_Summers and the real e-mail address will be hidden. This all depends on how the e-mail system has been set up. |
| CC The CC (carbon) box allows you to send the e-mail to persons who may also be interested in reading the e-mail. The e-mail was not written directly to them but they may find it of interest. There are number of dangers with this system in that people sometimes get confused as to who should answer the e-mail and also you are exposing peoples' e-mail addresses to lots of other people. |
| BCC The BCC (blind carbon copy) box allows you to send the e-mail to persons who may also be interested in reading the e-mail whilst at the same time hiding their e-mail addresses - making it slightly different form the CC box. The e-mail was not written directly to them but they may find it of interest. |
| Subject The Subject box/line should include a summary of what the e-mail is about. This allows the person who receives it the option of continuing to read or to simply ignore the e-mail. People who receive a lot of e-mails don't want to have to read through all if the content of them is not of real importance. It is good practise to always include the Subject line. |
| Attachments In addition to the basic text in your e-mail it is also possible to add extra files "attached" to your e-mail which can contain a spreadsheet, a picture, a video, or even an application. These files are not immediately viewable when the recipient opens your e-mail but have to be saved to disc and then opened with the appropriate application software. For instance, if you attach a 20 page Word document to your e-mail the recipient will have to save this file to their hard disc and then open it using Word. If you are using Outlook Express as your e-mail application when you add a file attachment to your outgoing e-mail details of the file will be displayed in the "Attach:" box (see screen shot below). In the example shown below the file "Real Estate.bmp (14.2 KB)" is listed as the one attachment with this e-mail. Multiple files can be added in one go but care should be taken about overall file size as this will slow down the e-mail process. It should also be noted that some e-mail management systems reject certain file types and\or excessive files sizes. There is however a downside to this system as virus writers can easily add malicious attachments to e-mails which when opened cause problems on your system. It is advisable therefore to only open attachments from persons whom you are expecting information from. Take care not to open attachments just because they come from friends. Some e-mail viruses when opened by an un-expecting user forward the virus to everyone in the users e-mail database automatically. This system spreads the virus very quickly. |
| A wide range of software is available for
sending e-mail. The software can either be installed like any other
application on the hard disk of your machine or you can sign up on the
Internet and access your e-mail through your web browser. Examples
of e-mail software include: In addition to the above there are specialist companies that provide e-mail software for networks and also at www.shareware.com you can find numerous cheap e-mail clients. |
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| Hotmail Hotmail comes from the Microsoft Corporation and is their free web based e-mail system. You can access it through your browser, Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator. You will find it at www.hotmail.com where you can register to become one of its millions of members. Basic membership is free but enhanced membership with higher capacity disk storage space does come with a small fee. All the basic features that users require of e-mail are there including send, receive, add attachments, etc. Care should be taken when enrolling not to select to join too many newsgroups and shopping groups as you could get inundated with junk mail. |
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| Lycos Mail Lycos is one of the Internets largest search engines and to attract visitors they provide e-mail facilities much the same as Hotmail above. You can access it through your browser, Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator. You will find it at www.lycos.com or www.lycos.co.uk where you can register to become one of its millions of members. |
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| Yahoo! Mail Yahoo is yet another one of the Internets largest search engines and to attract visitors they provide e-mail facilities much the same as Hotmail and Lycos above. You can access it through your browser, Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator. You will find it at www.yahoo.com or www.yahoo.co.uk where you can register to become one of its millions of members. |
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| Microsoft Outlook Microsoft Outlook whilst containing e-mail facilities is much more and as such comes at a price. It needs to be installed on your machine and thus is application software rather than web based e-mail. It can be purchased individually at about £100 or as part of Microsoft Office. Microsoft Outlook is a personal information management and communication solution application. As well as allowing you to send e-mails it also allows you to streamline group planning and scheduling, and access vital business information. |
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| Outlook Express Outlook Express also comes from Microsoft and is basically a cut down version of Microsoft Outlook being just the e-mail package. Outlook Express is available free and comes with other software such as Internet Explorer. It needs to be installed on your machine and thus is application software rather than web based e-mail. It contains all the features that the average e-mail home or even office user requires. |
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| Lotus Notes Lotus Notes is similar to Microsoft Outlook and again is more than just an e-mail application it is a personal information management and communication solution. Like Microsoft Outlook it has to be purchased. Rather than individuals buying the software it is more commonly used as the management and communication tool by the whole organisation/corporation. With everyone in the company using the same software it is easier to run staff development, easier to purchase and deploy, and enables smooth communication across the office or even the world. |
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| FURTHER INFORMATION | ||
| To read further information about the topic(s) discussed in this exercise try visiting the following web site(s): www.bbc.co.uk/webwise - Online Course/E-mail www.microsoft.com/office/outlook - E-Mail Software |
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Check your current
knowledge by taking a |
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