COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY Electronic Mail

Advantages of Using Less intrusive than a phone call Cheaper and faster than a letter Less hassle than a FAX Eliminates differences in time zones

Anatomy of an Message An message is very similar to an office memo, sharing the following characteristics: FFairly short SSingle topic WWritten in an informal style

Anatomy of an Message Messages Contain Two Parts: HHeader AAddressing information To From Subject MMessage Body AActual text of the message

Sample message

Anatomy of an Address An address can be broken down into three sections:  1 2 alpinedistrict. 3 org 1 User Id 2 Host Address 3 Domain

Features: Additional Features Address book Spell Check Tag messages for easy identification Mail filter that sorts incoming mail Electronic signature Basic Features Send Reply Forward Delete Attach files Print Store files

Optional Fields: Cc: (carbon copy)  If a message is intended primarily for one person but would also be useful to other people, use the cc: field for other addresses Bcc: (blind carbon copy)  Message is sent to that recipient without their address being visible in the header received by the other recipients  Used to preserve someone’s privacy or not broadcast that person’s address

Mailing List A list of addresses identified by a single name, such as When an message is sent to the mailing list name, it is automatically forwarded to all the addresses in the list

Signatures Identifies the sender in some way Personalizes your Saves you from retyping the same identifying lines for each message Generally, keep your signature to no more than four lines

Netiquette Guidelines: Keep your messages short and to the point Watch your grammar and spelling Be careful with humor, avoid sarcasm Use uppercase words sparingly  UPPERCASE TEXT YELLS AT THE RECIPIENT Never leave the Subject: field blank Include your name and contact information in the message body (signature)

Jargon Spam UUnsolicited sent to many people Flame AAn angry message; meant to be hostile Emoticon AAn element that represents a feeling such as a smiley face or (: