Worksheet 1

E-mail Basics

  1. Email addresses:

    • An email address consists of two parts, separated by an at sign (@).  There should be only 1 @ in an email address, and NO SPACES. If you don't know for sure, assume the email address is all lowercase.

    • The part before the @ is the person to whom the mail is going.

    • The part after the @ is the site which delivers the mail to this person (again, sort of like the local Post Office).  This site is called the "mail server". A person can have email accounts at more than one mail server.

    • When you type an e-mail message, you put the e-mail address in the To: field of the e-mail message.

    • If you make typos in an e-mail address, your e-mail might get rejected by that mail server. They'll send you an error message saying something like "There has been a fatal error. No such username." This means that they don't have an account of that name at their system.

    • If you mispell someone's e-mail address, and that mail server has a user with that account name, your e-mail message will get delivered to them instead. Be very careful while typing e-mail addresses.

     

  2. If you have a computer at home, you will generally use an email program such as Netscape, Eudora, Internet Mail or Outlook Express to access your e-mail. If you don't have a computer at home, you'd use a web-based e-mail program (one you access via the World Wide Web) such as the one found at:

    http://www.yahoo.com/

    All e-mail programs have similar features such as:

    • An In box for email that has just come "in" to your computer, and an Out or Sent box for copies of email that you've sent out from your computer.
    • A way to send a new mail message.
    • A way to reply to messages that someone else has sent to you, and a way to quote part or all of the message that you are replying to.
    • A way to sort messages by sender, date sent, subject, and sometimes more.
    • A way to forward a message somebody has sent you to someone else.
    • A way to store people's email address in an Address Book or Nickname file.
    • A way to save messages that people have sent you to a folder other than your In box.
    • A way to display messages that people have sent you in order by date sent or by sender.

     

E-mail Practice

  1. If you are at home, connect to the Internet and then open up your program that you use for e-mail.If you are using the lab at the CTC, you'll need to get an e-mail account first. If you get a Yahoo e-mail account, you get into your e-mail by going to http://www.yahoo.com/ and clicking on the "E-mail" icon across the top of the screen. Then click on the "Sign Me Up" link to register for your free e-mail account.

  2. To get to the place where you can make a new message, click on the "Compose" link on the left.

    3.  

  3. Find the button or menu item which allows you to create a new message (sometimes this is called "New Message" or sometimes it is called "Compose"). Send a new message to yourself, putting your e-mail address in the "To:" field. In the "Subject" field put the word "Hello." Now in the body of the message (usually a bigger box, type a sentence or two. Click on the "Send" button.

    Now tell your e-mail program to check for new messages (there should be a "Get Mail" button for this, or try under the "File" menu). Did you get it?

  4. Reply to message you just got using the Reply button. The reply button will automatically fill in the sender's e-mail address (you!) in the To field. The Reply button also makes the Subject of the message automatically fill in with Re: Hello. Sometimes the "Reply" button will also quote the original message using the "quote" character which looks like a less than symbol. If it doesn't automatically quote the original message, look to see if there is a "Quote" button somewhere and click on it.. Using the reply button is the quickest way to respond to someone's e-mail because it fills in everything for you except for your response.

    The quote symbol shows up as > at the beginning of each line of the previous e-mail. You can type your message above the quoted text, below the quoted text or in between it, as is shown in the example below. Click on the "Send" button when you are done.

    Check for new messages again. Did you get your reply?

  5. If you make a typo in an e-mail address, what happens? Usually you get an error message back telling you "No such user." For an example, send a message to fred@meyerconsult.com and then click on the button to check for new messages. You should get an error message.