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Information Technology Training Package ICA99

49BSystemsasford

Using Mail on the Internet

Not only does the Internet provide a method for accessing information around theworld, it also provides personal communication for users. Once a user has set upInternet access through an Internet Service Provider, they are generally given a uniquemailing address. The Internet mail service is commonly known as email. Someexample email addresses are shown below,

[email protected]@basford.com.au

Usually the part before the @ is unique to the person while after the @ represents theorganisation, or more correctly their internet domain name.

Microsoft provides a separate program called Outlook Express that can be used tosend and retrieve emails.

There are now two common techniques for accessing mail services on the Internet.The traditional mail service uses a special program, either standalone or integratedinto a Web browser while a new style is totally based on the World Wide Web.

Sending email using Microsoft Outlook Express requires an email account to be setupat a mail server, usually at an ISP and generally there is a monthly charge for this. Ifyou choose to use a World Wide Web email service such as Hotmail then it can beaccessed using only the www facilities of a web browser, no special program isneeded. This type of service is also free.

A www email service can be accessed from any computer anywhere in the world(providing it is connected to the internet and has a browser of course). On the otherhand an email account at an ISP cannot be accessed without first configuring theprogram to access it.


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Hotmail

Hotmail is a World Wide Web email service, which has tens of millions of emailusers. The Hotmail email service uses the Internet address www.hotmail.com.

To obtain a Hotmail email account

Hotmail’s email facilities cannot be used until a new email account has been created.To create a new email account:

• Open the Web browser and type the address www.hotmail.com• A screen similar to the following will appear,

• Click on the Sign up button. The following screen will appear:

Click on theSign Up link


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• Enter the name, surname and other personal information as required• Scroll to the bottom of the screen and click on the I Agree button:

• Depending upon the login name that is chosen, hotmail will either respondsaying that the login name is already being used and will offer a number of


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alternative login names or a screen similar to the following will appear,indicating that the email address chosen has been accepted:

• Click the Continue button and a series of option buttons will appear askingabout interests and quizzes that can be entered. Choose those as required

• Click on Submit

At the completion of the process a new account will be created with a unique loginname. The login name forms part of the email address. For instance, if the login nameused is billy, then the email address would be [email protected]

Viewing Email Through Hotmail

Once an account has been set up it is an easy matter to view the email:

• Open Internet Explorer• Enter the web address for Hotmail:

www.hotmail.com

• Enter the login name and password entered when signing up. Do not press Enter• Click on the Sign in button• The following screen will appear:


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• Click on the Inbox tab to display the current mail in a window similar to thefollowing:

This screen shows that the email user known as [email protected] has sixteennew email messages in the Inbox. Note that the Subject of the messages is alsoshown.

To view the actual message, click on the senders name in the From column.


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To send a message with Hotmail

At the Hotmail screen:

• Click on the Compose tab• The following screen will appear.

• Complete the sections of the screen as described below:

In the To: field, enter the email address of the person who is to receive themessage. The Cc field contains the email address of the person to receive copiesof the email

The Subject: field is a short phrase to describe the content of the message. TheSubject will appear in the recipients email list when they receive the message,but before they see any of the actual content of the message.

The main part of the message is typed into the large text area at the bottom ofthe screen.

• When complete press the Send button


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Adding an Attachment to an Email

If there are any files to be sent along with the message, this is known as anattachment. To add an attachment to an email message:

• Click on the Attachments button:

• Locate the file on disk

This does not send the message. To send the message, click on the Send button.

Deleting Messages from the Inbox

To delete a message from the Inbox:

• Place a tick beside the message to delete• Press the Delete button

To delete all messages in the Inbox:

• Tick the check box beside the word From:

Tick themessagesto delete

Press the Delete button

Tick todelete allmessages


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• Press the Delete button

The Inbox will empty and all messages will have been placed in the Trash Can folder.This area also needs emptying. To empty the Trash Can:

• Click on the Trash Can link on the left of the Inbox. The following screenappears:

• Click on the Empty Folder button• A message will appear asking for confirmation of the deletion:

• Click on OK

The message will now be permanently deleted.


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Open the Hotmail web site and create a new mail account for yourself. Find out theemail address of someone else and send him or her a message. In the email, ask themto send you a message.

When the message is received, read and delete the message. Send another message tothis person with a file attached.

Task 15

End of Task 15


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Entering a Contact’s Email Address

To remember another person’s email address, Hotmail provides a Contacts area. Toopen the Contacts area:

• Click on the Contacts tab and the following screen will appear:

• Click on the New Contact button to display the following dialog box:


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• Enter the person’s name and email address. Scroll down the page to enter otherpersonal details

• Click on OK

To send a message to one of the contacts:

• Open the Composer tab• The list of contacts will appear on the right of the window:

• Choose the contact from the Quick Address List• Compose and send the message as normally

Creating a Mailing List in Hotmail

To create a mailing list rather than just an individual email address:

• Open the Contacts tab• Click on the New Group button• The following screen will appear:


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• Enter a name for the group of people• Enter their email addresses in the text box shown• Click on OK

To use the mailing list:

• Open the Compose tab• The list will not appear as the quick address list does. To find the group entry

click on the Show All button:

• Choose the name of the contact list and close the Addresses dialog box• Compose and send the message to all addresses in the group

Using Auto Signatures

To allow Hotmail to add a signature to all emails automatically requires the user to setup the signature. To create an auto signature:

• Click on the Options tab to display the following screen:


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• Click on Signature under Additional Options• The following screen appears:

• Click on the Show the rich-text toolbar to be able to bold, underline and formatthe signature. The screen will now change to show a formatting toolbar:


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• Enter the required signature and format as required. Remember to select the textbefore attempting to change font, size etc.

• When complete click on OK

The compose tab will now contain the auto signature for each new message as shownbelow:


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You are employed as an administrative officer at the local City Council. Part of yourduties is to take responsibility for issuing email addresses for employees. Becausethey travel a great deal, Council has decided to issue each staff member with Hotmailaccounts.

Create two new Hotmail accounts for Grahame Holland and Carole Pontal, two newCouncil employees. To help these two new employees settle in, write a shortwelcoming message. Email a copy of your message to each user.

You have been instructed to draft a letter for distribution to all residents in a certainsuburb. Email the draft of the letter to your supervisor for comment.

Part of your responsibilities is to distribute the minutes of the monthly councilmeetings to all councillors. Create a group or list of councillors in your address bookand send the file Minutes.txt to the group. The councillors are:

Grahame HollandCarole PontalDavid Johnson MayorMathew GreenCatrina Smith

Create a file containing some text for an AutoSignature. This text is to be used by allcouncil employees. Email the file as an attachment to the Council list.

Task 16

End of Task 16


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Internet Explorer Mail

To read and send mail using the Internet Explorer:

• Click on the Mail tool on the Toolbar

OR

• Choose Tools|Mail and News from the menu

• Select Read Mail• Outlook Express will open

Outlook Express is Microsoft’s email and newsgroup package. When the applicationopens the following screen appears:

Mail is organised in Outlook in a similar manner to Hotmail using Folders tocategorise the mail. To read the mail:

• Click the Send/Recv button and new mail will be received• New mail is placed in the Inbox• Click on the mail message and it will open in the bottom right-hand window.


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Sending a New Mail Message in Outlook

To create a new mail message in Outlook:

• Click on the New Mail button at the top of the window

• The mail composer window will open:

• Enter the message as described for Hotmail composer• Click on the Send button.

Finding the Current Mail Address in Outlook

To find the email account of the current machine choose:

• Tools|Accounts from the menu• A dialog box similar to the following will appear:


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• Select the mail account shown and press the Properties button• The following dialog box will appear:

• The Email address for the current machine will be displayed.


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Open the Browser on your computer. Find the email address on the machine you arecurrently working on. Find out the email address of another person or use the Hotmailaddress from the previous exercise to send a message using your browser software.

The message is to be about the current weather.

Task 17

End of Task 17


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Replying to Mail

Once a mail message has been received it is possible to reply to this message bychoosing:

• Message | Reply

OR

Click on the Reply tool

The address of the recipient for the message will already be completed. Enter thereturn message then click on send.

Spell Checking a Message

To check that a message has no spelling errors:

• Type in the message• Press the spell check button the toolbar:

• The spell checker will stop at the first spelling error and bring up a box similarto the following offering alternate spellings for the word:

• Choose either to ignore or change the word as appropriate• Continue until there are no further spelling errors.


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Attaching a File to a Mail Message

It is possible to attach a file to an email message so that the recipient can receive filesfrom your computer. To send a file as part of an Email message, open the MessageComposition window and enter the address where the message is to be sent and thenany other text. To attach the file, click on:

• The Attach tool

• Locate the file in the Dialog Box displayed and then click on Open or Attach

Forwarding Mail

When a message is received it may be forwarded to another user by choosing:

• Message• Forward

OR

Click on the Forward tool

The Message Composition window will appear asking for the address of the person toforward the mail to and with the mail shown as an attachment.

Setting the Priority for a Message

When a new message is sent or one is replied to it is possible to attach a priority to themessage so that the recipient knows whether the message is urgent or not. To add apriority to a message:

• Click on the Priority tool on the Message toolbar:

• Choose the required Priority from the list displayed:

Tick the requiredPriority


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A High Priority message will have an exclamation mark beside it, while a low prioritymessage will have a down arrow beside it.

Sorting Mail

It is possible to quickly sort the incoming mail in a number of different ways. Themail within the Inbox has a number of headings:

FromSubjectReceived

The mail can be sorted into order on any of these headings. In other words it ispossible to sort the mail by the name of the person sending the message, by thesubject of the message or by the date and time it was received.

To sort the mail:

• Display the mail in the Inbox:

• Double click on the Heading to sort by• The list will reorder as required

Organising the Inbox

When the Inbox becomes large it is difficult to keep track of all the email messages. Itis possible to place the mail into folders and arrange the messages into some logicalorder. To create a folder for mail:

• Open the Inbox in Outlook• Press the Right Mouse button over Local Folders. The following menu will

appear:

Double click to sort by Subject


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• Choose New Folder from the menu displayed• Enter the Name for the new folder

• Click on OK

It is now possible using drag and drop to place the mail in the new folder.


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1. Read any messages that have been received. Send an email message to a friend,asking them which Web Browser and email programs they use. Make themessage a low priority message.

2 Read their reply and forward it to your supervisor. Make the reply high priority.

3. Go into Word and insert a picture you like from the Clipboard. Save thedocument and email it as an attachment to a friend.

4. Sort your mail by Subject. Re-sort it by sender.

5. Create a new folder called Friends. Place the mail from the inbox into thisfolder.

Task 18

End of Task 18


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Saving an Attachment

To save an attachment that has been sent via email:

• Click on the Attachment tool in the Message:

• A list of attachments will appear• Click the attachment to save• A dialog box similar to the following will appear:

• Check that the Save it to disk option is selected and then click on OK• Give the attachment a name and place it in the correct folder on disk.• Click the Save button.

Click on theAttachment tool

A list ofattachmentswill appear

Choose saveto disk


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Checking Attachments for Viruses

Unfortunately not all resources on the Internet are helpful, some resources in fact canbe damaging to the data stored on the computer. Typically these take the form ofmalicious computer programs called viruses. When loaded and inadvertently run,these programs can delete or alter data stored on the host computer.

Many viruses are transmitted by email. In order to protect the system from suchviruses many systems have a virus-scanning program installed. This can check anyfiles, including saved attachment files, for the presence of a virus. Virus-scanning(and removal) programs are available for single machines and also for the actualservers used by ISPs and larger organizations. These server based virus-scanningprograms offer excellent protection from viruses and the users email, includingattachments, is checked before it is delivered to the user.

Alternatively a user can install an anti-virus program on their machine. Usually theseare automatically scanning a users computer for viruses all the time. However, it isalso possible with most anti-virus programs to choose a file, such as an attachment,for it to check.

One common anti-virus program is Vet. When started this program loads a windowsimilar to that shown below.

Notice that it has a view very similar to the windows explorer. A file can then beselected in the right hand pane for checking. In the above example the file Qantas.txtis being checked. To check the file, the user would then click the Go button.


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A message will be displayed similar to the following.

Blocking Attachments

It is possible to have Outlook block the saving of attachments. In this case you wouldnot be able to receive any attachments. To use this feature:

• Choose Tools|Options from within Outlook• Choose the Security tab to display the following dialog box:

• Place a tick in the Check Box beside Do not allow attachments to be saved oropened that could potentially be a virus.

• Click on Apply• Then click on OK

BlockAttachments


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Make your system block any attachments that may be viruses. Open Word and type ina small message about your favourite sport and add an appropriate image from theClipart. Create a new message and send your Word file as an attachment to someonein your class.

When you receive their message with the attachment save the attachment to C:\Tempon your system

Find out if the system you are using has a Virus Checker installed. If you can, practicesaving an attachment and then checking it for viruses.

Task 19

End of Task 19


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Using the Address Book

The Address Book can be used to simplify addressing Email by storing andorganising email addresses. It is also possible to create a list of email addresses so thata number of people can be quickly sent a message using a list name rather than havingto type out the email address of each individual.

The Address Book in Outlook

To open the Address Book in Outlook choose:

• Tools | Address Book from the menu• The following dialog box appears:

To add a person to the address book click the New button and then choose NewContact. Enter the details for the new email address into the following screen:


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To create a group of users:

• Click on the New button• Choose New Group• Enter the name for the Group• Click on the Select Members button and add the people from the Address book

to the Group

When sending an email, enter the name of the group in the To box.

Adding a Signature in Outlook

To add a signature to all outgoing messages choose:

• Tools|Options from the menu• Select the Signatures tab• The following dialog box will appear:


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• Click the New button• Enter the required signature in the Edit Signature text box or browse the

Signature file in through the Browse button.• Click in the Add signatures to all outgoing messages check box• Click OK


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The following task is best completed with one or more other email users. However itcan be completed by obtaining two email accounts for yourself or even with oneaccount by just sending the email to yourself! If you do use two email accounts don’tforget to delete one of them afterwards if your not using it.

1. Collect the Email addresses for three other email users then add each one to anAddress Book.

2. Make a list or group of addresses. Send a message to everyone in the list.

3. Create the following AutoSignature for your outgoing email.

*************************************************** That’s all folks ** Your Name ***************************************************

4. Send an Email message to another email user. The subject of the message is tobe “The Internet”, while the content is up to you.

5. Send a message about holidays to all the email users in your address book.

Task 20

End of Task 20

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