Some short notes to assist email novices



| |2010 |

| |Small Business Mentoring Service Inc |

| |(c) 2010 |

| | |

|[pic] | |

| | |

|[Outlook Express for Beginners] |

|SBMS guide to Outlook Express 2003 |

Some short notes to assist email novices

“What’s all this e-rubbish about. What’s wrong with bits of paper. I don’t want to click around all day just to pay the gas bill. And at least you can tear it up when you’ve paid it. Gives me satisfaction.

E-rubbish - what a load of old cock. They should leave all that to James Bond”

Grumpy Old Men

1. Who are these notes for?

Not everyone is expert in email and there are probably a few people who would like to know how to use it more effectively. As SBMS moves to a web based operation email will become our main method of communication. It is hoped these notes will be the start of an SBMS “wikipedia” of computer techniques. So if anyone can contribute some new or better ideas to these notes please email David at SBMS.

2. Systems covered

These notes relate to Microsoft XP Outlook on a normal desk top computer. There may be small differences between this and other versions. If you have any difficulties with these notes please call David at SBMS for telephone help. Other systems such as Apple and MacIntosh are not covered yet.

3. Absolute basics

Turn on the computer box, probably with a large round push button, possibly with a symbol like this

Turn on your screen which will have a push button, again possibly with the same symbol.

Check the Mouse is plugged in. 6 mouse terms will be used in these notes.

3.1 Cursor – the moving symbol on the screen indicating where the mouse is located. The cursor symbol changes depending on what function it is doing. Usually it’s an arrow when navigating or a bar when typing.

3.2 Click – a quick tap or click on the left hand mouse button.

3.3 Double click – a quick double tap or click on the left hand button.

3.4 Drag – press the left button, hold it down then move the cursor to drag, move or highlight something on screen

3.5 Right click - a quick tap or click on the right hand button which opens a menu where you can select various action commands.

3.6 Hover – move and hold the cursor over a symbol and words will appear describing that symbol’s function.

4. Finding email

Once the computer has got going, which takes a while, you should have a “desktop” screen with a number of symbols or icons on it. One will be called Microsoft Outlook. It is orange/beige in colour and looks like an old alarm clock with an even older radio. See picture below. Double click on it.

Photo of Outlook icon

5. Outlook’s main screen

This is an overwhelming maze of stuff, much of which you won’t use a lot. The screen has 6 components, which you can just make out in this photo. We’ll look at these components one at a time.

[pic]

5.1 Inbox

The main centre part, called “Inbox”, is where incoming emails are listed. Double clicking anywhere along the email opens it in a new screen for reading. This will be described in Section 6. If you have too many emails to fit in the screen there will be a “scroll bar” at the right which allows you to scroll up or down by either clicking on the small black arrows at the top and bottom of the scroll bar or by placing you cursor on the rectangular scroll indicator and dragging it up and down manually.

5.2 Mail

At the left of the main Outlook screen is an area called “Mail”. This area shows the menu of folders available to you and you can easily create your own filing systems here, see Section 13. The Mail area is shown in this photo and the menu headings are described on the next page.

[pic]

• Deleted Items – see Section 7 on how to delete old emails which then go into this file.

• Drafts – see Section 9 on how to draft an email and store it until you are ready to send it.

• Inbox –this shows all incoming emails until you either delete or move them, see Sections 7 & 14.

• Junk E-mail – if your computer has a good security system it may decide some emails are junk and put them in here, not in the Inbox. Always check Junk as sometimes good emails can end up here .

• Outbox – this is where an email sits while it is being transmitted, usually only for seconds.

• Sent Items – once sent, emails remain here until you delete or move them, see Sections 7 & 14.

There may be other folders which can be ignored for the time being.

5.3 The right hand side of the main Outlook screen

See Section 12.

5.4 The top dark blue band of the main Outlook screen

This shows on the left the identity of this screen, in this case “Microsoft Outlook”. At the right there are three small symbols in grey boxes, clicking on the right hand one, which is a cross, closes the screen and takes you back to your desktop or the previous screen you were looking at. Clicking on the left hand one, which is a minus sign, minimises the screen, see Section 5.6 below. Ignore the centre symbol for now.

5.5 An upper grey area of two rows starting with “File” and “New”

The first row “File” to “Help” provides a host of options many of which are duplicated by the symbols below. You can look at the content of these menus by clicking on e.g. “File” to see its menu. These notes don’t cover these menus because it is easier to use the symbols instead.

Photo of screen

The second row starting with “New” is what you will use most often. Hover your cursor over each symbol to see its meaning. The key symbols are

• New – provides a blank template for you to originate a new email.

• Print – click on the email you want to print then click on this symbol.

• Move to Folder – ignore this as there is an easier way to do it, see Section 14.

• Delete - click on the email you want to delete then click on this symbol, see Section 7.

• Reply - click on the email you want to reply to then click on “Reply”. Note this only replies to the sender and not to anyone else who, like yourself, received the original email. If you only need to reply to the sender using this avoids cluttering up everyone else’s emails with your reply.

• Reply to All – same as “Reply” except your reply is broadcast to everyone who received the original email which can be irritating if it is not relevant to those others. Choose between “Reply” and “Reply to All” with care.

• Forward - click on the email you want to on-forward (i.e. send to someone other than the sender or original recipients) then click on “Forward”. You can then enter the address of the person you want to forward it to and click on “Send”, see Section 8.

• Address Book – this is where you set up the email addresses of people you regularly send emails to so you don’t need to type in their email addresses every time. See Section10.

• All the others – ignore for now.

5.6 The two grey rows at the bottom of the screen

There are a number of small coloured symbols at the left and right to do with your computer which are beyond the scope of these notes. However in the middle at the bottom are some useful information boxes.

Photo of screen

Microsoft Outlook is a Windows system which means you can have more than one file screen open at a time, layered one behind the other, though you can only view on your monitor one file screen at a time. In the centre at the bottom of this grey area are boxes which tell you which file screens you have already opened starting at the left with the first screen opened and moving to the right in order of opening. You can switch between any file screen by clicking on its box. For example if you start by opening Outlook there will only be one box, “Outlook”. If you then open an email a second box with the email’s subject will appear. If you then click “Reply” a third box will open representing your reply email. These reference boxes to the file screens that are open can assist navigation within Outlook or enable switching between Outlook, Word & Excel.

6. Reading an email

Double click on an email to open it. This new screen has 5 parts as shown below.

Photo of screen

6.1 The main white part – shows the text of the email.

6.2 If the email is too long to fit in the screen there will be a “scroll bar” at the right which allows you to scroll up or down by either clicking on the small black arrows at the top and bottom of the scroll bar or by placing you cursor on the rectangular scroll indicator and dragging it up and down manually.

6.3 A grey area above the text showing the email sender, who it has been sent to, subject and date.

6.4 Another grey area at the top with two rows starting with “File” and “Reply” to be dealt with later.

6.5 A dark blue band at the top which shows the identity of this screen, i.e. email subject, and at the right, three small symbols in grey boxes, the right hand one which is a cross. Clicking on this cross closes this email and takes you back to the main Outlook screen or the previous screen you were looking at. Clicking on the left hand one, which is a minus sign, minimises the screen. Ignore the centre symbol for now.

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7. Deleting emails

To delete an email from your Inbox, or any other location for that matter, click on the email and then click on the large black cross “Delete” symbol in the grey area at the top of the screen or press the “Delete” key on your keyboard. This will remove the email into a folder called “Deleted Items”. It will remain here until you go back into the “Deleted Items” menu and delete it again which will then be forever. If you want to delete a lot of items you can quickly highlight them all by one of two methods:

7.1 While holding down the Control key (“Ctrl”) on the bottom left of your keyboard click on one email after another until you have selected all you want. Release the “Control” key and all the selected emails will remain highlighted. Then click the “Delete” cross symbol or press the “Delete” key on your keyboard.

7.2 If all the emails you want to delete are one after another in a single continuous sequence you can “Shift click” which is quicker than above. Click on the first email to be deleted. Hold down the “Shift” key on your keyboard then click on the last email to be deleted. This will highlight all the intermediate emails between the first and last. Then click the “Delete” cross symbol or press the “Delete” key on your keyboard.

8. Replying to and on-forwarding an email

Click on the email you want to reply to and then click on either “Reply” or “Reply to All”. The difference between these two is described in Section 5.5 above. You can now type your reply and once done simply click on the “Send” button located just above the “To” box.

Follow exactly the same procedure to on-forward an email to a new person i.e. someone other than the sender or original recipients. In this case you click on “Forward” rather than “Reply” or “Reply to All”. You will need to enter the email address of that new person(s) in the “To” box.

When you reply to an email your reply is written above the original email and any foregoing history. This means when you reply you can also add comments or questions into the original sender’s email by placing your cursor where you want in the original email and typing your comment. To make your comments stand out you can change them, for example, to a larger, bold and red coloured font! Highlight your comment by dragging your cursor across the words you inserted. Release the left click and select the new typeface from the symbols in the toolbar at the top of the page (see picture below). If what’s showing on the symbols isn’t what you want, e.g. size 12 font is showing but you want 16, the small black arrows to the right of these symbols give drop down boxes to select from.

Photo of screen

9. Sending a new email and making a draft to send later

To initiate and send an email start at the main Outlook screen and click “New” at the top left in the grey area. Type in the email address of the person you want to send to in the white “To” box. Take care to get the address letter perfect with no unwanted gaps, incorrect stops, commas or dashes/underlines.

If this person’s email address has been stored in your Address Book, see Section10, all you need to do is click on the “To” word and up will pop your Address Book. Scroll up or down and click on the person you want to send to. Then select one of the “Message Recipients” at the bottom of the Address Box, e.g. “To” (or “Cc” = copy or Bcc = blind copy) and click on this and their address automatically goes into the email. Quicker still, if you double click on the person’s name it goes straight into the “To” box. Then just click “OK” at the bottom of the box.

You can type in as many names as you want into the recipient boxes. If you are doing it manually put a semi colon ( ; ) after the first address, enter one space then add the second address etc. If using the Address Book this is done automatically.

Next type in the subject – every email has to have one. Make the subject a good descriptive so you and the recipient can easily find it later. For example “Hello” isn’t going to make it easy to find. “Budget queries” probably will. Then type your email message and when finished just click “Send” which is in the grey area, top left above “To”.

Instead of sending your email right away or, if in the process of writing it you are interrupted, you can save what you have done so far as a draft. All you need to do is close your semi completed email by clicking on the cross in the blue band at the top right screen corner and a box will pop up asking if you wish to save the draft. Click “Yes” and the draft will be saved to the menu ”Drafts” in the Mail area at the left of screen. To retrieve it, click on “Drafts” then double click on the draft to open it.

10. Setting up addresses in your Address book

This is a must as it will save lots of time and errors. On the main Outlook screen at the top towards the right in the grey area there is a pale blue symbol of a book. Click on this and your Address Book will pop up. To enter a new address click on “File” at the top left then on “New entry…”. A second box will pop up, click on “New Contact” if it is not already highlighted and then on the “OK” button. This will bring up a complex looking box where you can enter the life history of the person if you so desire but all you need to do is type in their name in the white box called “Full Name” and then move your cursor to the white box titled “Email” and type in their email address. Then click on the “Save and Close” button which is at the top left of the box.

At any time you can view the details of the addresses you have entered by calling up your Address Book, right clicking on the name and clicking on “Properties”. Or you can delete an address from your Address Book by doing the same but clicking on “Delete” instead.

You may wish to send emails to a regular group of people, e.g. SBMS’s Committee of Management, without having to click on all their names every time and you can set up such a group address in your Address Book.

Proceed as above but instead of selecting ”New Contact” in the second box select “New Distribution List”.

This will bring up yet another box where you first of all name this group address and then select who is in the group, either by using the “Select Members” button or the “Add New” button. The first lets you select individual addresses from your existing Address Book while the second enables you to add new people to the group who are not in your Address Book.

To amend or edit an existing address open the Address Book, double click on the person and a new box will pop up. Double click on the white box to the right containing the existing email which will bring up another box. Amend the email address in both the “Display Name” and “Email Address” white entry boxes and click “OK”, then click on the “Save and Close” button.

11. Attachments to emails

You can attach files and pictures to your emails, once you have typed in a subject, as follows.

To attach something when sending an email click on the word “Insert” in the top grey area of your email screen. This will bring up a menu and you can select what to attach by clicking on either “Picture” or “File”.

“Picture” brings up another box and probably you’ll want to click on “From File” which will take you straight to your Picture files where you can select what you want to attach. Double click on the picture file to attach it to the email.

“File” takes you straight to your Documents main menu where you can select what file you want to attach.

Double click on the file to attach it to the email.

You can repeat this process for any number of attachments. To delete a file attached in error highlight it with your cursor then press the “Delete” key on your keyboard.

You may receive emails with attachments. You can either leave these attached to the email or open the attachment and save it to your Documents menu where you choose.

12. Arranging your main Outlook screen

You can alter the layout of your screen in a number of ways to suit your needs. The amount of screen taken up by the three main areas can be adjusted. Click on any email. Position your cursor in the middle of the screen and then slowly move it to the left. As it passes over the border between the “Inbox” area and the “Mail” area the cursor will change to this. If you then left click and drag the cursor left or right you will move the border between the two areas. You can do the same at the right. The right side area shows the email currently highlighted. Some people find it useful to see this others find it better to minimise this right hand area and simply open an email to read it on full screen

You can also select various sequences in which your emails are shown on the screen. The default is in descending received date order. If you click on the “Received” heading this order will change to ascending. You will have to scroll up to see your oldest emails. Another click reverses this. Similarly you can choose to order your emails by “From”, “Subject”, “Size” or flag.

You can give your emails coloured flags to indicate they belong to a subject group. Highlight an email, move the cursor over the flag symbol at the right and right click. This will pop up a box where you can choose the flag colour. Click on the colour or “Clear Flag” as required.

Finally in the Inbox area you can hide or unhide groups of emails to reduce the clutter on screen. With the default order set on date received you will notice the emails are grouped under headings according to when they were received e.g. today, previous days, weeks, month etc. There is a minus sign in a square box beside these headings. If it is a minus there’s nothing hidden. If you click the minus it becomes a plus and all those emails under that heading become hidden. Clicking again reverses this.

13. Setting up your own email folders and filing system

Look at the “Mail” area at the left of the Outlook main screen and you’ll see the main standard folders described in paragraph 5.2 above, the top one being “Personal Folders”. Right click on any of these folders and then on “New Folder” in the menu. A pop up box will appear where you can enter the new folder’s name, let’s call it “SBMS”. Then decide under which heading you want to place the new “SBMS” folder, say under “Personal Folders”. So click on “Personal Folders” then click the “OK” button. Your new “SBMS” folder will have been added in alphabetical order to the list below “Personal Folders”. You can add as many folders as needed by repeating the process. To add subfolders underneath the “SBMS” folder click on “SBMS” instead of “Personal Folders” and repeat the above procedure.

Setting up a filing system of folders to hold your emails makes it easy to find what you are after. Otherwise everything remains in the Inbox which will become very full and thus difficult to manage. It is obviously a personal matter how you set up a system but below is one way which has proven useful for a number of Mentors. Firstly it is useful to keep all the standard email folders together to minimise the need to scroll up and down a lot. These would include

Personal Folders

Deleted Items

Drafts

Inbox

Junk E Mail

Outbox

Sent Items

Search Folders

Your own filing system can then be added under “Personal Folders” either before “Deleted Items” by naming the new folder “A Filing” so alphabetically it comes before the D of “Deleted Items” or at the end after “Search Folders” by naming it “X Filing”. For this example we’ll assume the latter.

“X Filing” will not be used to store emails, its use will become clear in a moment. However “X Filing” will have a hierarchy of sub-folders under it, which could look like this:

X Filing

Business

Family

Financial

Holidays– these 4 private files are here just as an example of what you might set up to manage your own affairs. They are not to do with SBMS

SBMS

Accounting

Administration

Client 1

Client 2

Client 3

General Meetings

Website

The folders in the “Mail” area have a minus or plus sign against them similar to those in the Inbox area. If it’s a plus sign there are hidden files beneath the heading. If you click on the plus and make it a minus, all the files become visible. Click again and the sign reverts to a plus and hides all the sub-files. This allows you to control the clutter in the Mail menu. If you click on the “X Filing” and make it a plus you will hide all the above sub-files and have a short Mail menu to deal with day to day.

14. Moving emails from one location to another

It is very easy to move an email from one location to another. Highlight the email to be moved by clicking on it, right click and from the menu click on “Move to Folder” which will bring up the Mail menu. Click on the folder you want to put the email in and then click “OK”

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