Send Someone an Email

If you're not already using email, chances are you're missing out on valuable conversations with family, friends, and colleagues (not to mention those ridiculously addicting chain emails and silly photos of your aunt's cat wearing a sweater). Choose an email provider and set up an account to start communicating with your contacts instantly.

Steps

Sample Email Templates

Doc:Thank You Email Template,Out of Office Email Template,Meeting Agenda Email Template

Choosing an Email Platform

  1. Set up a Gmail account to easily access all Google platforms. Gmail is an extremely straightforward interface to operate and offers 15 GB of free storage to share between your Google Drive, Gmail, and Google+ accounts. This means you almost never have to delete emails and can simply archive them in case you ever need to recover old messages.
    • The best part about having a Google account is that it lets you access all of your Google platforms from any device, including Google Drive, which organizes text documents, photos, videos, and more, and allows you to share them with your contacts.
    • Gmail allows you to organize your incoming mail into as many folders as you want for maximum organization.
    • Gmail is very effective at blocking junk mail and also does not display banner ads that distract you as you construct emails.
    • Gmail allows you to send 25 MB of attachments in each email.
    • Several features including RSS feeds, automatically saving drafts, Google search for within your mail, and linking other email accounts to your Gmail account are available with Gmail.
    • Gmail also allows you to communicate with contacts in real time using instant messaging in your inbox. You can also video chat with up to nine people at once and call phone numbers from the Gmail interface.
  2. Create a Yahoo! Mail account for fast email sending without complicated features. Yahoo! Mail updated to a new version in 2011 that runs twice as fast as the old version.
    • Yahoo Mail works with Flickr and Picasa to transform links to online photos into embedded thumbnails and slideshows.[1]
    • Yahoo! Mail offers unlimited data storage, which makes it great for sending photos and videos with large bandwidth.
    • Unlike Gmail, however, Yahoo! allows banner ads and incorporates advertisements on your email interface, which can be distracting and annoying when trying to operate your email.
    • A "Trending Now" link appears in the upper right-hand corner of the Yahoo! interface, which links to trending news topics but is unrelated to your email.
  3. Make a Microsoft Outlook account to easily track shipping information and watch videos without leaving your email interface. Microsoft Outlook is the umbrella provider of Hotmail. If you are signing up for a new account, your address will be youremailaddress@outlook.com. Existing Hotmail users can retain the @hotmail.com address or make a new Outlook address.
    • Outlook has a limited amount of storage space, though it does have the same basic features that the other email providers offer.
    • Like Yahoo! Mail, Outlook automatically turns links to photos on Flickr or SmugMug into slideshows. It does not work with Picasa, however.
    • Outlook lets you watch videos linked in your email to Hulu or YouTube without leaving your email interface. You can also track USPS packages without navigating to a separate website.[2]
    • Outlook is also good for inter-office emailing because it includes an address book, calendar, task list, and virtual sticky notes. You can also easily create an appointment or a note and delegate work notifications to co-workers.

Setting Up an Account

  1. Visit the website of the email provider of your choice. If you choose to use Gmail, simply visit www.gmail.com. The website for Yahoo! Mail is mail.yahoo.com, and Outlook is simply www.outlook.com.
  2. Find the link on the homepage of your chosen provider that says "Sign Up" or "Create New Account." Click on the link and follow the prompts on the following pages. You will be asked for basic personal information and to create an email address.
    • Identify your audience when coming up with an email address. If you are going to be using your email mostly for professional purposes, keep it simple and use your full name or a variation of your name.
    • Don't use complicated addresses with several numbers. Doing so makes it harder for people to remember your address.
    • Create a password that you can remember but is not obvious or too simple. Combine upper and lowercase words, as well as numbers, and make a password that someone who knows you well would not be able to guess. Avoid using obvious number combinations such as birthdays, as these are relatively easy to figure out.
  3. Fill out the required fields and set up any other features that the provider prompts you to set up. If you do not want to configure a Google+ account, for instance, there will always be a button somewhere on the page that allows you to skip that step or revisit the process at a later time.
  4. Once you've created an account, you're ready to start sending and receiving email to your friends, family, and colleagues!

Sending an Email

  1. Type in the URL of your email provider and log in with your username and password. If you forget either piece of login information, there will be a link underneath the login box that asks "Forgot Your Username/Password?" or something similar. Click the link and follow the steps to recover your lost information. You will most likely have to answer security questions to be able to reset your password.
  2. Become familiar with your email interface. Spend some time clicking around your email interface and familiarizing yourself with the different features and functions available to you.
  3. Find the button that allows you to compose a new message and click on it. It will usually be somewhere in the upper left-hand corner of your inbox and read "Compose," "Compose New Message," or simply "New Message." A new screen will pop up with a blank template for composing your message.
    • In Gmail, you compose a new message by clicking on the red "Compose" button under the drop-down "Gmail" link in the upper left-hand corner of your inbox.
  4. Enter your recipient's email address in the address bar that reads "To." This will likely be the first bar on the new message template.
    • You can add multiple email addresses by separating each with a comma in the "To" address line.
    • You can also Cc and Bcc as many email addresses as you want by adding them in the appropriate bars or clicking the "Cc" and "Bcc" tabs in Gmail to create new address bars. Cc stands for carbon copy and will send an exact copy of the email you are sending to your main address to the addresses that you Cc. When you use the Cc function, all of the recipients can see the addresses of the other people you sent the message to. When you Bcc (blind carbon copy), only the address in the "To" field can see all of the email addresses that the message was sent to.
  5. Enter a subject in the subject bar. Keep your subject line short and make sure that it appropriately summarizes the contents of the email you are sending.
    • Subject lines that use all uppercase letters, misuse numbers, or include too many symbols may look like spam emails to your recipients and therefore they may not want to open them.
    • You do not have to put a subject in order to send an email. Leave the subject line blank if you prefer not to add one.
  6. Click your cursor in the "Body" field of the message. This box may not be labelled as anything but will always be the largest block of white space on the new message template.
  7. Type in the message you would like to send to your recipient(s). Start off with an introductory address such as "Dear Mrs. Smith" and press "return" twice to create a line of space between the two pieces of text. When you are finished with the body of the email, press "return" twice again and sign your email with a parting sign-off such as "Sincerely, [Your Name]" and be sure to hit return between the sign-off and your name.
    • You can also add your contact information below your signature in order to make it easy for recipients to contact you in ways other than email. A common signature includes your job title, company, work or home address, phone number, and email.
  8. Review your formatting options. Many email providers simply have a toolbar located between the subject line and the body of the email that allows you to perform simple formatting functions from choosing a font style, color, and size, to creating a bulleted list.
    • Gmail's latest template simply has a capitalized, italicized, underlined "A" to the right of the "Send" button on the bottom left of the new message template. Click on the "A" to expand the toolbar and view formatting options.
  9. Attach a photo, video, document, or other file. Most email interfaces either use a paper clip symbol in order to indicate where to attach your files, or have a button that says "Attach Files." It is usually located at the bottom of the body of the email or somewhere along the toolbar between the subject line and the body of the email. Locate the button and click on it to attach files. A pop-up window will appear that allows you to access all of the files on your computer. Choose the files that you want to upload and click "Attach," "Open," or whatever affirmative option the drop-down menu gives you.
    • Most email providers only allow a certain amount of data to be transferred per email. Gmail currently allows 25 MB per email. If all of the files that you want to send cannot fit in a single email, you may have to send multiple messages.
  10. Click the "Send" button once you have finished crafting your email and adding any desired attachments or formatting options. The "Send" button is almost always located on the bottom of the message template on either the left or right side. Make sure your email sends before navigating your browser to another page.

Tips

  • Try to respond quickly to emails that you receive. Because most people are constantly connected to the Internet in some form, email users typically expect a response within 24-48 hours of sending an email if a response is required.
  • Create two separate email addresses if you want to use one for your professional contacts and one for friends and family. You can also create a separate email address for signing up for mailing lists so that your personal inbox is not spammed with advertisements and newsletters.
  • Save drafts of your email as you type if the email is important. Gmail automatically saves drafts of your message for you, but other email providers may not.
  • Connect your email account to your mobile device in order to receive and send emails remotely.
  • Never use Internet shorthand language in your emails such as "BTW" to say "by the way" or "TTYL" to say "talk to you later."

Warnings

  • Don't say anything you wouldn't want to be public over email. Remember that email is a written representation of yourself or your brand.
  • Do not open emails from addresses or with subject lines that look unfamiliar or oddly formatted. These could be viruses that could harm your computer or jeopardize your email account. If you receive such a message, delete it.
  • Do not pay to use an email provider. There are plenty of free email providers that offer all the same services as fee-based email providers.
  • Don't sign up for too many mailing lists. You email can easily become flooded with spammers, burying your important emails.

Things You'll Need

  • Internet connection
  • Email provider
  • Email account
  • Recipient address
  • Message to send

Related Articles

  • Send Emails to Multiple Emails Automatically in Outlook

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ [1]
  2. ↑ [2]
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