Class Description This covers the creation of an e mail account in both Gmail from Google and Yahoo! Mail. It explains how to sign into and sign out off an account; how to create and send an e mail message; how to reply to and forward an e mail message; how to add an attachment to an e mail before sending and how to save an attachment from an e mail which has been received. It also covers some basic e mail netiquette. Class Length One and one half (1½) hours Introduction Electronic mail, commonly called e mail or email, became available in 1993. It is a method of exchanging messages from an author to one or more recipients with an option to include digital attachments (such as documents, spreadsheets, databases, pictures, videos, sound recordings, and more). E mail messages are received just seconds after they have been sent, but replies can be delayed to a time more convenient to the recipient and the messages can be saved as a record of communication. Objectives Create an e mail account Learn how to sign into an account Learn how to sign out of an account Learn how to compose an e mail message Learn how to reply to an e mail message Learn how to forward an e mail message Learn some basic e mail netiquette Learn how to attach a file to an e mail being sent Learn how to save a file from a received e mail Introduction to E mail This is a handout for you to keep. Please feel free to use it for taking notes. 1 *
Creating an E mail Account There are a number of no cost, web based e mail providers: Mailbox Maximum Inactivity Time Allowed NAME Web Address Storage* Attachment Limit Before Account Closure AOL Mail http://webmail.aol.com/ Unlimited 25 MB 3 months ContactOffice http://www.contactoffice.com/ 500 MB to 15 GB 50 MB 9 months block / 12 months account deletion Gmail https://mail.google.com/ 15 GB 25 MB (10 GB per file via Google Drive) 9 months GMX Mail (gmx.net) GMX Mail (gmx.com) http://www.gmx.net/ 1 GB 20 MB 6 months http://www.gmx.com/ Unlimited 50 MB 6 months Lycos http://www.mail.lycos.com/ 3 GB 35 MB 1 month Mail.com http://www.mail.com/ Unlimited 50 MB 12 months Mail.ru https://e.mail.ru/signup Unlimited 25 MB 6 months Outlook.com (was Hotmail) http://outlook.com/ Unlimited 25 MB (Unlimited via OneDrive) 270 days ProtonMail https://protonmail.com/ 500MB Unknown Never Rediffmail https://mail.rediff.com/cgibin/login.cgi Unlimited 25 MB 2 months (Mailbox deletion), 3 months (Deactivation) Tutanota https://tutanota.com/ 1GB 25 MB Never Yahoo! Mail https://mail.yahoo.com/ 1TB 25 MB 12 months Yandex Mail https://mail.yandex.com/ Unlimited 22 MB per file, total 30 MB per mail (2 GB per file via Yandex Disk) 24 months Zoho https://www.zoho.com/mail/ 5 GB 20 MB 4 months * = Services which claim to have unlimited mailbox storage may have some fine print which limits actual size There is a more complete list of web based e mail providers and features available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/comparison_of_webmail_providers, but the list there includes services which require payment. We will look at two of the most popular providers: Gmail and Yahoo! The first step is to open a web browser and go to the address of the service you want. If you don t know the address, enter the name of the service in a web search engine and follow the link. The process for creating an e-mail account is very similar for all web-based e-mail services, but they frequently change in small details. The directions given here and the screenshots were accurate as of December 2015. 2 *
Creating a Yahoo! Account When you go to the https://mail.yahoo.com/ page, you will be automatically redirected to the login page: Creating a Google Account When you go to the https://mail.google.com/ page, you will be automatically redirected to a login page (there are two types). Like most web based e mail, the login page also contains a link for creating a new account. Click on the link to open the Sign up page: Enter a first name and last name in the fields provided. Both have a link to Create an account. 3 *
After entering a first and last name, Yahoo! suggests possible user names. You can click on one to use it or create your own user name. If the name is already taken, you will be prevented from moving forward. After entering a first and last name, Gmail does not suggest a username until you enter something already taken. If you want to use a suggested username, click on it with the mouse. The next step is to create a password. Yahoo! s arrangement is less common than the one used by Google. The password is only entered once, but there is an option to display the characters. If you want to use a suggested username, click on it with the mouse. The next step is to create a password. Google s arrangement is more common than the one used by Yahoo. Characters are hidden and the password must be entered twice to ensure you know what you have typed. 4 *
If you mistype the password, the mistyped characters will be your password. In this situation, it is strongly recommended you click on Show password to ensure you know what is entered. The colored bar at the bottom of the password field is a measure of the password s strength but it is not foolproof. It will start as red, grow from left to right as the password gets longer, and turn to green when the password is judged to be okay. If the password is deemed too weak, what you entered will disappear after you click on Create account and you will remain on this page. No explanation is given. Password Tip: Passwords should use upper AND lower case letters AND numbers AND special characters (e.g.! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) = + [ { ] } \ < >? / ). They should not be words out of a dictionary (of any language) nor common keyboard patterns (e.g. qwerty or asdfg). Eight characters should be an absolute minimum; longer is better. Every account should have a unique password. A colored bar in the pop up to the left will change from red to yellow to green and lengthen (left to right) as the password is typed. If the passwords do not match, you will see: These passwords don t match. Try again? It isn t a question; you ll have to re type until both fields match. If the password is a commonly used word or common keyboard pattern such as qwerty, you will see: Common words are easy to guess. Try again? It isn t a question; you ll have to try a different password. The birthday is entered with a drop down menu for the month, but a fill in theblank for date and year. (If you use a fictitious date, be sure to make it memorable as you may need it for password recovery.) Make a Gender [sic] selection. The next field in the Yahoo! sign up is to enter a mobile phone number. It is a required field, but you can enter a landline number. If you do use a landline number, see the note below. 5 *
Click on either Male or Female (required). The birthday is entered with three drop down menus, one each for month, date, and year. (If you use a fictitious date, be sure to make it memorable as you may need it for password recovery.) The Optional recovery number provides an alternate number to aid in password recovery. If you click on Yahoo Terms or Privacy, the pages will open in a new tab. When the required items have been supplied, click on Create account. If you supplied a landline phone number instead of a mobile number, Yahoo! detects it (see screenshot at left), but will allow you to continue. If you continue, or if you have supplied a mobile phone number, you will see a screen notifying you a verification code will be sent. You can opt for a text message (Short Message Service) instead of a phone call. The Mobile phone and Your current email address fields are optional, but a good idea for security and password recovery.. The next section includes a photograph, typically of a building number or a street sign. You can either enter the number or the name into the Type the text field, or you can click on this box to enter a checkmark and remove the photo and the fields beneath it. If you want to try a different photo, click on the circle with arrow. If you would rather listen to something, and your computer is configured for sound, click on the sound icon. Click in the box indicating your agreement to Google s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. If you click on one of the links, a new page will open in a new tab. When all the information has been supplied, click on Next step. 6 *
Enter the code received via phone call or SMS in the correct field and then click on Submit code. If successful, you will see a screen like this: After the countdown, you will see a Welcome message: If you get a message like the one shown at right, you can click on the Skip setup. You will get to the Inbox with a welcome message. More messages from Yahoo! will follow. If successful, you will see the Congratulations message with a countdown. The first time you continue to Gmail, you may see a series of screens similar to this: You can click through the series using the Next button in the lower right corner, or click on the in the upper right corner to skip directly to your Inbox. The Inbox will have messages from Google waiting for you. 7 *
Signing Into Your Account Gmail Go to http://gmail.com (no need to type the http:// portion) you ll be automatically redirected to a login page: Click the Sign in link. You ll be taken to the Sign in page: Enter your e mail address in the box. If it is a Gmail account, it is not necessary to type the gmail.com portion: Either click on the Next button or press J. Enter your password. Either click on the Sign in button or press J. If you are on a computer which is not yours, remove the check from the Stay signed in box. You ll be taken directly to your Inbox. 8 *
Yahoo! Mail Go to http://mail.yahoo.com or just http://yahoo.com (no need to type the http:// portion) You ll be taken to a page with something like this superimposed on a large advertisement: Enter your e mail address (it is not necessary to type the yahoo.com portion. Click either Sign In or Mail. (You can press N to move from the box for your e mail address to the box for the password.) Enter your password. If you are on a computer which is not yours, remove the check from the Keep me signed in box. Either click on the Sign in button or press J. Signing Out From Your Account Depending on the steps you took to sign in, you may be returned to the Yahoo! home page with a personalized greeting. From here you can click on either Mail link to be taken to your Inbox. Unless you know your computer will not be used by anyone else, you should sign out of your e mail account when you are finished. Gmail In the upper right corner, click on the icon or picture (this is a generic icon). Click the Sign out button. 9 *
Yahoo! Mail In the upper right corner, move the mouse to (hover over) your name (if this pop up does not appear, click), then click the Sign Out button. 10 *
Creating an E mail message Both Gmail and Yahoo! Mail have a Compose icon in the upper left corner of the Inbox. Other e mail services and applications may use slightly different language such as Write or New or Create. Most seem to have the icon for creating a new e mail in the upper left area. Simply click on it to start. Yahoo s Compose window (left) takes up most of the browser s window. Gmail opens a small window in the lower right corner of the browser s window. Sometimes, it will include an advert, which can be easily closed by clicking on the in the upper right of the advert window. If preferred, a click on the middle of the three icons in the upper right area (circled at right) can be clicked to open the Compose window into a larger screen. Gmail limits each message to a total (TO + CC + BCC) of 500 non-gmail addresses. Yahoo! mail has a limit, but does not disclose the actual number. When composing a message, there will always be a TO field. This is for the e mail address of the person to whom you are writing. There are two other types of address fields: CC and BCC. These terms, standing for carbon copy and blind carbon copy respectively, were used long before e mail existed but have been carried over. It may be necessary to click on a field to reveal these fields. Use CC when you want someone to get a copy of the e mail, but they are not to whom the message is directed. Anyone receiving a copy of your e mail will be able to see the e mail address of everyone in the TO and CC fields, and frequently will see the names associated with those addresses. Use BCC for anyone you want to receive a copy of the message, but don t want their e mail address to be seen by those receiving the message. If, for example, you send an e mail to yourself with ten e mail addresses in the BCC, those ten people will receive the message and see it was addressed to you. (Because this is a frequent tactic of people sending junk e mail, commonly known as spam, it increases the chance it might be blocked by a spam filter and not reach your intended recipient s Inbox.) 11 *
Both Gmail and Yahoo! mail have a row of icons across the bottom of the compose window. To see what an icon does, move the mouse pointer to the icon without clicking and hold it still. Within a few seconds, a pop up will appear with the icon s label. An icon of a paper clip is widely used for attaching one or more files to an e mail. An icon of a trash can is widely used for discarding the e mail without sending. The Gmail bar (immediately below) E-mail addresses use a three-part format: (1) user ID, traditionally in lower-case without spaces, but sometimes including punctuation (e.g. ann.smith) (2) the symbol @ (3) the organization s domain name; sometimes, including a subdomain (e.g. reference.gpld.org): ann.smith@reference.gpld.org and the Yahoo! mail bar (immediately above) use these icons. Tip: Traditionally, e-mail was plain text. Although many e-mail applications now allow messages to be created using a variety of font faces, font sizes, and font colors, plus emoticons & emoji; not all e-mail applications will display these extras. Also, some recipients do not like (1) the greatly increased size of, and/or (2) the computer security risks associated with these e-mails. To send a plain text e mail in Yahoo! mail, click on the left pointing double angle quotation mark «to the left of the trash can icon. To send a plain text e mail in Gmail, click on the down pointing arrow to the right of the trash can icon to open the More options menu and select Plain text mode. When the message is completed, click the Send button. Your message will be sent to all the addressees and, if it gets past filters they have configured, will usually appear in their Inbox in a matter of seconds. The number of addressees does not affect how quickly your message is sent, however messages sent to hundreds of e mail addresses (especially if the addresses are all in the BCC field) are more likely to be caught in spam filters. Receiving & Reading E mail messages Normally, you don t have to do a thing to receive messages; most e mail services don t even have a button for downloading messages as they appear in the Inbox as soon as they are received. However, clicking on the Inbox will sometimes refresh the browser window more quickly and reveal new messages. In most web browsers, a single click on the message will open it. If it extends beyond the bottom of the browser s window, you can either scroll with the mouse or use the vertical scroll bar on the side of the window to move down. 12 *
Netiquette Netiquette is a word coined from Internet + Etiquette to refer to practices advocated for the cooperative interaction of people in electronic communications. There are many pages on the Internet with a list of proper etiquette for e mail and other forms of communication. Here are some of the more important ones for e mail: The subject line should be accurate and descriptive If the subject has drifted to something different from what it was, change the subject line (it will be easier to find the message later). On mailing lists, never hijack a thread by replying to a message to write about a completely different topic; create a new message with a new subject line. Avoid ALL CAPS (and large fonts) This is considered to be shouting in e-mail plus, it is much more difficult to read. Be aware of tone Text lacks the additional context of body language and tone of voice which is present is other forms of communication. This makes misunderstandings much more likely. Consider how others might interpret the message. When writing to a list, pay attention to the word you : it may be intended to be a plural and generic and be interpreted as a singular and specific. Don t flame Don t send messages when you are in a hot mood. Wait a day to cool off before responding. Don t send attachments to those who don t need them If that ten-page document only has one page of interest to each of ten different people, don t send all ten pages to all of them. Break it apart and only send what is necessary to each. The same applies for multiple attachments or even one attachment. Send a separate e-mail without attachments to those who don t need them. Don t send attachments in proprietary formats Unless you are certain the recipient can open in a proprietary format, choose a non-proprietary format. For instance, a PDF document is normally better than one in DOC or DOCX. Keep attachments as small as possible Eliminate excess material before sending. With large files, either use a compression program or offer recipients a place from which they can download the file. Don t forward e-mails telling you to forward them Chain letters in e-mail are just as annoying as they are in snail mail Spelling and grammar are important (especially in business and professional messages) Your writing style says more about you than you realize. While e-mail might be viewed as an informal means of communication, your e-composition skills reflect your knowledge and abilities. Everyone is allowed to make a few typos, but if you're consistently not capitalizing words that should be capitalized, using unconventional punctuation, spelling words incorrectly, etc., you will appear unprofessional and even uneducated. Be concise If you can say it in five words, do it in five words instead of an entire paragraph (or more!) Avoid reply-to-all; remove people who don t need to receive the message Even large tech companies have had problems with an employee using the reply-to-all causing others to use the reply-to-all to complain and having so many messages being sent that the e-mail system crashed. Remove people from a reply for whom the contents no longer are of concern. Use paragraphs and other formatting Don t use run-on sentences. Don t use run-on paragraphs. The results will be easier to read. E-mail is permanent E-mail is not confidential E-mail is not secure Don t send passwords; social security, credit card, or bank account numbers; or any confidential material via e-mail. Don t send anything which might be embarrassing in the wrong hands.) When replying (especially on mailing lists), retain only what is necessary for context Keep that which will provide context for someone who may be following dozens of e-mail conversations on various lists and eliminate the rest. Acronyms, abbreviations, and emoticons are fine unless the recipient has to do an Internet search for them Emoticons strings like :-) or ;-) can aid in tone Don t forward messages which may be inaccurate Check http://www.snopes.com/ if in doubt or, even better, don t forward the message at all Be conservative in what you send and liberal in what you receive. 13 *
Replying To and Forwarding Messages There are two types of replies: Reply (to the sender only) and Reply to All (the sender and everyone who was in the CC of the message, but not anyone who was in the BCC of the original message). Unless needed, you should do a Reply. (If your sister in law sends a message to all her relatives [many of whom you don t know] requesting shipping addresses for mailing Christmas gifts, do all those people need your mailing address?) When reading an e mail message, there will be options for Reply, Reply to All, and Forward. In Yahoo! Mail: Reply Reply to All Forward If you want to read about the potential problems of using Reply to All, do an Internet search on email storm. One example: in August 2015, a Thomson Reuters employee in the Philippines accidentally sent a request for his phone to be reactivated to a mailing list of over 33,000 employees. In seven hours, the use of Reply to All resulted in 23 million e-mail messages plus social media (e.g. Twitter) messages being posted. In Gmail, a message sent from one person to you alone will only have a Reply and Forward option: (The Forward option can also be accessed by clicking this triangle to open a drop down menu.) But when the message has multiple recipients, a Reply to All option appears. (In the drop down menu at right, the Reply to All option will not appear for a message lacking multiple recipients.) 14 *
Adding an Attachment One of the most convenient features in e mail is sending other files as attachments. These can be almost any kind of file: word processing files, spreadsheets, databases, images, audio, videos, and more. The steps for adding an attachment are nearly identical for all e mail services. First, look for a paper clip icon. Gmail and Yahoo! Mail are shown here, circled in red: Tip: Some e-mail services restrict the types of attachments which can be sent or received. The most frequently blocked type are program files, things that are considered to be executable. Placing a file of this type in a compressed file (e.g. a ZIP file ) might work, but many e-mail services routinely scan all attachments (outgoing and incoming) for malware [malicious software] and will block executables even if they have been placed in a compressed file. Most often, this will open a file manager window. The image to the right is for Windows 7. The image below is from the Mac (OS X). From the file manager, you will need to navigate to the location where the file is located, click on the filename to select it and then click the button ( Open in Windows, Choose in Macs [OS X]) to begin attaching the file. (Most file managers support double clicking on the filename to both select and choose/open in a single step.) Depending on the browser you are using, you may be sent to an intermediate page such as the one shown below from Yahoo! mail. But when you click on one of the Choose File buttons, it opens a file manager window and the process of finding and selecting a file is the same. 15 *
Once, when trying to attach a file in Gmail, this appeared: The only choices were Try it now and Maybe next time. (A choice of Never would have been nice!), Clicking on Maybe next time closed this pop up and opened a file manager window. Tip: Both Gmail and Yahoo! mail have a feature which works in most web browsers: open your file manager, find the file you want to attach, and click-and-drag it from the file manager directly to the message area of the e-mail being composed. Saving an Attachment When you receive an e mail with a file attached, you may wish to save it to your computer. Some image files may display when you open the e mail message, but most files will show some kind of icon from which you can either open it in an application installed on your computer or save it. In Yahoo! Mail, the icon representing the file appears with the name of the file beneath it. When you move the mouse over the icon a Download with downpointing caret appears with a pop up of the file s name. Gmail works similarly: Moving the mouse over the icon for the file causes two smaller icons to appear with pop up text: Download (left) and Save to Drive (right), meaning to Google Drive. 16 *
In Gmail, if you choose Save to Drive, it will be done automatically. A message will appear near the top of your web browser window and a small box with the same basic message will appear near the attachment s icon which includes an option to move the file in Google Drive to a specific folder. In Gmail, if you choose Download by clicking on it, or if in Yahoo! Mail you click on the Download with down pointing caret, what happens next depends on: A. Your computer s Operating System B. How your computer has been configured C. Which web browser you are using D. How your web browser has been configured Usually, one of the following will happen: 1. The file will be automatically saved to your Downloads 2. The file will be automatically saved to your Downloads and then opened 3. The file will be automatically saved to your Documents and then opened 4. You will be prompted with something like the image at right, ask if you want to save the file (2 nd choice) or open the file (1 st choice, which also allows you to select which application should be used to open it) Note: The box at right includes an option for setting a default action when opening the same type of file in the future. 5. The file be automatically opened (saved on the computer, but in a location where it is nearly impossible to find) 6. A file manager window will open as at right prompting you to select where you want to save the file and (optionally) changing the name of the file. Questions? Feel free to contact Ross Valentine at rvalentine@gpld.org or call the library at 630.232.0780 17 December 2015