Level 2 ICT Developing, Presenting and Communicating Information Email L2.8a Based on Microsoft Office 2010
At this Level 2 learners should be able to: Use communications software to meet the requirements of a complex task Functional Skills Standards 2011 Learning Objectives To be able to organise electronic messages, attachments and contacts FS L2/8a What is Email? Email is electronic mail and a way of sending messages from one computer to another. You will need a modem, an account with an Internet Service Provider (ISP) and email software. The modem is the part of your computer that allows you to connect to the Internet. The ISP is the company that provides you with access to the Internet. A charge might be made for this service and the costs vary. Your place of work will probably operate an email system. Email software is a program that allows you to read, write and manage your messages, e.g. Microsoft Outlook, Yahoo, MSN Hotmail, AOL. All email programs allow you to receive, open, read, reply to, create, delete and send emails. What is the Inbox? The Inbox is where your incoming mail is stored. This is an example of an inbox in an email account using Microsoft Outlook. It is showing I have 1 unread email. The unopened envelope to the right is confirming that. To open an email message, simply double click on it. The opened envelope shows this email has been opened and read, The purple arrow at the side also shows it has been replied to. ForSkills Ltd 2015 2
Deleting an email message If you get a lot of emails, your Inbox can quickly fill up and it is difficult to find the one you need. You may want to keep some emails for reference, but many can be deleted by selecting the Delete of dragging the email into the deleted Items box down the left hand side of the screen Answering an Email For communication purposes, you may want to copy someone into your reply. In this case the email has been sent to Suzi but Lee has been copied in. If I had wanted to copy someone else in secretly without the other recipients knowing, I could have filled their email address into the Bcc box. If you wish to request a delivery receipt or a read receipt Open a new message ready to send to someone; Select the Options tab on the toolbar; Insert ticks in the tick boxes Request a Delivery Receipt and/or Request a Read Receipt The message can be written and sent as normal. When it has been delivered to the person an email will come back to you to say the time the email was delivered to the person. When the person opens the email, another email will come back to say when it has been read. ForSkills Ltd 2015 3
Adding stationery to an email Some email systems will allow stationery to be added and others will allow a coloured background behind the text. This is an example of stationery available for you to choose when using Microsoft Outlook. Open a new email Select Options ; Select Page Color ; Choose a colour for your background; If you want further background effects, select Fill Effects ; A box will then pop up which will allow you to choose a gradient colour, a texture or pattern or choose a picture from your saved documents as a background. You are, of course, able to alter the style, size and colour of your text from the Home tab. ForSkills Ltd 2015 4
What is an Attachment? An attachment is a file or document which has been attached to an email. This allows us to use email systems to send emails and files to anywhere in the world. If an email has a file attached, it will usually display a paper clip next to it in the Inbox. Microsoft Outlook MSN Hotmail This email has 2 attachments; a PDF document and a Word document. ForSkills Ltd 2015 5
This email is showing it has a PowerPoint attachment. How do You Attach a File or Document to an Email? Once you have opened a new email, select the paper clip from your email toolbar. This will then open a pop up screen similar to the one below which allows you to select first of all the location of where the document or file which you wish to attach is saved, and then the document or file itself. Simply double click on the document you wish to attach and then on the Insert box which will light up. ForSkills Ltd 2015 6
Activity Attaching Documents to Emails Using the skills you learned in Word Processing, create an invitation to your birthday party. Save it in My Documents. Practise attaching it to an email to your friend. Practise a similar activity but saving to, and then retrieving from, your Desktop. Print the email. ForSkills Ltd 2015 7
Opening and Saving an Attachment Very often you may want to save a document or file which has been sent as an attachment. To do this: Open the email with the attachment; Double click on the attachment (in this case a PDF) In this case it is an advertising flyer for an e-learning conference. I should like to save it, so, from the File tab, I select Save as which will cause this box to pop up. I then choose the location in which I should like to save the document.... and press Save. ForSkills Ltd 2015 8
Using an Address Book To save time, it is a good idea to save all your regular contacts details in the address book of your email software program. In Microsoft Outlook, you need to select the Home tab from your toolbar and then Address Book. Select File and then New Entry A new box will then appear asking whether you would like to add a contact or a group. A form will then appear for you to fill in with your contact s details. Once you have filled in whatever details you need, a further box will ask whether or not you wish to save the details ForSkills Ltd 2015 9
Creating Folders Within the Address Book It is possible to put your contacts into different folders. This is usually only necessary if you have lots of contacts in an address book To create a folder in the contact list you will need to: open the contact list; Right select on the Contacts for your email address inbox; Select New Folder; Type a suitable name for your folder in the Name box. This should be a name that you will instantly recognise, for example, a company name for the contacts within that company; Select the OK button. How do I Delete a Contact from the Address Book? If you want to delete a contact from your contact list: select the contact which you would like to delete; right click; select Delete. ForSkills Ltd 2015 10
Activity Using an Address Book Organise your address book on your email to ensure you can find all your contacts quickly and easily. ForSkills Ltd 2015 11