Email Etiquette IVWritten by Kathie M. Thomas
Further to my previous issues this subject continues - part IV. This month I'll share on Blind Carbon Copy (BCC) field and use of backgrounds for your emails. The use of Bad language in emails will also be mentioned.Many people do not understand function of BCC field in their email programs. When you set up a new message, if you cannot view BCC field after TO: and CC: then click on View to see if you can add it to your current view, or check your Help file for program you use for assistance.BCC is an old typing term - 'Blind Carbon Copy'. It means a copy of a letter or document that is being sent to someone not showing on original addressee or distribution list. To use BCC in email means that recipients only see their address on received email and not list of people that you've sent email to.I often receive emails from people in business who put every single recipient address in TO: or CC: fields, when in fact they should be placed in BCC: field. Your distribution list should be kept private so you are not exposing firstly, who your clients are, and secondly, their email addresses, should a spammer or someone unscrupulous come across email. If you're sending out a newsletter, or a merged letter by post you wouldn't have your full address list or database included with that mail for all to see - so why do it with your email? Backgrounds There is a great supply of backgrounds now available for use in various email programs - which help make your emails look more attractive and less boring. However, some backgrounds would be better used as wallpaper on your computer desktop and make it difficult to read email message you are sending. If you want to use them, keep them for family and friends, but stick with fairly plain backgrounds for business email. I like to use those that have a simple corner frame, or a side border with a pale background but never a background that has a print across whole of email that makes it difficult to read text. And if you are replying to an email that uses a background give some consideration as to whether it should continue to be there or whether background should be deleted before sending email response.
| | Email Etiquette VWritten by Kathie M. Thomas
This month I’ll share on Setting up Mail groups and creating signatures for your email. Creating a mail group might differ, depending on program you use, but for this exercise we’ll use Outlook as program as it is a widely used email program. Why would you use a mail group? So that you don’t have to go through your address book selecting everyone that belongs to a particular group or listing – same person could be listed with several different groups. Far quicker when sending an email to whole list to just select name of that list instead. If you click on Tools menu, and select Address Book, then File, New Entry, you will see you have two choices: New Contact, or New Distribution list. Selecting Distribution List brings up a new window where you can name that list, and then select names from your address book to add to that list. Once completed, save and close and you will notice that new Distribution List shows in bold in your address book listing. Now, when you want to send to that group, you just select, or type, name of that group in BCC field, not TO field. Why? Because Outlook will proceed to grab all individual addresses of each member of that group and enter them in TO field when sending email – every recipient will see addresses of rest of group. Hence why it is important to use BCC even when using a group name.
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