Class: EMAIL
FOR GENEALOGISTS
©2006 by Donald
R. Snow
Sections of the Notes
Return to Don's
Class
Listings page or to the home page of Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group . This page was last
updated 28 Nov 2006.
WELCOME AND
INTRODUCTION TO THE
CLASS
TWO
TYPES OF EMAIL
ACCOUNTS
-- Regular and Web
mail
ISP'S (INTERNET SERVICE
PROVIDERS) -- who you pay your
money to so you can get online
- They assign you an email address -- You
can use this email address or else have all your email
forwarded elsewhere
- Look in Yellow Pages of a
phone book for local Internet Service Providers
- Types
of Internet access
- Through phone
lines: with phone modem (slow,
but cheapest) or DSL modem (faster, but more expensive -- DSL = digital
subscriber line)
- Through TV cable lines (very
fast, costs a little more than DSL, but is much faster)
- Through wireless (satellite, very fast, most need a
"dish" antenna; others work anywhere that a cell phone does -- much
more expensive)
- To get ideas for
ISP's ask your friends and neighbors
EMAIL PROGRAMS
- For webmail you have to use
their program on their web page
- Internet
browsers contain free email programs,
e.g. Internet Explorer contains Outlook Express, Mozilla Firefox
contains Thunderbird
- For local providers and
regular accounts you can use other
more powerful email programs (most have free and commercial
versions), e.g. Outlook Express, Eudora, Pegasus
- All
email programs, including webmail, have the
following features
- Send and
receive email
- Set up an address book with all the
addresses you send to
- Set up address "lists" so
you just click on that and it
automatically puts all their addresses in the To:
space, ,
e.g. all your family members
- Can send and
receive attachments, e.g. photos, documents,
programs, PAF backup files
- Mailboxes you can set
up so you can store related messages together, e.g.
Family, Genealogy, House, etc.
- Most have
a limit to the space you
get at no charge -- there is a charge if you want to
store more stuff
FREE EMAIL ACCOUNTS THAT YOU CAN
USE ANYWHERE
- No charge for email accounts on any
of these -- e.g.
MyWay.com, Yahoo.com, Hotmail.com, Juno.com (only
webmail is free now)
- Using one of
these you don't need to
change it when you move or change ISP's.
- To
set one up, go to that webpage and follow instructions
-- you usually have to register (free) first -- if you only
want to use the free part, be careful you don't accidentally get into
the "pay" part
- There are limits to the
free storage space they give you.
HOW
TO HANDLE EMAIL
ATTACHMENTS
- Sending
- Click on the Attach File button (usually in File or Tools
menu)
- Click Browse to find where you stored what
you want to
send
- Highlight the file you want to sent and
click something
like "Open" and you'll see the name of the file appear with
something like a paperclip by it
- Receiving
- Some email programs save them automatically,
others don't
- You will need to know
the folder where the
program has saved it to -- If you have a choice, it
sometimes helps to save it to the Desktop, so you know right where it
is.
- Once file is downloaded you need to open the
attachment with the type of program it needs, e.g. if it's a
.jpg (read "j-peg", picture), you'll need a graphics program; if it's a
PAF backup, you'll need to restore it toa PAF file; if it's a .doc
file,
you'll need Word, TextPad, or OpenOffice to open it
- Once opened in that program you can edit it and save it
where ever you want
SOME HELPFUL TIPS
- Be sure to fill in the Subject line so
people (and
you) will know what that message is about
- Send
yourself a copy of all emails you send out -- that helps
you to know that it actually went out, how long it took to
be delivered, and you'll have a copy on any computer you download to,
not just the one it went out from.
- The Cc: line
is "Copy To" and everyone listed there gets
the message and everyone can see all the email addresses
- The
Bcc: line is "Blind Copy To" -- everyone listed there
gets the message, but no one sees the other email
addresses
- Don't forward on messages that include
things
like "Forward this to everyone in your address book." -- most
are hoaxes (There are web sites where you can check them out, but 95%
are hoaxes.)
- If you weren't expecting an
attachment from someone, don't
open it, since many include viruses -- one way of
speading viruses is "spoofing" the message to make it appear
to come from a friend of yours, so when you open the
attachment it puts the virus on your machine
- Use a
good virus checker and update it regularly
-- many update themselves regularly, e.g. weekly
ISP'S FOR UTAH AND ELSEWHERE
Return to Don's
Class
Listings page or to the home page of Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group .