E-mail Services Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

FAQs

E-mail FAQs

There are many different e-mail providers on the internet and the FAQs listed below will help you to gain some basic understanding.

How do I know if what I have been given is a web address or an e-mail address?

A web address begins with the letters www or http.
An e-mail address will have the @ symbol in the middle. These two are not interchangeable.

How do I get into my free web based e-mail account?
Visit the web site for your free web based e-mail provider. Some examples of free web based e-mail providers are: www.myway.com (highly recommended); www.yahoo.co.uk; www.hotmail.co.uk; www.lycos.co.uk .

Type the web address into the address bar and press enter on the keyboard
From this point, procedures vary but as a general rule choose the MAIL icon to call up a LOG IN box and type in your e-mail address and a password you have selected. Click OK or LOG IN button provided

I know I am using the correct password so why can’t I log in to my e-mail?

Check the CAPS LOCK key on the keyboard is off.
Check if your E-mail address and password is all in lower case or mixed with uppercase letters
Check you have not entered a wrong symbol, e.g. - instead of _.

Where do I find my new messages?
After you have logged in to your e-mail, the computer will take you to your IN-BOX. If it doesn’t do this, look for an icon or hyperlink (an underlined word or picture) that says IN-BOX or something similar. Click on this. If there are new messages, a list will appear somewhere on screen.

What is an IN-BOX?
This is where e-mail messages are stored ready for opening. They will remain in your IN-BOX until you tell the computer to put them somewhere else or delete them.

How do I open my new messages?
Your messages will be in the form of a list of hyperlinks (text that is both underlined and a different colour to the text around it). Double click on each hyperlink and the e-mail message will open.

How do I send a new e-mail message?

Log in to your e-mail box and click on WRITE or COMPOSE or NEW or something similar
Locate the TO box and type in the full e-mail address of the receiver
Click in the SUBJECT box and give your message a short title
Click in the large white box beneath and type your message.
Click on the icon or link that says SEND and your message will be sent.

How do I know if my message has been sent?

Most e-mail systems will give a confirmation message straight away either sent or a 'mail delivery error'
If not then look in SENT ITEMS or SENT MESSAGES folder to find message sent

Why can’t my message be sent?

Check the e-mail address if wrongly typed.

How can I reply to this message?

Open the message you wish to reply to and click on the REPLY button to create a new message.
The TO box will already contain the address of the original sender.
The message box will probably contain a copy of the original message and type your new message above this.
Click SEND as normal.

How can I send on the full content of an e-mail to somebody else?

Open the message you wish to send on and click on the FORWARD button.
In the TO box, enter the e-mail address of the person to whom you wish tforward this message
Type any additional message you wish to send and click SEND as normal

What is an attachment?
An attachment is a computer file that is sent by e-mail along with a text message. It is called an attachment because the file must be ‘attached’ to the message before it can be sent.

How can I attach a file to an e-mail?

Look for an icon (e.g. a picture of a paperclip) or, a link, which says ATTACH FILE or ADD ATTACHMENT etc and click on this.
A window opens to locate the file you want to attach from either a floppy disc drive 'A' or a hard drive 'C'
Browse to the file you wish to attach and click on this file and select the button marked OPEN or INSERT
Click ATTACH and wait for the process to finish.
The screen will return to your message with the attachment and proceed to send your message.

How do I open an attachment?

Double click on the title of the attachment and you will then be asked if you want to DOWNLOAD it. Say yes.
Next prompt you get is: OPEN or SAVE it. Choose OPEN. The attachment will open using the necessary program.

Why can’t I open this attachment?
To open a file attachment, your computer must be installed with the necessary program for that file type. If your computer cannot find this program it will be unable to open the file attachment. The best way to solve this problem is to install this missing program onto your computer. Alternatively, ask the sender to re-send the attachment in a file format your computer does have installed.

How do I save an attachment?
There are two ways to save an attachment.

Open and Save

Double click to download the attachment and choose OPEN option.
Once the file has opened, select FILE from the menu bar and select SAVE AS.
Browse to an appropriate drive ('A' or 'C') and folder on your computer.
Accept the file name or type in your own file name and click OK or SAVE.

Download and Save

Double click to download the attachment and choose SAVE option.
Browse to an appropriate drive and folder on your computer, accept the file name or type in your own file name.
Click OK or SAVE.

Using both of these methods, a duplicate of the file will be stored on your computer but the original attachment will remain unchanged.

E-mail Services Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

FAQs

E-mail FAQs

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