Email Basics

1. Email Basics Kitsap Regional Library click!

2. What you need for this class • To register for an email account, you need to come to the class with your login name and password already thought about and selected. • Login name: • This is your email address name that you will give to your friends so they can communicate with you. The name should: • Be easily remembered • Have no spaces • You can choose a login name that relates to your name (ex. todd_beamer) or a name that has no connection to your real name (ex. looneytunes101) • You may find your chosen name has already been taken and you will need to add numbers or letters until your login name is unique • Password: • This is to protect your account so that only you may access it. • Minimum of 8 characters • Ideally should have a combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols. • Should NOT be something easily associated with you (birthdate, social security number, address, etc) click!

3. Lesson Plan Objectives • to provide library users with an overview of basic concepts of email • to provide guidance on setting up and using a web-based email account • to provide an overview of email basic tools • teach the basic security issues of using email click!

4. What you will do today… • You will register for a free email account (Gmail) • You will select and register a username and password to access the email account • You will complete the online registration of the account • You will open and use your created email account • You will send a message to someone you know (or to the instructor) • You will receive and read a message from the class instructor click!

5. How Email works • Email is the process of sending and receiving messages electronically over the internet. • Differences with regular mail: • Email is electronic rather than paper • Recipient receives mail normally within seconds or minutes of you sending it • How does it do it? • Your message travels from the computer you send it from over cables, wires, or wireless means to a Server. The Server acts as a Post Office, verifying addresses, sorting, and sends out your message over the internet. Once on the internet, your message travels as data “packets” to the addressee’s email Server. The addressee’s email server assembles all the data packets and delivers it to correct “inbox”. • How does it go to the correct address? • Each email address is unique. There are 3 parts to an email address. The “User ID”, “@”, “email client name”. A complete email address example would be: browne.clickbi@gmail.com click!

6. What is Gmail? • Free web-based email service offered by Google click!

7. Gmail Vocabulary • Inbox • Where new messages arrive, where you open and read your mail. You will also reply to messages from the “inbox” • Conversations • Grouping of messages in “conversations” • Tags • Labels you can assign to messages to organize your messages better • Archive • To store a message you will not need immediate access to • Threads • Links one email message with another in a “conversation” • Snippets • Brief lines of text displayed to show a bit of the content of an email • Delete • Removes an email from your files and places in “trash”. The message cannot be retrieved once the “trash” is emptied click!

8. Registering for an Email Account • Create your Gmail Account • Enter the Google website address in your browser address bar (www.google.com) • Click on the link to Gmail • Click on the link to Create an Account for Gmail click!

9. Filling out Registration click!

10. More on Registration Form click!

11. What Next? • Congratulations, you have created your email account. • Write down your login name, password, security question and answer. • Login to your email account • Your email account will look something like: click!

12. Compose and Send an Email • Now, click on “Compose Mail” and address an email message to: • Send a message to someone whose email address you know • Or, send a test message to me: • browne.clickbi@gmail.com • If you send a message to me, I will reply to it and you will receive the reply in your inbox. click!

13. Address Book (Contact list) • To add a contact: • Click on “Contacts” along the left side of any Gmail page • Click “Create Contact” • Enter in the appropriate blanks your new contact’s information • Click “Save” to add your new contact to the list (sometimes called the Address Book) click!

14. Email Etiquette • For the subject line, use a simple but clear title that indicates the content of your email. • Close your email with a salutation and your name. You might not think it could happen, but sometimes you will receive an email and you are not 100% sure who it is from. • Don’t ramble when you write. Try to be concise and to the point. Some people get lots of email. • Think about whether an email or a written message is more appropriate (is a wedding invitation OK to send by email?) • It’s often better to think before zipping off a stinging reply to someone. Once the message has left, it cannot be retrieved. • Although email is usually private (some businesses reserve right to monitor business email), think of it as eternal, and how you would feel if it is made public. • Think of how your message can be interpreted in various ways by the person receiving it. Often serious misunderstandings are started by an innocent email. click!

15. Email Security Google will not read your email (read Google Privacy Policy for more information) Spam (unwanted advertising email) is ubiquitous. Gmail has a spam filter, but still some may get through. Don’t reply to a spam email message, that only lets the spammer know they have a “live” address and will generate even more spam. “Phishing” takes many forms, but the root intent is to find out information to harm or take money from you. • Never reply to an email requesting personal information, credit card information, account numbers, etc. even though it may look as if it is coming from a legitimate entity. • Don’t click on links to websites from within an email message unless you are absolutely sure it is an authentic email. Attachments – often you will receive emails with attachments • Don’t open email attachments from someone you don’t know. • Don’t open email attachments from someone you know but the message doesn’t make any sense or mention the attachment (often is a virus file) click!