Become a better E-mail user

This information is intended not only to make you a neater "E-mailer" but one that is more considerate and more thoughtful... Your friends will be thankful.

Would you write your friends' phone numbers on the walls of public places? If you answer no, then why would you share their private E-mail addresses with a group of strangers, many of whom will CARELESSLY forward the same addresses to even more strangers? Don't do it! Instead, use the BCC feature of your E-mail program.

BCC means "Blind Carbon Copy". It is a way of addressing mail to more than one person so that everyone's address is not displayed for all to see. Every E-mail program (including the free, web-based E-mail services) allow you to address messages using BCC, in other words, to "BCC" one or more recipients. Some require that you provide at least ONE address in the TO: field. If this is the case, place YOUR OWN address in the TO: field and all your recipients' addresses in the BCC field.

WHY:

* Using BCC protects your recipients' E-mail addresses from being spread to strangers.
* Using BCC helps prevent SPAM (Unsolicited Commercial E-mail)
* When using BCC, messages will be easier on your readers because they will contain less text to look at. A "cleaner" message is easier to read.
* Messages will require less bandwidth and will download faster.
* Using BCC shows your consideration of others by not publishing hundreds of your friends' addresses to strangers and potentially, SPAMMERS or maybe even stalkers.

HOW:

* In most email clients, the BCC feature is very apparent and obvious. While in a new message in AOL's web mail, click BCC. In Gmail and Yahoo Mail!, click add BCC. In Hotmail, click Show Cc & Bcc.
* In Outlook and Outlook express, it's not so obvious but turning it on is a one-time event.
* To activate the BCC field in Outlook Express, create a new message and choose View, All Headers.
* To activate the BCC field in MS-Outlook, create a new message and choose View, BCC.
* Lotus Notes - the BCC field is right there. Nothing to "turn on", no hoops to jump through, just use it!