Emailing Tips

Bonnie Cole sent me an email she had received with tips for making emailing safer by minimizing the ability of spammers to get email addresses from forwarded emails, and easier to read by reducing some of the clutter in the emails.

Here are the tips. Items 1-2 deal with reducing the number of email addresses that show in an email. Items 3-4 deal with making an email easier to read.

1. DELETE all of the email addresses that are automatically included in the body of the message when you forward an email. That's right, DELETE them. Highlight them and delete them, backspace them, cut them, whatever it is you know how to do. It only takes a second. However, you MUST first click the Forward button to have full editing capabilities on the message.
   
   
2. Whenever you send an email to more than one person, do NOT use the To: or Cc: fields for adding email addresses. Always use the Bcc: (blind carbon copy) field for listing the email addresses you want to use. If you don't see the Bcc: option in your email program click on the To: field and your Address list should appear. Click on an address but add it to the Bcc: field that now shows in the choices for sending the email. It's that easy. When you use the Bcc: field your email may automatically use the phrase "Undisclosed Recipients" in the To: field, but the email addresses are not visible.
   
   
3. Remove any "FW:" in the subject line. You can rename the subject if you wish, fix spelling errors, or delete any unnecessary footers or graphics in the email as well.
   
   
4. Ever get emails that you have to open a bunch of forwarded emails to read the last email with the actual information in it? Clicking on the Forward button from the email you actually read will forward that email, but none of the previous ones. That will make sending the email easier for you. And those to whom you send the email will be able to read what you sent without having to open a bunch of forwarded emails.

Because there are a variety of email programs in use you may see some differences in how these tips work on your computer. However, from what I've read it should be minor differences for most folks.

Thanks to Bonnie for bringing this to my attention. Hope it helps you do your emailing safer and easier.