Module 2 - Email

1. What information about a user's email, the origin of a message, and the path it took, can you glean from an email message?

The following information can be established from an email:

• Username, domain, and country (if the domain name specifies this)
• You can see the server it came from, as well as the SMTP server name and the IP address
• The unique message ID

2. In what cases would you find it useful to use the 'cc', 'bcc' and 'reply all functions of email?

The "CC" or "Carbon Copy" function of an email is useful when an email involves a third party that was not on the original email list, or when someone needs the information contained in the email, but does not need to reply. In this case, CC could also stand for "Courtesy Copy", where you are advising someone of the content of an email, but do not need their feedback or input.

BCC is short for Blind Carbon Copy. The BCC feature is useful when it is not appropriate to expose all of the recipients email addresses to one another. An example would be when sending out a request for vendors to respond to a tender. In this case, you would not want the companies knowing who they were competing against nor divulging a potentially long email list which could be then sold or used for spamming people.

Using the Reply all function is ideal for an email-centred discussion. For example an email could be sent to a number of people asking for their feedback on a particular proposal. Using the reply all function ensures that each response is sent to each original recipient (and the sender). This feature is excellent for obtaining consensus on issues, and also for giving people a platform from which they can discuss all of their issues, and obtain feedback, help, or clarification from their team members. It is a very collaborative use of email, and one that many companies find very helpful.

3. In what ways can you ensure that an attachment you send will be easily opened by the receiver?

There are a number of ways of ensuring that an attachment that you send will be easily opened by the receiver.

If you know the user you can ask him or her what sort of computer and applications they have. Then you can ensure that you save your file in a compatible format for the receiver.

If you don't know the receiver, you could encode the document in a standard format such as a text file, Adobe Acrobat format, or a generic image format such as JPEG or GIF.

4. What sorts of filters or rules do you have set up, and for what purpose?

I generally have only two filters setup on my email accounts. One is for filtering spam emails to automatically delete them. For this I have a spam folder setup, and every time I receive a spam email I add that domain to my filter list.

The second filter I have setup is one that filters work related emails that come from a certain domain so that they are automatically filed. For example, any emails from @originwines.com.au are automatically filed to the Origin Wines folder. This enables me to easily keep track of unread emails, by organisation, and saves me from filing new emails when they come in.

5. How have you organised the folder structure of your email and why?

I have an extensive folder structure so all emails have a logical home. This means I can locate emails easily in the future if i need to, and it also means that all emails have a place to "live" as opposed to having a huge inbox with hundreds or thousands of messages all in the one location, which makes sorting and finding content in emails much more difficult. More specifically, I first have a top level folder called Clients, and one called Work. All work related emails are stored in the work folder, and all client related emails, in the client folder. Inside these folders is more and more sub folders, easily enabling me to categorise emails based on the sender, and the tasks, requests, or information contained within.