This lesson will teach you how to compose and send an e-mail message. We'll also quickly go over what it means to CC (Carbon Copy), BCC (Blind Carbon Copy), reply, and forward messages.

Composing an E-mail Message

Sending e-mail with Yahoo! Mail is just like sending paper mail, you have to address it in order for it to get to it's intended destination. If a person tells you that they have an e-mail address, it means that you can now send them e-mail. In this example, we're going to address our message to joesomebody35@yahoo.com (an address owned by KLTA. Trainers, please email to get the password for this account).

Once you've logged in to Yahoo! (see previous lesson if you don't remember how), click the Compose button:

This is what the "Compose a message" screen looks like:

Follow along with the red numbers to know which box to type in for each step. Enter the address you'd like to send e-mail to in the To: box. For this lesson, use joesomebody35@yahoo.com Enter the subject of your message. A good guideline is to give a 10 word or less summary of what the message is about in the Subject: box. Enter the message you would like to send to your intended recipient. When you're all ready, click the Send button.

You'll know your message has been sent if you see the following screen:

You can then click the Compose button again to send another message, or the Back to Inbox link to go back to your Inbox. Pretty easy!

Replying to Messages

Sometimes you'll receive a message that the sender needs a response to. The easiest way to deal with this situation is to Reply to the message.

When you're looking at a message in your Inbox, if you'd like to Reply to the message, click the Reply button and select "Reply to Sender." Only click "Reply to Everyone" if you want your reply to go to everyone the sender sent the message to. You can tell by looking at the To: line; if there are a lot of e-mail addresses in that line, then the message was sent to a lot of people. If not, then it was probably sent to only you.

You will then be back at the "Compose a message" screen, but note that some things have changed:

Follow along with the red numbers to know which box to type in for each step. Notice that the address is the same as the person who sent the message to you. Conveniently, it's already filled in for you. The Subject is the subject of the message that you wanted to reply to, with Re: (meaning, "regarding") added to the beginning. Enter the message you would like to send to your intended recipient. Notice that their message appears below where you can start typing. This helps the recipient remember what they sent you and helps you remember what you're replying about. When you're all ready, click the Send button.

Forwarding a message

When you're looking at a message in your Inbox, if you'd like to Forward the message to someone else, click the Forward button and select "As Inline Text ."

You will then see the following screen:

Follow along with the red numbers to know which box to type in for each step. There is no address in this box when you click Forward. Type in the e-mail address of the person you'd like to forward the message to. The Subject is the subject of the message that you wanted to reply to, with Fwd: (meaning, "Forwarded") added to the beginning. The message you desire to Forward appears in this box; if you desire to add something go ahead and type it in. Otherwise proceed to step 4. When you're all ready, click the Send button.

The Other Boxes in "Compose a Message"

You've no doubt noticed that there are a few text entry boxes that we didn't use, but that were on every "Compose a message" screen, whether we were composing a new message, replying, or forwarding a message. These boxes are the Cc: and Bcc: boxes.

If, for example, you got a message from Joe, and you wanted to reply to his message and "carbon copy" your friends Betty and George the same information without typing 2 more e-mail messages, you would enter their e-mail addresses in the Cc: box to copy the message to Joe, Betty, and George without typing the same message three times. With Cc:, Joe, Betty, and George can all see who sent the message and to whom the message was sent.

The Bcc: box works similarly to the Cc: box, but Betty and George will only see you as the sender of the message, and that Joe received it. They will receive the message, but will not see the addresses or be able to tell who else the message was sent to if you put their addresses into the Bcc: box.

Now that we know how to send e-mail, let's get busy on viewing those pictures of your grandkids that your kids sent you.