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To see what an email looks like, click on the following coloured words:
a.roberts@mdx.ac.uk. If nothing
happens it just means your browser is not set up for sending emails. The
browser is the program you are reading this web page in.
To see what a form for sending electronic messages looks like, click on these coloured words. Use the "Back" button at the top of the screen to return to this page.
The computer programs used for sending and receiving email are called
mailers. They come in different shapes:
There are
mailers connected to browsers, like this one. You may have a small envelope
picture at the bottom of the screen that goes to the mailer, or a button
near the top of the screen with "mail" on it.
web-based email, which is reached at a web address through a browser. This
allows you to send and collect your email from almost any computer
connected to the internet. Examples of web-based email are Yahoo!
Mail, Netscape WebMail, and Hotmail.
Email travels in little electric packets each tagged with an electric
address. To send or receive email you need one of these addresses.
Click here to
read about addresses
Use the "Back" button at the top of the screen to
return to this page.
On a home computer you may pay for your internet connection by the time you
spend online, or you may pay a lump sum per month (or whatever). If you pay
a lump sum, you will probably want to be always online.
If you pay by the time spent online, you will want to be offline (with the
telephone switched off) when you
are writing and reading messages. You will only want to go online (and
incur telephone charges) when you are actually sending or receiving
messages.
Different mailers tend to work the same way. Whichever software you use,
the way you send and receive messages will probably be much the same:
To check for new email if your mailer is always online you usually just
open the mailer.
Checking for new email if your mailer is normally offline
usually means:
To read an email you usually:
To write an email you will usually:
To send an email if your mailer is always online you will usually click
on
a button marked send in the new message window
To send an email if your
mailer is normally offline you will usually:
Some websites have forms by which you can send information electronically
and have it electronically sorted by a computer. You might use such a form
to order goods from a company or submit work to a school or university. The
form has rectangles in which you write the information which is required.
You then click a button marked send and off it goes. At the other end
filtering rules use (hidden) subject headings, and information you have
given, to sort your message, act on it and file it. You may get an
automated thank you from the computer the mail goes to. If you have sent an
essay, the computer may put it into a collection of essays for the tutor to
read. A form on a commercial page could lead to the automated despatch and
invoicing of goods.
Andrew Roberts likes to hear from users: |
Clicking on Middlesex University logos like the one above will take you to Computer notes for its students Clicking any other link will give you information anyone can use Middlesex University students and staff can use the University's own webmail to send and receive emails
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Click coloured words to go where you want