Module 2 Tasks: Email Tasks

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?
By right clicking the persons name in the from field it is possible to get their complete email address to add to your contacts list.

If the email has been one in a series of answers and replies, you can follow the trail when you open the email. On top of each entry it will have details of the person who replied and at what time and date and the subject field ( all of the meta data).

2. In what cases would you find it useful to use the 'cc', 'bcc' and 'reply all functions of email?
I would 'cc' an email message when I want the message to go to a number of people.

I would 'blind cc' a message when I didn't want the original addressee to know that a copy of my message is going to another person. It is also used to send a message to a group of people where you do not want them to know each others email address. Spammers use this option frequently.

I would 'reply all' when I want to respond to a message without having to enter eveyones details by hand. This is a good option because it avoids simple typos occuring.

3. In what ways can you ensure that an attachment you send will be easily opened by the receiver?
If, for example I was to send a microsoft word document, I would make sure the recipient had microsoft word installed on their computer. With quite a few novice computer users this is often the case. There is no use sending an attachment if the recipient does not have the software to open it.

I would also make sure the attachment was not to large. People often have a limit on what size attachment they can receive. If it's too big, they simply will not receive it.

In regards to encoding, I would make sure the recipients default attachment choice was set to MIME (Multi purpose Internet Mail Extensions).

4. What sorts of filters or rules do you have set up, and for what purpose? I do not have any rules set up on my email application. I use a third party spam - virus remover system called MessageLabs Email Security System. For a small annual fee this company filters all of my email before I receive it. On the odd occassion that a suspect looking email does get through, I simply follow the rule that if I dont recognise the sender, then it gets deleted immediately.

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

Although it wasn't really recommended in the module, I organise my email by the person / company who sent it to me. After trying a lot of different systems, I find this works best for me.

I leave any outstanding emails which need to be acted upon, sitting in my general email folder. When I do complete the task, then I file the email away under sender.