Fig 1.0 Windows Live Mail - Click directly on the NEW button to create a new e-mail
Fig 1.1 The New Message window
| HOW TO CREATE AND SEND AN E-MAIL |
Assuming you have created and set up an E-Mail Account from the previous two Windows Live Mail sections, are connected to the internet and have opened Windows Live Mail; One of the things you might want to do next is Create An E-Mail. You could Receive your e-mail first so that you can Reply to it, but here I will explain how to create an e-mail first. So begin by clicking directly on the NEW button, and not on its drop-down menu, to open up the New Message window.
Although the New Message window might look daunting at first, with all those buttons and edit boxes on it, there are actually only three edit boxes to fill in and one button to click when creating an e-mail. They are the To, Subject and Message edit boxes.
E-Mail Address
The TO edit box requires an E-Mail Address, which is the e-mail address of the person you are writing TO in this case.
An e-mail address is used an Identifer - It tells your ISP's e-mail server (internet service provider's/broadband company's computer) where to send an
e-mail to. It also acts as a User Name/Account Name. For example. In this example I will e-mail my friend, who's e-mail address is deniseoakdale@yahoo.com.
When I send the e-mail it first goes to my ISP's computer (e-mail server). From there my ISP's computer forwards it on the Yahoo computer (e-mail server).
My ISP's computer knows to forward my e-mail onto the Yahoo computer because of the yahoo.com part of the e-mail address. When the Yahoo computer (e-mail
server) receives the e-mail, from my ISP's computer (e-mail server), it knows to put that e-mail into the INBOX of the user called deniseoakdale. This is
just the same as the post office knowing where to deliver a letter - They know by looking at the Postcode and House Number.
The @ sign means AT. So the whole e-mail address reads: Denise Oakdale AT Yahoo DOT Com or put another way: User Name deniseoakdale has her e-mail stored
on the Yahoo computer (e-mail server) based in the US. If an e-mail address ends in yahoo.co.uk it would be safe to say the Yahoo computer (e-mail server)
is based in the UK. I mention E-Mail Server because that is the correct name for a, remote, computer that is serving your e-mail needs, or more precisely
the needs of your E-Mail Client - Windows Live Mail. Your e-mail goes through many e-mail servers/processes before arriving at its final destination
(the recipients INBOX).
Subject
The SUBJECT edit box requires a Subject (E-Mail Title) - Something to do with the nature of the e-mail. For example. If you were talking about a trip to
Europe your subject (e-mail title) might be European Tour, Train Information, Itinerary or whatever. As soon as you start typing a subject the title of
the New Message window will automatically take the name of your subject. This is quite normal.
Some ISPs (Internet Service Providers/Broadband Companies) do not like to receive an e-mail without a Subject. They may think the e-mail is Junk Mail or
a Virus and not send the e-mail any further. They might even send you an error message saying so (i.e. "E-Mail had no Subject"...."Could not process this
e-mail"). A Bounced (unsent) e-mail in other words. So always give your e-mail a Subject.
Message
The MESSAGE edit box requires a Message, realistically with at least one word inside it. Normally though the message should be in the form of a small
note or a letter.
Just the same as the Subject, some ISPs do not like to receive an e-mail without a Message. They may think the e-mail is Junk Mail or a Virus and not send
the e-mail any further. They might even send you an error message saying so (i.e. "E-Mail had no Message"...."Could not process this e-mail"). So always
give your e-mail a message.
Now that the three edit boxes have been filled in, the last thing to do is click on the SEND button to actually send the e-mail to your ISP's computer (e-mail server) for processing.
| THE STATUS BAR |
After clicking on the SEND button look immediately to the bottom-right corner of the windows live mail Status Bar (window) and you will see various status notifications appearing, quite fast sometimes. So even though you might not see all of them! those you do see are worth noting because they can help in diagnosing problems and confirming a sent e-mail for example.
The first status notification is Connecting... which means windows live mail is trying to connect to your particular E-Mail Account, in this example the
Yoingco (John) e-mail account, in order to authorize the sending of this e-mail. Your broadband company (isp) for example wants to know who (which e-mail
account) is sending this e-mail. So basically, the e-mail account's User Name & Password will be authorized (if they can be) before the e-mail is
sent to the recipients INBOX (via various e-mail servers).
This connecting process uses an extended internet connection, to connect to those various e-mail servers, which means if the extended internet connection
fails for whatever reason(s) your ISP's main internet connection (i.e. Broadband connection) will not be affected. If the extended internet connection
cannot connect to a certain e-mail server (computer) you say "The Server is down". The same applies when checking your e-mail. If your ISP's e-mail
server cannot fetch (receive) your e-mail, from the OUTBOX on the Yahoo server for example, you say "The Yahoo server is down". In other words, do not
blame your ISP! It could be the Yahoo e-mail server that causes problems in this scenario.
The second status notification is Authorizing... which means windows live mail is now verifying/authorizing, with your ISP's computer, the User Name & Password of this particular E-Mail Account.
The third status notification is Sending Mail... which basically means windows live mail has been given permission to send the e-mail to the recipient's INBOX, via your isp and its extended internet connections to the various other e-mail servers - Eventually ending up on the Yahoo e-mail server in this example. Your ISP's computer is allowing the e-mail to be sent because the User & Password for this particular e-mail account has been verified/authorized. If there is a problem sending the e-mail, for whatever reason(s), you will see an Error notification instead.
The final status notification just defaults back to the number of e-mails you have in your own windows live mail INBOX. In this example, because it is the first time to use windows live mail, there are no e-mails inside the windows live mail INBOX (If you do not count the original "Welcome To Windows Mail" e-mail, which I have deleted for this category).
| LOCAL FOLDERS |
Another thing to look at, after clicking on the SEND button, is the main windows live mail Folders window pane (known as the Folder Pane). It contains
folders called INBOX (Received E-Mail), DRAFTS (Stored/Unfinished E-Mail), SENT ITEMS (Sent E-Mail), JUNK E-MAIL (Unclassified/Unwanted/Spam E-Mail),
DELETED ITEMS (Deleted E-Mail) and OUTBOX (Waiting to be sent E-Mail). These folders work in the same way as a "Normal" folder. In this example you need
to be looking at the OUTBOX folder and the SENT ITEMS folder.
Each time you click on the SEND button the e-mail to be sent is put into the windows live mail OUTBOX first, in a "Ready To Be Sent" state. The reason
for this is because your e-mail account needs to be verified/authorized before the e-mail can be sent (see above). If your e-mail account cannot be
verified/authorized for whatever reason(s) the e-mail will not be sent. It will remain in the OUTBOX until it can be sent, or until you delete it or move
it from the OUTBOX for example. If you are Working Offline (writing the e-mail without being connected to the internet) you can still click on the SEND
button. The e-mail will then go into the OUTBOX, just the same as if you were Working Online (writing the e-mail whilst being connected to the internet),
and be sent (if it can be) later.....when you are Working Online.
Fig 3.0 shows that there is one e-mail inside the windows live mail OUTBOX folder. When the e-mail account has been verified/authorized the e-mail will be sent to the recipient's INBOX on their e-mail client's computer (i.e. on the Yahoo e-mail server). There are two ways of knowing your e-mail was sent. Firstly, the windows live mail OUTBOX will become empty and you should not of received any errors from windows live mail (or from your ISP). And secondly, there should be a record of the sent e-mail inside the windows live mail SENT ITEMS folder. To check the windows live mail SENT ITEMS folder simply click on its folder name.
As you can see, the e-mail to my friend Denise Oakdale was sent successfully. I say successfully meaning successfully from windows live mail. If my ISP's
computer has any problem(s) sending the e-mail to Denise's e-mail account (INBOX) my ISP's computer will inform me of this by e-mailing me back with a
message such as "E-Mail could not be sent....etc". This is known as a bounced e-mail (like a Bounced Cheque or Return To Sender).
If you have more than one e-mail to be sent then obviously the OUTBOX will have more than (1) displayed next to it. Also. A 100KB sized e-mail will be
sent quicker than a 900KB sized e-mail for example.
So just to recap. You create an e-mail and then click on the SEND button. Your ISP's computer (e-mail server) then verifies/authorizes the e-mail account
details sent to it by windows live mail (i.e. the Yoingco (John) e-mail account details). If all goes well the e-mail is then sent from windows live
mail's OUTBOX to the INBOX of the recipient's e-mail account.....via various technologies and e-mail servers. Your ISP's computer, and the other various
e-mail servers and technologies along the way, should verifying your SEND e-mail further (for Viruses and Spam/Junk content for example) before it arrives
in the recipient's INBOX clean (without viruses and so on).
Microsoft product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation. As stated here by the Microsoft Corporation.
