Fig 1.0 Click on the REPLY button (top-left corner) to continue
Fig 1.1 The E-Mail Reply window
| REPLY TO AN E-MAIL |
Continuing from the previous, Open An E-Mail, section. To reply to an e-mail you normally open it, read it and then reply to it. I say normally because instead of opening an e-mail in order to reply to it you can also right-click on an e-mail and select its REPLY TO SENDER menu-item in order to reply to it, but this is a rare thing to do. So sticking with the normal method of reply, make sure you have an e-mail open and then left click on the REPLY button (Fig 1.0). In this section I will show you how I replied to my friend Capili.
After clicking on the REPLY button (Fig 1.0 above) you will be presented with the above E-Mail Reply window. It contains the reply information (FROM, TO, SUBJECT) and normally the Original E-Mail Message. However. If the e-mail had any attachments, which mine did, they will not be included in the reply. Hence why my two attachments are missing, which is a good thing if the attachments are not meant to be seen by the recipient but bad otherwise because I will have to save the attachments first (i.e to the Documents folder when reading the e-mail) before attaching them back to my reply.
FROM
The FROM drop-down menu requires an E-Mail Account to use for the reply. The e-mail address of that e-mail account is used as the reply e-mail address. So in Fig 1.2 below I have the choice of using yoingco@onetel.com, contactjohn@yoingco.com or yoingco@btinternet.com. The default e-mail account (e-mail address) is normally the e-mail account used in a reply but this can be changed by selecting a different e-mail account from the FROM drop-down menu. In normal circumstances though you would leave the FROM drop-down menu alone, especially if you only have one e-mail account, as the correct e-mail account (i.e the default e-mail account) will have been chosen for you by windows mail.
TO
The TO edit box is already filled in for you with the sender's e-mail address. In this example with my friend Capili's e-mail
address - Capili 2007 <capili2007@hotmail.co.uk> underlined, which is his display name and e-mail address. If you decide
to change the reply e-mail, or want to add more e-mail addresses, for whatever reason(s) you can do so by clicking on the
TO button (explained in the Attach A File section).
When you reply to an e-mail the sender's e-mail address is automatically added to your Windows Contacts list if the
AUTOMATICALLY PUT PEOPLE I REPLY TO IN MY CONTACTS LIST setting is switched on (ticked). This means you can later go into
the Windows Contacts list and edit the sender's details. However. In this example I have switched that setting off. Therefore,
because Capili's details have not been saved into my Windows Contacts list, I can only view his display name and e-mail
address as viewable (uneditable) details (Fig 1.4) when I right click on his display name and e-mail address inside the TO
box (Fig 1.3) and then select the PROPERTIES menu-item. If I wanted to add Capili to my Windows Contacts list, and then
edit his details, I would need to click on the ADD TO CONTACTS menu-item first.
SUBJECT
Subject is another edit box that is already filled in for you, like the TO edit box. In the case of a reply it is always filled in by the prefix Re: and the e-mail's original subject. So in this example Re: Two Files Attached.
You can change the subject if you want to, to let the sender know you have a new subject to talk about for example, but if
you do so it is a good idea to mention the original subject in your e-mail message. So if the reply subject is Re: Merry
Christmas (original subject Merry Christmas) and you change it to New Year Party (with no Re:) you might need to write your
e-mail message something like this: Merry Christmas to you as well my friend....blah blah.....I am having a New Year Party
at my house and was wondering if you would like to come over....blah blah.
A good reason for changing the subject is when you need to write to more than one person with the same message. For example.
Suppose one sender e-mailed you with the subject Merry Christmas and another sender with the subject Happy Christmas and so
on. Instead of replying to each sender's e-mail individually it might be easier to just use one e-mail as the reply e-mail,
change its subject into a common subject and then send it to the relavent people. And to get around e-mails that have private
details in them you might write your reply e-mail without mentioning the private details, like so: Merry Christmas to all of
you. Glad to hear you are all well. I am having a New Year Party, to which you are all invited, so we can have some fun and
catch up on everyones latest happenings.
You can do the above said by creating a new e-mail as well (CREATE MAIL) but many people prefer to click on the REPLY button
instead, as it automatically fills in certains details for you (as explained above) and means you do not have to close the
original e-mail's window in order to create a new e-mail. By clicking on the REPLY button the original e-mail's window is
transformed into a reply window and automatically closed when you send the reply e-mail.
The E-Mail Message
By default (normal behaviour) the original e-mail message is always included in the reply message, due to the INCLUDE
MESSAGE IN REPLY setting being switched on (ticked) when windows mail is first installed on your computer. If you do not
want an e-mail's original message to be included in your reply message you will need to switched off (un-ticked) this
setting (see the WM Settings section) but be warned - This setting applies
to all e-mails. Meaning. With this setting switched off no reply e-mails will include the original message.
Switching off the setting can save you money if you are on a P.A.Y.G account, as you would not be sending the original
message with the reply e-mail. So it would take less time and money to send the reply e-mail. You also avoid those occasions
when you add another person to the TO edit box and then realise after sending the reply e-mail that that added person should
not of seen the original message, perhaps because there were some private details inside it only meant for you and the sender.
The original message is intended as a reminder to the sender of what you were talking about previously. It is very easy to
forget what you was last discussing with someone in an e-mail when you send out many e-mails per day or per week, either to
the same person or to different people, especially when you or the sender have the INCLUDE MESSAGE IN REPLY seetting switched
off. So although in some cases you can accidently let someone see what you have said to someone else in an e-mail that was
meant to be private (as said above) overall it is best to keep the setting switched on (even if it costs a little more on
your P.A.Y.G account). You can always edit the original message.
So to recap. After reading an e-mail's message you click on the REPLY button to reply to that e-mail's message. On the reply
window the FROM dop-down menu allows you to choose which e-mail account to use for the reply. With the TO edit box, which is
automatically filled in with the sender's details, you can add more e-mail addresses by seperating each one with a semicolon
; as explained in the Attach A File section. The SUBJECT edit box is automatically filled in with the prefix Re: followed by
the e-mail's original subject. If you want to attach one or more files you can do (see the Attach A File section). That just leaves you to type out your message
before clicking on the SEND button.
As you start typing your reply message the original message will move down one line each time you press ENTER or whenever
the text is wrapped around to the next line. This is quite normal. When you have finished typing your reply message click
on the SEND button to send the e-mail to the sender/recipient(s).
After clicking on the SEND button the e-mail is first put inside the OUTBOX folder (Fig 1.7) just the same as when you send
a new e-mail. This is so that if there is an internet connection problem for example, whereby the e-mail cannot be sent
straight away, it can be re-sent later. If all goes well, now or later, the e-mail is then put inside the SENT ITEMS folder
to acknowledge that it has been sent. If the e-mail was not able to be sent, for whatever reason(s), it will stay inside the
OUTBOX folder until the problem can be solved.
| REPLIED-TO E-MAIL |
Once the SEND button has been clicked on the sender's details are automatically added to the Windows Contacts list, if they have not been added before and only if the AUTOMATICALLY PUT PEOPLE I REPLY TO IN MY CONTACTS LIST setting is switched on (see the WM Settings section). This will be done regardless if you are online (with an internet connection) or offline (without an internet connection). If you are offline the e-mail goes inside the OUTBOX folder as normal but is not sent due to there being no internet connection. In this case an offline message would appear (Fig 2.1 below), which you would close by clicking on its OK button, but the sender's details would still be entered into the Windows Contacts list (if the AUTOMATICALLY PUT PEOPLE I REPLY TO IN MY CONTACTS LIST setting is switched on). Therefore the Replied-To envelope icon (Fig 2.0 above), on the windows mail window, means the e-mail has been replied to only but not necessarily sent. So always check the OUTBOX folder for non-sent e-mails and the SENT ITEMS folder for sent e-mails.
To view the Windows Contatcs list simply click on the CONTACTS button from the windows mail window.
Microsoft product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation. As stated here by the Microsoft Corporation.
All HTM files in the yoingco.com folder and its sub-folders are (c) John White, August 3rd 2005 - 2008. All Rights Reserved. FREE Vista Helpline: Contact John