How do you email? Starter's guide

Creating an email (electronic mail) message by using the software such as Outlook or Apple Mail doesn't differ much from creating email using webmail servers (like Gmail or Hotmail for instance), and there are quite a few features similar to ones in word processors (like Microsoft Word) for text formatting purposes. If you want to send a fancy looking email message, you would most likely want to change fonts, insert pictures, add links, and more. While this post is rather about creating and sending than designing the email message, I will provide couple of links that deal with designing nice looking email messages.
Designing of an advertisement-like HTML email is explained in video here. Yet, bear in mind that lot of people prefer to receive plain text email messages, and their email clients are set to show HTML code as a text rather than process it, therefore all the fancy design created can result in the opposite to the expected.
The following video by ISTrainer shows how to use MS Outlook for creating and sending Email messages:

Basic fields to fill in before sending an email message

To:

is the field for e-mail address of the recipient (e.g., johndo@freecomputer.com). If you like you can add the name before address, and it should look like this:

"John Doe" johndo@freecomputer.com

Note that this is the only correct syntax for sending an email. Adding a name before the actual address is optional. You can add quite a few recipients in To: field, but bear in mind, after each email address a comma must be inserted, and it should look like this:

"John Doe" johndo@freecomputer.com, "Mary Poppins" marypoppins@freecookies.com,

and so on.

Subject:

is a field for writing in what the message you are sending, is all about. Keep it short and simple, otherwise the recipient won't be able to see the whole text in the list of all incoming emails.

Bcc:

While every recipient from To: list can see all the other recipients that all have received the same message, every email address that is entered in this field, won't show up to anyone else who receives the message. The syntax for this field is the same as described before. Remember, in order to be able to send the message, you should enter at least one email address in To: field.

Body (or Content)

is where the actual text and links go. (Or images, videos and other fancy things if you are going to send an HTML email message.)

Attach (or Attachments)

is for attaching files to your email message. You can attach any file from the computer to your message but keep in mind that large files (videos for instance) are usually sent using file sharing online servers. Email is suitable for sending documents (like doc or pdf files), compressed/archived documents, small audio files.

Other things to know before sending an email

Every recipient will see who has sent the message to them. Whom they will see as a sender depends on what you have saved in your email settings as your name and last name. Usually that is a From setting that can be accessed in order to change the sender's name.

In email settings there is always an option to set a signature. That is a static text or image that appears at the bottom of each and every message you send. It is a nice way to send some cheerful text or image, or advertise your favourite website.

What else can be seen by recipient

This is more to the point in the context of this website's purpose. Recipient can always see Headers which means that it is possible to see who sent the message, what time it was sent, what email address it has been sent from, what IP address it has been sent from and more. Detailed info on how to read Email Headers can be found here.

A SpamCop.net website explains how to access the headers in all popular email and webmail clients.

How to access your email account using computer's email client

The email client on your computer needs to have correct settings for receiving and sending email to/from your email account. In order to receive messages, software email clients use POP3 protocol, in order to send messages - SMTP protocol. There are two ways to find out correct settings for receiving/sending email using your computer's email client:

• Using Google to find POP3/SMTP settings for accessing your email account
• Calling your ISP for the advice on setting up your email client

Here is instructional page for setting up Email client for accessing the Gmail account. This illustrates the common procedure for accessing Email account by using computer's Email software client.

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