16. Emailing Family and Friends
In this chapter, you find out how to send and receive private messages via email.
Managing Your Contacts with the People App
When it comes to keeping in touch with the people you know and love, the easiest way to do so is via electronic mail, otherwise known as email. An email message is like a regular letter, except that it’s composed electronically and delivered almost immediately via the Internet. You can use email to send both text messages and computer files (such as digital photos) to pretty much anyone with an Internet connection.
One of the easiest ways to send and receive email from your new PC is to use the Windows Mail app. You can also send and receive email in your web browser, using a web-based email service such as Gmail or Yahoo! Mail. Either approach is good and lets you create, send, and read email messages from all your friends and family.
Using the Windows Mail App
Windows 10 includes a built-in Mail app for sending and receiving email messages. By default, the Mail app manages email from any Microsoft email service linked to your Microsoft account, including Outlook.com and the older Hotmail. This means you’ll see Outlook and Hotmail messages in your Mail Inbox and will be able to easily send emails from your Hotmail or Outlook account.
Set Up Your Email Account
By default, the Mail app sends and receives messages from the email account associated with your Microsoft account. You can, however, configure Mail to work with other email accounts, if you have them. You launch the Mail app from the Windows taskbar or Start menu.
Account Types
The Mail app lets you add Google (Gmail), iCloud (Apple), Office 365 (and Exchange), Outlook.com (as well as other Microsoft services, including Hotmail, Live.com, and MSN addresses), and Yahoo! accounts. You can also set up other email accounts, such as those from your Internet Service Provider or employer, using either POP or IMAP.
From within the Mail app, click the Settings button to display the Settings pane.
Click Manage Accounts to display the Manage Accounts pane.
Click Add Account to display the Choose an Account window.
Click the type of account you want to add.
Enter the requested information and follow the onscreen instructions to complete the process. (This will be different for different services but typically includes your email address and password.)
Switching Accounts
To view the Inbox of another email account, click the name of that account in the Accounts section of the folders pane.
View Incoming Messages
All email messages sent to you from others are stored in the Inbox of the Mail app. Unread messages are displayed in bold.
Resize the Window
By default, the Mail app launches in a squarish window. In this configuration, you only see two panes; when you click a message in the message pane, the content of that message then replaces the message pane. If you resize the window so that it’s wider, or simply click the Maximize button to display the window full-screen, you’ll see three panes, with a new content pane to the right of the message pane. In this configuration, when you click a message in the message pane, its contents display automatically in the content pane.
In the folder pane, click the email account you want to use. (If you have multiple accounts, that is.)
Click the Inbox folder.
Click the message you want to view; the contents of that message display in the Mail window.
If the message has a photo attached, click the thumbnail to view the photo at a larger size in the Photos app. (To download a photo or other file to your computer, right-click the item and select Save.)
Reply to a Message
Replying to an email message is as easy as clicking a button and typing your reply.
From an open message, click Reply at the top of screen. The contents change to a reply screen, with the sender’s email address already added to the To field.
Reply All
If the original message was sent to multiple recipients (including you), you also have the Reply All option, which sends your reply to everyone who received the original message. Don’t click the Reply All option by mistake if you want to reply only to the original sender!
Enter your reply at the top of the message; the bottom of the message “quotes” the original message.
Click Send when you’re ready to send the message.
Send a New Message
Composing a new message is similar to replying to a message. The big difference is that you have to manually enter the recipient’s email address.
Click + New Mail at the top of the folders pane to display the new message.
Click within the To field and begin entering the name or email address of the message’s recipient.
If the name you type matches any in your contact list, Mail displays those names; select the person you want to email. (If there are no matches, continue entering the person’s email address manually.)
Click the Subject field and type a subject for this message.
Click within the main body of the message area and type your message.
Formatting Your Message
Click the Format tab to apply Bold, Italic, and other formatting to your message text.
To send a file, such as a digital photo, along with this message, click the Insert tab, click Files, and then select the file.
Click Send to send the message and its attachment.
Move a Message to Another Folder
New messages are stored in the Mail app’s Inbox, which is actually a folder. Mail uses other folders, too; there are folders for Outbox (messages waiting to be sent), Drafts, Junk (spam), Sent, Stored Messages, and Trash. For better organization, you can easily move messages from one folder to another.
From within the messages pane, right-click the message you want to move; then click Move to display the Move To pane.
Click the destination folder (where you want to move the message). The message is moved to that folder.
Using Gmail
In addition to the email account you were given when you signed up for your home Internet service, you can add other email accounts you might have with various web-based email services. These services, such as Gmail and Yahoo! Mail, let you send and receive email from any computer connected to the Internet, via your web browser. They’re ideal if you travel a lot or maintain two homes in different locations. (Snowbirds rejoice!)
Receive and Reply to Messages
Google’s Gmail is the most popular web-based email service today. You can use any web browser to access your Gmail account, and send and receive email from any connected computer, tablet, or smartphone.
To sign up for a new account (it’s free), use your web browser to go to mail.google.com, where you can set up a new account with an email address and a password. You can then send and receive email from any computer, just by signing in to your Google account.
Gmail organizes your email into types, each with its own tab: Primary, Social (messages from Facebook and other social networks), and Promotions (advertising messages). Most of your important messages will be the Primary tab, so click that or another tab you want to view.
Click the Inbox tab to display all incoming messages.
Click the header for the message you want to view.
To download an attached folder or file, mouse over the item and then click either the Download or Save to Drive icon. (Download saves to your computer; Save to Drive saves the file to Google Drive, Google’s online storage service.)
Reply to an open message by clicking Reply.
Enter your reply text in the message window.
Click Send when done.
Send a New Message
New messages you send are composed in a New Message pane that appears at the bottom-right corner of the Gmail window.
Click Compose from any Gmail page to display the New Message pane.
Enter the email address of the recipient(s) in the To box. (Google might offer some suggestions, based on your contacts list and previous activity; click a name to select it.)
Enter a subject in the Subject box.
Move your cursor to the main message area and type your message.
To attach a file to a message, click the Attach Files (paper clip) icon, navigate to and select the file you want to attach, and then click the Open button.
Send the message by clicking the Send button.
Managing Your Contacts with the People App
The people you email regularly are known as contacts. When someone is in your contacts list, it’s easy to send her an email; all you have to do is pick her name from the list instead of entering her email address manually.
In Windows 10, all your contacts are managed from the People app. This app connects to the Microsoft account you used to create your Windows account so that all the contacts from your main email account are automatically added. It can also connect to your other email accounts, including Gmail and Outlook.com. The People app serves as the central hub for everyone you interact with online.
First-Time Use
The first time you launch the People app, you’re prompted to add your Microsoft account to the app, and to add your contacts from those accounts as well. Do so by entering your email address and password. You can later add other email accounts to the app.
View Your Contacts
The People app centralizes all your contacts in one place, and it even combines a person’s information from multiple sources. So if a given person is a Facebook friend and is also in your email contacts list, his Facebook information and his email address appear in the People app. Launch the People app from the Windows Start menu.
Expand the Window
By the default, the People app appears in a narrow window that displays only a single pane of information—initially, your contacts list. It’s more useful to display two panes in the app, so that you can view the contacts list and the selected contact at the same time. Use your mouse to manually widen the window until both panes are displayed, or just click the Maximize button to display the window full-screen.
Click a person’s name to view that person’s contact information.
Click the Email icon to send this person an email in the Windows Mail app.
Click the Map icon (next to an address) to view where this person lives.
Add a New Contact
When you find someone you know online, you can add that person as a contact in the People app.
Click the + to display the New Contact pane.
Enter the person’s full name into the Name box.
Optionally, enter the person’s mobile phone number into the Mobile Phone box.
Optionally, enter the person’s email address into the Personal Email box.
To include additional email addresses, phone numbers, street addresses, or other information for this person, click + Email, + Phone, + Address, or + Other and enter the necessary information.
Click Save when done.
