Getting started with email

By David Geer

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Many people were first introduced to email through AOL's Internet service. While AOL mail has grown to offer more features, there are other options to consider. If you’ve been using AOL and wonder what more there is to life with email, read on.

AOL Email

With AOL you can send emails with pizzazz, using fun art and backgrounds. You can tailor your overall experience so your mail contents modestly mirror the audio/visual content you find on some Web sites.

AOL mail is fairly easy to use and kid-safe, blocking harmful content. It also provides you with unlimited online mail storage.

However, AOL mail can’t help you sort mail by subject or sender, or block individual senders. It also has some bugs and doesn’t play well with email from other services.

AOL mail works like different email tools loosely cobbled together, which can be confusing. And, while AOL blocks apparently problematic email, some may be mail you actually want.

Outlook Express

Outlook Express lets you use your mail with any high-speed Internet provider. Outlook Express has many features.

1. You can use many kinds and brands of email, including email services your high-speed Internet provider will usually offer free.

2. Different users in one household can have their own email using Outlook Express on just one computer, with complete privacy. No one can get to your email and you won’t be able to see his or hers. So, you can share a single computer for email.

3. Outlook Express lets you create different email folders—containers for email—that you can use to “sort” your mail. If you get a lot of mail, you can look at it by topic or sender, making it easier to locate the most important messages first.

4. You can determine the look and feel of incoming email messages, either plain (with no special features or Web-like appearance) or just like the Web, with all the bells and whistles. You can even receive mail plain (text only) so it’s safe, and then make sure it’s from someone you know before turning on extra features such as audio, video and links that open Web pages.

5. You can search through your email to find messages on certain topics or from certain people. Then you can save your favorite emails in or outside Outlook Express if you like, placing them on the main screen (desktop) or in a folder for safekeeping.

6. Outlook Express’ security helps keep you safe on the Internet with email. The latest version comes with most security measures already in place.

7. You can change how Outlook Express looks and feels.

8. You can decide how little or much information you want to see about each email before you open it. You may choose to see the email’s sender, time and date that it was sent, size, subject and to whom it was sent (not necessarily you!). All of that can help you determine whether you recognize or want this email before you open it, and that can reduce your exposure to computer viruses.

9. You can import lists of email addresses called address books from other places so you won’t lose these connections to family and friends. You can export (save) address books to another place for safekeeping.

10. You can associate your email with different identities, and switch between one and another, further separating the email of one user from the email of another, adding to everyone’s privacy (see Figure One). Or, separate identities for other reasons, such as separating work email from home email.

11. If you have a Web site and email comes with it, you can collect and send those messages with Outlook Express, too.

12. Most computers come with Outlook Express, so you don’t have to acquire it.

Other email options

Many different types of free email on the Web are available. Simply surf to sites such as Google (which offers Gmail), Yahoo! (Yahoo! Mail) and MSN (Hotmail) and sign up.

This free email has many advantages.

1. You can access it from any computer, no matter where you are, traveling, on vacation, at a friend’s house or the library—any place with a computer on the Internet.

2. It’s free and easy to set up.

3. Surprisingly, some of these Web-based email services come with a lot of storage space and extra features with no added charges.

4. Gmail, for example, offers a very large storage space for email, which most people will never surpass, even if they save all their mail. It also offers a unique email search feature for finding old or new emails on specific topics. Yahoo! Offers unlimited storage.

5. Web-based mail makes a great free alternate email service if your provider’s service should ever go down.

6. You can forward mail to or from these accounts so you won’t miss mail from other accounts while you’re away and you won’t miss mail from these accounts when you want to get your mail from one place, such as Outlook Express.

7. Some, such as Yahoo! allow you to set up your viewing pane to see the email’s sender, time and date that it was sent, size, and subject as well as to preview its first line of text.


Is That All There Is To It?

Sometimes, extra options can be confusing. But often, a call to a friend or customer support from your high-speed Internet provider can help you test-drive new and appealing features one at a time. It's not difficult, but for some it may require practice. The more you use email, the easier it will become to use.

Above all, remember, unless you’re typing with a sledgehammer, you’re not likely to break anything beyond repair just by trying!