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You've got your email program all setup, so how do you use it? In this article, we'll look at some of the functions of an email program and how to use them to full advantage. Overwhelmed by the number of email client programs out there? Take a look at Charles W. Moore's Omnibus Mac Email Client Roundup for a rundown of the more popular Mac email clients. Since many email client programs are freeware or shareware, you can try them out before committing to any one program. Most are also under five megabytes in size for easy downloading.
With an email client program, you're working with an offline model: you don't have to be connected to the Internet to read and write mail since you download your mail from your ISP's mail server to your own computer. This differs from web based mail like Applelinks.net or Yahoo! Mail; with these services, you have to be online and connected to the Internet to get to your mail. While convenient in the sense that you can access your mail from anywhere you can browse the web, they're impractical if you're using a dial-up connection and don't want to tie up your phone line. However, in terms of general usage, both types are very similar, so much of what is described here (for email client programs) will apply to web-based mail as well.
Compared to other things you can do on the Internet,
sending email is ridiculously simple; the only thing you
need to know is the recipient's email address. This takes
the form of (or .org, .net, .edu, etc.)
After typing this in the To: field, you type in the Subject
(if desired) and then type your message into the body of the
email (the big white empty space - note that you don't have
to fill it 
If you're presented with Cc: or Bcc: options,
ignore them for now. Once you're finished, click on the Send
button and your email will be queued up to be sent. If
you're connected to the Internet, your message will be
transferred right away; if you're offline, the email will
stay in your Outbox (or outgoing mail folder) until you
connect and send it off (click "send" or select "send queued
mail.") If you get interrupted while you're writing an
email, you can save it as a "Draft", a partially completed
email that is saved, but not sent. When you try to close the
message composition box, you'll be presented with the option
to save the email or cancel and lose all changes. Saving the
email will place it in the Drafts folder, where you can
access it later on.
How do you know if your email has really been sent? You may have a copy saved in your Sent folder, but you won't know for sure until you get a reply, either from the recipient or an automated mail server telling you your mail is undeliverable. One way to confirm that your ISP's outgoing mail server (the SMTP server) is working correctly is to send an email to yourself. This is where the Cc: and Bcc: fields come in handy, these stand for Carbon Copy and Blind Carbon Copy, respectively. Any address you type in the Cc: field will receive a copy of the email. The Bcc: field works the same way, except the email addresses of the recipients will be invisible (good for keeping email addresses private.) You can also add multiple recipients by typing in their email addresses in the To: field, separated by a comma and space.
Did you ever hear the one about the chicken and the bricklayer? Want to share the joke email with someone else? You can either forward the email or redirect it (also known as re-edit, re-send, edit message as new, etc.) What's the difference? Forwarding an email will usually place a bunch of ">" characters at the beginning of each line. To avoid this, you'll need to forward the email as an attachment or inline text. Redirecting/re-sending the email makes it look as if you typed it in from scratch. In both cases, you'll have to adjust or enter in the recipient's email address.
An attachment is a file you send along with your email, be it a photo, program, spreadsheet, etc. As mentioned in Part 1, any bit of binary information you send in an email must be converted to plain text first, since mail servers communicate via SMTP, a text based protocol. This means the email you send will be larger than the file itself; a 500k JPEG attachment might make a 750k email. It's a good idea to keep this in mind when you send any email attachments since some mail servers (and programs) will reject an email if it's too large. A large email can also push the recipient's disk space quota past the limit, which may result in bounced (undeliverable) mail.
When you setup your email program, you may have the option of establishing an address book (this may come up the first time you send an email to a new recipient as well.) Just like a paper version, an electronic address book allows you to record someone's name, address, and other information. Within an email program, this can save you the hassle of remembering dozens of email addresses (or clicking "reply" to old messages you've saved); just click on the address book option whenever you write an email. If you already use some other form of personal information manager that has an address book, and you don't want to retype everything again, try to find an email client program that works directly with your personal information manager or at the very least, one that can import your existing address book.
Organization is key to keeping track of all your email. All the mail that you write, send, and receive will be placed in folders. For example, after you download your mail, you'll usually find it in the Inbox. Even though it's named as a box, it's a folder where all your incoming mail is delivered. You can create new folders for all the mail you receive; it's a good idea to do so once your Inbox gets too large and takes a long time to load. Decide on an appropriate storage system (say, putting one month's emails into a folder), create the folders (ie: January, February, etc.) then select the emails you want to move and drag them to their new folders. Note that the emails are only within folders on your computer; if you download all your mail from your ISP's mail servers with another computer, you'll lose any folder system you've set up.
A powerful function present in most email programs is filtering. Filtering allows you to specify an action that takes place when certain criteria are met; depending on your email program, the criteria can be applied to incoming mail or outgoing mail. For example, you can setup a filter so all the mail your boss sends you goes into a folder named "Boss Mail." In this case, the criteria would be your boss's email address, and the action moving the mail into a folder. Whenever you download your mail, the email program checks for your boss's email address; if it finds a match, it will move the email into the "Boss Mail" folder.
The criteria and action can be almost anything, limited only by the email program you use; it doesn't have to be limited to an email address and moving to a different folder. There are four components to a filter: the string (what to match), the location (where to find the string), the modifier (how to match the string) and the action (what to do with the email.) A filter can be setup to match a string (set of characters, ie: email address, name, word, etc.) or value (number) in any location, such as a header field (To:, From:, Subject:, Cc:), the body of the email, how old the message is, its priority, etc. With a modifier, email can be filtered if it contains a certain string, but it can also be filtered if it doesn't contain the string, or if it begins/ends with the string. Actions are also varied, from moving to a different folder, deleting the message, playing a sound, changing the message's priority, etc. Furthermore, it's possible to combine multiple strings, locations, modifiers and actions within a single filter. So if you really want to stay on the ball, any email you receive from your boss that contains the words "you're" and "fired" (but without the word "not") can be directed to an "Urgent" folder with a siren sound playing.
As you can see, filters can get very complicated very quickly, so if you're just starting out, resist the temptation to filter every email you receive. In general, unless you're dealing with a lot of mail from a lot of different people, you may want to stick with one Inbox and a few storage folders. An exception to this is if you're receiving lots of spam: unwanted, unsolicited email, usually of the "Lose thirty pounds in three days!" or "I made $100,000 in a week!" variety. You can setup filters to send any mail with the spammer's address into the Trash, or alternately, setup filters that recognize certain keywords (like "amazing deal" or "lose weight") and send any email containing those words into the Trash.
That's it for this part on writing and using email. As you can see, choosing an email client program and using it is a very personal decision which will depend largely on your own habits. A program with lots of folder and filter options is ideal if you're dealing with a lot of mail you have to sort and organize quickly. On the other hand, a simple client program with few frills can be useful if you just want to write and check on things now and again. Having more options is better than none, but simplicity is always best.
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