Introduction to email Workshop Using Yahoo.ca Handout GETTING STARTED ...................................................................................................... 1 PREREQUISITES ................................................................................................................ 1 WHAT YOU WILL LEARN................................................................................................... 1 WEB BASED EMAIL ...................................................................................................... 1 CREATING AND USING A YAHOO.CA EMAIL ACCOUNT ................................. 2 CREATE A YAHOO.CA EMAIL ACCOUNT ........................................................................... 2 USE YOUR EMAIL ACCOUNT ............................................................................................. 3 Login to your email account ....................................................................................... 3 Read your email messages .......................................................................................... 3 Write and send an email message............................................................................... 4 Send and open email attachments............................................................................... 6 Delete email messages ................................................................................................ 8 Block unwanted email messages................................................................................. 9 VIRUS SAFETY ISSUES .................................................................................................... 11 Yahoo email virus scanner........................................................................................ 11 Millennium Learning Centres are funded by Handout Workshop Introduction to email Using Yahoo.ca Getting Started Prerequisites You must be familiar with the basics of: • Computer operations such as using the mouse and the keyboard • Microsoft Windows • Internet and the World Wide Web Please let the instructor know if you do not meet the prerequisites. What you will learn • • Create an email account using Yahoo.ca Access your new email account • Open and read email messages • Write an email message Send email messages • • • • • Send and open attachments Delete email messages Understand email virus safety Block unwanted email messages Web based email There are two kinds of email accounts: web based and non-web based. A non-web based email account is provided by an Internet Service Provider (ISP) such as the Sympatico service from Bell Canada and is usually only accessible from your own home computer. You must have an account with this ISP to have this type of email account. A Web based email account can be used by anyone who has access to a computer and the Internet. Web based email is provided by many different companies. Below is a list of different companies offering free email services. The Millennium Learning Centres has a partnership with National Capital Freenet www.ncf.ca (an Ottawa non-profit organization) www.mail.com www.hotmail.com www.gosympatico.ca www.canada.com/email/ www.yahoo.ca For this particular workshop you will be learning how to create an account and use Yahoo.ca’s email services. Millennium Learning Centres (MLC) has developed this workshop material. The material is being distributed under the Open Content Licence, which can be found at http://opencontent.org. You are welcome to use the material but please acknowledge that it was developed by MLC and indicate any changes you make on the material. Millennium Learning Centres – January 2003 1 Handout Workshop Introduction to email Using Yahoo.ca Creating and using a Yahoo.ca email account Yahoo.ca is one the most popular free Canadian online email services. With Yahoo.ca you have access to your email from any computer in the world that is connected to the Internet. It includes great features such as: • • • • • 6MB of email storage (space in your account to store emails) SPAMGUARD™, which is a Yahoo proprietary system, intended to reduce the amount of junk mail you receive in your email inbox A virus scanner A file viewer that enables users to preview attachments they have received without having to download the file 120 days of inactive use Note. Make sure to login and use your email account before the end of the 120 inactive days. Yahoo deletes accounts that have not been used for 120 days. Also, it is important to keep in mind that since Yahoo.ca is Web based, its features, services and look will change over time. This workshop was developed in January 2003. Create a Yahoo.ca email account 1. Open Internet Explorer or Netscape Internet browser 2. Type the Web site address www.yahoo.ca in the Internet browser’s address bar 3. Click on the little mail icon at the top right of the Web page 4. You should now be on the Welcome to Yahoo! Canada Mail Web page 5. Click on Sign up now 6. Read the Terms of Service and click I accept if you want to continue with the creation of a Yahoo.ca email account 7. Fill in the registration form by carefully following the instructions in the right hand side column 8. Remember to write down or note the ID and Password you have created 9. Click ►Submit This Form at the bottom of the registration form 10. Take note of your Yahoo.ca ID from the confirmation page Millennium Learning Centres – January 2003 2 Handout Workshop Introduction to email Using Yahoo.ca You now have an email address with Yahoo.ca. Your ID is the first part of your email address. Your email address could be something like mlc@yahoo.ca. The first part “mlc”, which is what you chose to call yourself, is also your Yahoo ID. The second part “@yahoo.ca” is the name of the Web mail service being used. Notice that an @ sign separates your ID or name from the name of the Web mail services. Please close the Web browser so you can open a new Yahoo Web page for the next exercise. Use your email account Login to your email account 1. Open Internet Explorer or Netscape Internet browser 2. Type the Web site address www.yahoo.ca in the Internet browser’s address bar 3. Click on the little mail icon at the top right of the Web page 4. Type in your new user ID and Password (you have created in the previous exercise) in the Existing Yahoo! users box 5. Click ►Sign In If all of the information you have provided is correct, you will be welcomed to your new email account. If some of the information you provided is not correct, Yahoo might ask you to verify the information before activating your account. Follow the instructions given by Yahoo and you should be able to access your new Yahoo account in no time. Read your email messages You are now able to read your email messages. You should have a message from Yahoo that you can read. To read a new email message: 1. Click ►Check Mail at the top on the left hand side of your mailbox. This will bring you to the Inbox. Millennium Learning Centres – January 2003 3 Handout Workshop Introduction to email Using Yahoo.ca In the Inbox, you will find information such as: • • • • Who sent you the email under Sender What the subject of the email is under Subject The date the email was sent on under Date The size of the email message under Size 2. Click on the subject of the message you would like to read This is what an opened email message looks like. After you have read the message, you can choose to either: • • • • Click ►Reply to send a reply to the sender Click ►Forward to forward the message to someone else Click ►Delete to delete the message Leave it there for now 3. Click ►Back to Messages You should now be back in your Inbox. Once you have read a message, the message's subject line will no longer appear in bold font in your list of messages. Only the subject lines of your unread messages will appear in bold. Write and send an email message You can go back to your emails by clicking on the Mail button in the top left corner of your Yahoo email account page. You are now able to write and send email messages. 1. Click on the Compose button to begin composing a message Millennium Learning Centres – January 2003 4 Handout Workshop Introduction to email Using Yahoo.ca 2. Type the recipient's email address in the To: field (an email address could be something like mlc@yahoo.ca) To send your message to more than one person, add additional email addresses in the "To:" field separated by commas (,). 3. Type the subject of your message in the Subject field 4. Type your message in the large text box Check the spelling of your message: 1. Click on the Spell Check button at the bottom of the email window If you do not have any misspelled words, you will receive a message saying, “No misspelled words found” Any words that may be misspelled will appear in red on your screen. The spell checker will give you suggestions of correctly spelt words. 2. Select the word that you initially meant to type 3. Click on the Change button 4. Click on the Ignore button if the spelling is right but the spell checker does not recognize the word (i.e. foreign language words) A notice box will appear letting you know when the spell check is complete. 5. Click on the Edit Your Message button at the bottom of the page to return to the Compose Mail window when you are finished checking your spelling. Keep this message open for the next exercise. Millennium Learning Centres – January 2003 5 Handout Workshop Introduction to email Using Yahoo.ca Send and open email attachments You can send pictures, documents or files as attachments with your email messages. You can also open and view attachments that are sent to you. Attach a file to your email message: To send files (documents, pictures, etc) to other people, you must “attach” them to an email message. 1. Click ►Attach Files 2. Click ►Browse A Choose File window will appear letting you select a file to attach 3. Click on the arrow from the Look in box 4. Select a picture, a document or a file from your diskette (3 1/2 Floppy A: drive) or from the computer in My Documents 5. Click ►Open in the left corner at the bottom of the choose file window to attach the document, the picture or the file You will be sent back to the Attach Files window. You should see the selected file in the File 1 box. 6. Click ►Attach Files Millennium Learning Centres – January 2003 6 Handout Workshop Introduction to email Using Yahoo.ca You will receive a Files Attached confirmation. 7. Click ►Done if you do not want to attach any more files This will bring you back to the Compose window. Notice that the name of your file is now showing under Attachments: [Attach Files]. 8. Take one last look and make sure you have not forgotten anything 9. Click ►Send, once you are ready to send your email You will receive a confirmation that your email has been sent. Open and view an email attachment: To open and view an attachment that someone has sent you: 1. Click ►Check Mail at the top on the left hand side of your mailbox. This will bring you to the Inbox. 2. Click on the subject of the message you would like to read to open this message If there is an attachment, there will be a little paper clip on the subject line of the message. 3. Click on the paper clip to view the attachment 4. Click on Download File at the bottom of the page Millennium Learning Centres – January 2003 7 Handout Workshop Introduction to email Using Yahoo.ca 5. Click Open in the File Download box This will start a program on the computer that will allow you to view the attachment. You should now be able to view your email attachments. Note. If the computer does not have the necessary program to open your attachment, it will send you a notice. You may not be able to view that specific attachment. It will have to be resent to you in a program that the computer can recognize. Delete email messages It is best not to open unsolicited emails because you could be accessing a service you do not want. You can delete a message without ever opening it or you can choose to delete an email that you have read and do not wish to keep. It is recommended to delete old email messages once in a while since space to store your emails in a free Web mail account is restricted. Delete an unwanted email without opening it 1. Click ►Check Mail 2. Click in the little check box beside the email message you do not want to open 3. Click ►Delete Delete a message after reading it 1. Click ►Check Mail 2. Click on the subject of the message you would like to read 3. Read your message 4. Click ►Back to Messages 5. Click in the little check box beside the email message 6. Click ►Delete Millennium Learning Centres – January 2003 8 Handout Workshop Introduction to email Using Yahoo.ca Block unwanted email messages Yahoo’s Bulk mail folder From time to time, you will receive junk mail. Junk mail is unsolicited and unwanted mail. Yahoo has already created a folder were it automatically sends any unsolicited emails. This is called the Bulk folder. If Yahoo suspects that an unsolicited email is being sent to you, it will send it directly to the Bulk folder. This is their SpamGuard system that can be turned ON or OFF. You can turn SpamGuard ON or OFF: 1. Open the Bulk mail folder and click on ON or OFF. You will need to check the Bulk folder to make sure that you do not have good emails in there because sometimes errors can occur and your wanted emails could end up in the Bulk folder. Make sure to delete the emails in your Bulk folder periodically because it is taking up space in your email account. You may still receive unwanted emails in your Inbox but you can choose to block any emails from any sender from reaching your email Inbox again. If you receive an unwanted email 1. Go through steps 1 and 2 of Read your email messages If it is junk mail (Spam) and you do not wish to receive any emails from this sender again: 2. Click on This is Spam in your email message 3. Click in the little box beside Block Address and Report Message in the This is Spam window Millennium Learning Centres – January 2003 9 Handout Workshop Introduction to email Using Yahoo.ca This will send a message to Yahoo saying that this particular email address is junk mail (Spam). 4. Click ►Continue This will bring you back to your inbox and a message saying that you have blocked a certain sender from sending you emails. You can always remove this sender from your blocked list in case you made a mistake. 1. Click on the Blocked Addresses link in the message box 2. Select the email addresses your wish to remove from your Remove Block list You will receive a message telling you that you have removed a certain email address from your block emails list. Make valid emails come in the Inbox folder instead of the Bulk folder If you find an email in your Bulk folder that you actually want to receive in your Inbox, you can let Yahoo know that you want this kind of email to go to your Inbox. 1. Click ►Check Mail at the top on the left hand side of your mailbox. This will bring you to the Inbox. 2. Click ►on the Bulk folder link on the left of your email box 3. Click and open from your Bulk email folder the email message you wish to send to your Inbox Millennium Learning Centres – January 2003 10 Handout Workshop Introduction to email Using Yahoo.ca 4. Click on the This is not spam link inside the email message This will bring up a This is not Spam message box. 5. Click and place a check mark in Report Message to yahoo and in Create Filter to send this email message to your Inbox from now on 6. Click ► Continue This will bring you back to your Bulk email folder. Virus safety issues Email viruses move around in email messages, and they usually replicate by automatically mailing themselves to dozens of people. To avoid a virus, never open an email attachment from someone you don’t know. Do not give away your e-mail address to people you don’t know. Yahoo email virus scanner Yahoo’s email virus scanner automatically scans all outgoing e-mail file attachments. You can also choose to scan incoming email file attachments by clicking on the Scan with Norton Antivirus feature. Millennium Learning Centres – January 2003 11