E-mail – the What, Why, When and How
What?
Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages (“mail”) between people using electronic devices.
Wikipedia.org
Email is a key communication tool, an easy way to send information to one or many people, and used by almost everyone – business and personal.
Why?
You want to send a message or information to someone or a number of people.
Why email when you can call or text?
Maybe it needs to be longer than a text message…
It may be that you don’t want to call and interrupt the person, or you don’t have their number.
Email is a quick way to send information to one or multiple people.
When
The simple answer is any time you want to send or share information with someone.
An email can be sent to one or many people, and you can write your text in the message body, or it can be attached (in a separate file).
It’s a standard method of communication within business – as it’s saved and can be referenced later.
But it’s also a popular method between friends and family.
Email Address
The only information you need is the address to send your message to.
It’s made up of two parts, separated by the ‘@’ (at sign).
In an address, the first half identifies the person or mailbox, and the second half is the company – a bit like your name and street address.
The name is most often something unique to the person – small companies may only use the first name, while larger companies (with more employees) may use firstname and surname or first initial and surname.
You may also have more generic accounts like hello or info, or departments IT, support, media, HR etc., where a group of people have access to the address.
For the second half (after the @), it’s either the company that you’re working for (e.g. a business) or the company that you’re using for email or internet (outlook.com, gmail.com, amazon.co.uk, tesco.com).
How
Read email through a program on your computer, via your smartphone, or through a web browser.
Once again, Microsoft and Google offer the most well known options…

Microsoft Outlook

Google Mail / Gmail

Apple Mail
Take a look at my Services to see how I can help.
Latest Posts
- Ready to Create Your First Microsoft Loop Workspace?If you read last week’s blog, you’ll already know what Microsoft Loop is and who can access it. Now it’s time to get hands-on and create your first Microsoft Loop workspace. Don’t worry if you’re not sure where to start — by the end of this post, you’ll have your own workspace set up and… Read more: Ready to Create Your First Microsoft Loop Workspace?
- Microsoft Loop – Time to Actually Use What’s Already in Your M365 ToolkitIf you’ve been asking yourself what is Microsoft Loop, you’re not alone. It’s one of those tools that quietly appeared in your Microsoft 365 apps and left you wondering, “what on earth is that?” In this post, I’m going to break it down in plain English so you can decide whether it’s worth exploring. So,… Read more: Microsoft Loop – Time to Actually Use What’s Already in Your M365 Toolkit
- Busy But Not Out of Office? Teams Has You CoveredIf you’ve ever wished there was a way to let people know you’re heads-down on something without setting up a full out of office, the Microsoft Teams status message is exactly what you need. It’s a small but mighty feature that sits quietly in Teams, waiting to be discovered. In this post, I’m walking you… Read more: Busy But Not Out of Office? Teams Has You Covered
- The Quickest Way to Navigate Microsoft TeamsIf you spend a lot of time in Microsoft Teams, you’ll know the struggle — endless scrolling through chats and channels trying to find the one you need. The Microsoft Teams GoTo command is here to fix that. It’s a simple keyboard shortcut that takes you straight where you need to go, no scrolling required.… Read more: The Quickest Way to Navigate Microsoft Teams
- Can’t Find Your Unread Teams Messages? Try This FirstHave you ever noticed a notification in Microsoft Teams telling you there’s an unread message, but no matter where you look, you just can’t track it down? You’re not alone — it’s one of those small but genuinely frustrating things that can eat up your time. The good news is there’s a really simple way… Read more: Can’t Find Your Unread Teams Messages? Try This First





