The e-mail activities you have done so far have all been activities you have completed while you were logged on to the Internet. There may be times when you will find it advantageous to work "offline".

For instance, if you use one of the free webmail services (HotMail, YahooMail, GMail, etc.) you may find that your connection with the service "times out" if you spend too much time composing the message. If that happens, when you click the Send button, you will see an error message that says "Your session has expired, please log in again." (or something equally disturbing). You may be able to hit the web browser's back button and copy your message from the previous screen but often the message that you composed has disappeared.

Here is a little shortcut that you can use to prevent that problem.

Most computer operating systems have a built-in text editor (Notepad or WordPad for Windows and SimpleText or TextEdit for Macs) that is useful for cutting and pasting text between applications. If you don’t already know where your text editor is located, take a few minutes to find and create a desktop shortcut or alias for this little text editor.

Windows Users:

Notepad and/or WordPad are located in the Accessories.

1. Click on Start
2. Click on Programs
3. Click on Accessories
4. Click on Notepad or WordPad.
5. Try them both and decide which one you would rather use.

Windows users can create a desktop shortcut for Notepad or WordPad with the following procedure.

1. Click on Start
2. Click on Programs
3. Click on Accessories
4. Right click on Notepad or WordPad
5. From the Send To options, select Desktop (create shortcut)
6. Notepad or WordPad will now be accessible at any time simply by double clicking the Notepad or Wordpad shortcut icon.

Mac Users:

1. Click on the Finder (two-faced blue icon in the Dock)
2. Click on Applications
3. Look for TextEdit
4. Drag the TextEdit icon to your Dock
5. Or... If you want to create a desktop shortcut, hold down the Control key while you click on the TextEdit icon
6. Select Make Alias
7. An Alias for TextEdit will appear in the Applications window
8. Drag this icon to your desktop
9. Now you can open TextEdit at any time by simply clicking on the Dock icon or desktop alias.

Use the following steps to create an e-mail message that you will cut and paste into an e-mail message the next time you open your e-mail client.

1. Open your simple text editor (NotePad, WordPad, or TextEdit) and compose a short message you want to send.
2. When you finish composing the message, navigate to the Edit menu and choose Select All (or hold down the mouse button while you drag across the text you want to select.)
3. Then choose Copy from the Edit menu to transfer the text of your message to the clipboard.
4. Open your e-mail client and open a new message.
5. In the "TO:" field, type your e-mail address
6. In the "SUBJECT:" field, enter a title for the message
7. Move the cursor into the "TEXT:" field and click once to position the text insertion bar.
8. Go to the Edit menu again and click on Paste.
9. The text you entered earlier should appear.
10. SEND the message.
11. Check your e-mail to view the message that you composed offline.

The Importance of Regular Maintainence

Without regular maintenance, an e-mail account can become clogged with old messages and junk mail. Many webmail accounts have limits to how much can accumulate. When you reach your storage limits, new mail may be rejected.

it is a good idea to periodically delete messages that you no longer need. If you do that on a regular basis as you read your mail, your e-mail client will be less cluttered and maybe even a bit faster.

Creating Folders to Manage Archived E-mail

Obviously, you won't want to keep everything in your INBOX. You will want to create some folders and move messages into these folders after you have read it.

Most e-mail clients make it possible to create folders into which you can organize and save important messages. Check your e-mail client's Help files for details on how to create folders and how to move messages into these folders.

Printing E-mail

Sometimes it is good to have hard copy of important e-mail messages. If you just need to print a small portion of the message text. With the message visible on the screen, select the text that you want to print. If you are using a Windows computer select Print from the File menu and look for Selection in the Page Range section of the print dialog box. Select that option and click the Print button.

If you are using a Mac computer (or if you want to move the text to a word processing document with a Windows computer), select the text, select Copy from the e-mail client's Edit menu, open a word processor or text editor document and select Paste from the word processor's Edit menu. Print the message.

The more time you spend using e-mail, the more of these little shortcuts you will find. E-mail is like anything else worth doing… practice makes perfect!

Record the date you completed this activity in your logbook.

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