Tip #30 - Addressing Emails

100 Amazing Computer Tips

Tip #30 - Addressing Emails

When you address an email you have three choices as to where the email addresses go: in the To line, the Cc line or the Bcc line. Each has a specific use. Let’s look at them.

Putting someone’s name in the To field indicates that the message directly affects that person or that something is expected from that person. You can send a message to as many people as your email service allows. If the To field contains five or fewer people it’s nice to start the email addressing them individually. “Hi Pete, Sarah, Susan and Harold,” for example. When you address an email to more than five people this becomes cumbersome so a simple “Hi Team” or “Hi All” will suffice. If your name appears in the To field in an email you receive a response is generally expected.

The Cc field has been around for many years and was used in office correspondence to indicate a carbon copy. Since there is no carbon paper on the internet Cc has become known as courtesy copy. Including someone on the Cc line indicates that you are making them aware of the conversation but not necessarily including them in it. In general, if you are in the Cc field no reply is necessary.

And then we have the Bcc field. Bcc stands for blind courtesy copy. Back when I was working in an office on a typewriter we would remove the completed document from the machine, remove the cover page and the first piece of carbon paper, reinsert the document and type in the Bcc names. That meant that the recipient didn't know that additional people were copied on the document. It can still be used in that way to include additional people when you don’t want the recipients to know that others were copied, but in the email world it has a better use.

When you are sending an email to a distribution list and you don’t want people to see everyone else’s email addresses, you would put all of the names in the Bcc field. This helps protect everyone’s privacy. It’s interesting to note that you can send an email with only names in the Bcc field. In the early days of email it was required that someone’s name appear in the To box, that’s no longer true.  To review:

To          People are required to take action

Cc          People are kept informed of the content, but no actions required from them

Bcc        Receive the message without any of the other recipients knowing

Please share this tip with all of your friends but be sure to use the Bcc field for their email addresses.

Happy Computing!

Diane

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