Sending and replying to emails in Outlook

The basics of email

Email is all about sending and receiving everything from short notes to long letters, catalogues, newsletters, and much more.

Using an email service like Outlook, you can:

• create a New email
• Reply to an email you've received, and if that email was sent to more than one person, you can Reply all
• Forward an email to somebody else
• send an email to more than one person at once, by adding more addresses in the To field
• attach photos, files, documents and even videos.

How to send a new email

To create and send an email:

1. click the New mail button at the top of the left menu in the Outlook screen
2. the Inbox is replaced by an empty email
3. click the To field and enter the email address of the recipient
4. click the Add a subject field and enter a short title
5. click in the white space below the Add a subject field and type your message
6. when you are happy with the message, click Send and it will be delivered to the recipient.

eSafety tip

If you forget to enter a subject, Outlook will remind you when you try to send the email, but you can leave this blank if you want.

Outlook automatically includes some text saying Sent from Outlook in your message. If you don’t want this in your email, you can click to the right of it and press the Backspace key repeatedly to delete it.

How to reply to an email

To reply to an email, open the email in the Read screen, then:

1. scroll to the bottom of the email and click on the Reply button
2. the screen will change to show a new email with the Display Name and email address of the person to whom you are replying already in the To field
3. you can type your reply in the white space, and click the Send button at the bottom of the screen.

The Subject of a reply email

You will notice that the Add a subject field is already filled in when you Reply to an email. The reply will be sent using the same subject as the original email, with Re: put at the front. For example, Family reunion will become Re: Family reunion.

You can click in the Add a subject field and type something different if you like.

Using Reply all

If you have received an email that has been sent to many other people at the same time, you can send a reply to everyone, not just the sender:

• click the Reply all button at the bottom of the email, type your reply, and click the Send button
• Outlook will automatically include all the names that appear in the original email, including yours.

To delete individual names from the Reply all list:

• click Reply all, then click the list. Click the small cross next to each name you want to remove
• type your reply and click Send.

How to Forward an email

Forwarding an email is similar to replying:

1. scroll to the bottom of the email and click the Forward button
2. the screen will change to a new email containing the text of the email you are forwarding, and a blank To field
3. type an email address into the To field
4. type your email message and click the Send button

The Subject of the forwarded email will be the same as the original email, with Fwd: added to the front (for example, Fwd: Family reunion). You can click the Add a subject field and type in a new subject before sending if you prefer.

Send emails to multiple people

To send an email to more than one recipient:

• click the email's To field and type an email address, followed by a comma
• type in the next email address, followed by a comma, and so on.

Outlook can usually separate email address automatically, but if you put a comma between each address, Outlook will be sure to send them to the right recipients. You can add commas between addresses when using New mail, Forward, Reply, and Reply all.

How to add an attachment

To attach a file or picture to your email:

1. after you've written your email, click the paper clip icon on the right of the Send button
2. from the menu that appears, choose Browse this computer
3. a File Explorer panel (in Windows) or a Finder panel (in MacOS) will appear

How to add an attachment (cont'd)

4. navigate to find the file or document you want to attach, and click it
5. the file will appear at the top of your email, above the text. If it's a large file, a coloured bar will fill to show the file is uploading to Outlook
6. when the coloured bar disappears, you can type your message underneath the file (if you haven't already done so), and your email is ready to send.

eSafety tip

You can add attachments to your emails when you create a New mail, Reply, Reply all, or Forward. The attachment will be sent to everyone whose name appears in the To field.

Well done!

This is the end of the Sending and replying to emails in Outlook activity. You've learned how to send and reply to emails, and how to add attachments.

Next, find out about Outlook's organisational tools and folders help keep things organised, in the How to use Outlook Folders and Search activity.