Sending an email is four small decisions: who it goes to, what it is about, what it says, and when to press Send. This page walks through all four so nothing is left to guess.
A new email is a blank form with three boxes at the top and a large empty area underneath. The boxes are To, Subject, and the message body. That is the entire thing.
- The address on the envelope
- The label they see before opening it
- The letter itself
Try it yourself
Click New Email at the top left, or press Ctrl+N.
This opens a blank message window. Nothing is sent until you choose to send it, so you can experiment freely.
Click in the To box and start typing a name or address.
Outlook offers matching people as you type. Picking a suggestion avoids typing an address wrongly, which is the most common reason mail bounces back.
Click in the Subject box and write a short description, such as 'Appointment on Thursday'.
The subject is what the recipient sees in their list. A clear one gets read; a blank one often gets ignored or filtered as spam.
Click in the large area below and type your message.
This is ordinary typing. You can press Enter for a new line exactly like in Word.
Read the To box one more time, then click Send.
The one thing you cannot easily undo is sending to the wrong person. A two-second check prevents it.
Words people use
Check yourself
If you can say yes to each of these, you are ready for the next lesson.
- I can open a blank message
- I can pick a recipient from the suggestions instead of typing it out
- I always write a subject
- I check the To box before pressing Send