Managing Your Yahoo! Mail

Ramsey County Library

Maplewood Library3025 Southlawn DriveMaplewood, MN 55109

651-704-2033

Mounds View Library2576 County Hwy. 10

Mounds View, MN 55112763-717-3272

New Brighton Library400 10th Street NW

New Brighton, MN 55112651-724-6002

North St. Paul Library2300 North St. Paul DriveNorth St. Paul, MN 55109

651-747-2700

Roseville Library2180 Hamline Ave NRoseville, MN 55113

651-628-6803

Shoreview Library4570 N. Victoria StreetShoreview, MN 55126

651-486-2300

White Bear Lake Library4698 Clark Avenue

White Bear Lake, MN 55110651-407-5302

www.rclreads.org

Yahoo! Mail is a web-based email. This means that your Yahoo! Mail account is actually a website residing on Yahoo! Mail server. With your Yahoo! ID and password, you can access and send Yahoo! Mail messages from any computer with an Internet connection. None of the messages that you send or receive are stored on your local computer. Instead, they are stored in your mailbox on a Yahoo! Mail server.

Accessing and Receiving Yahoo! Email

You may check your e-mail from any computer that is connected to the internet by typing www.yahoo.com in the address line and clicking on the Yahoo! Mail icon. Type your Yahoo! ID and password in the appropriate boxes to access your e-mail account. When you type your password, you will see only asterisks, so type carefully. Then click on “Sign in.” The next screen will tell you if you have any new messages in your inbox. Click on “Inbox” to read your messages.

To check your E-mail, you must first go to Yahoo’s website. Type www.yahoo.com in the address line

From The Yahoo! Website, click the “Mail” icon to sign into your Yahoo! email account

Type in your Yahoo! ID and password. When you type your password, you will see only asterisks, so type carefully. Then click on “Sign in.”

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Reading a Message

Yahoo! Mail keeps email messages in mail folders. Initially, all of your incoming email messages arrive in your Inbox folder. Click your inbox to read your mail.

To open and read your mail, click the text of the subject of the message. You can open any message whether it is bold text (an unread message) or plain text (a message you’ve already read). After clicking on the subject line of the message, the message opens where you can read it, reply to it, forward it, delete it, and more

This is the page you will see when you log into your Yahoo mail account

Click your inbox or Check Mail button to read your mail.

To open and read an e-mail message in your inbox, click the text of the subject of the message.

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Deleting a Message

You can delete a message from you inbox by clicking in the check box, and then clicking the “Delete” button. You can delete all the messages in your inbox by clicking the check box at the top of your inbox.

Marking a Message

You may choose to mark important messages by flagging them by clicking the check box and then clicking the “Actions” button. You can then select from the menu to mark as unread (will bold the subject of the email), as read (will un-bold the subject line), or flag the mail to alert you to follow up later.

Click the check box and then the “Delete” button to delete a message.

Click this check box to delete all the messages in your inbox

Flag important messages by clicking the check box and then the “Actions” button.

Select desired action from the menu. Mail can marked, or flagged for follow up.

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Creating Folders

Yahoo! Mail allows you to create as many personal folders as you would like so your email is easier to manage. Personal folders help you organize your incoming and outgoing mail messages in ways that make sense to you.

Folders are listed on the left side of your Yahoo! Mail page. Click “+” next to the word Folders. A new windo will appear allowing you to name it. Enter a folder name and hit the “Enter” key. Your new folder appears under the “Folders” heading in the folders list.

Moving Messages Between Folders

You can move messages between your inbox folder and your personal folders. From your inbox folder, click the box to the left of the message you want to transfer (or if you want to move more than one message, check the box to the left of each message). Then click the “Move” button. A pull-

Click “+” to create a new folder

Type the name of your new folder

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down list will appear showing all folders. Select the destination folder. Your message will now be moved into the selected folder.

Renaming and Deleting Folders

You can change the name of a personal folder anytime or delete it completely when you no longer need it. Simply right click over the folder you would like to rename or delete and select your desired action from the menu.

Click the “Rename” option or the “Delete” option to the folder you would like to either change or delete. You can only delete empty folders.

Click the box to the left of the message you want to transfer. Then click the “Move” button. Then select the destination folder.

Click “Rename” to change the name of your folder or “Delete” to delete the folder.

Right click the folder your would like to rename or delete.

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Sorting Messages in a Folder

When you first view a folder’s contents, the messages are automatically sorted in descending order by the date they were sent. The most recent messages appear at the top of the list.

You can sort messages in a folder by date you received them, who you received them from, or their subject.

Click “From” to organize your mail alphabetically by Sender name. Click “Subject” to organize your mail alphabetically by subject, and click the arrow next to “Date” to sort by descending or ascending date order.

Permanent Folders

Click arrow next to date to sort by descending or ascending date order.

Click “From” or “Subject” to organize your mail alphabetically by sender or subject.

Inbox – Your main folder that contains all of the email sent to your Yahoo! Email account.

Draft - Saved mail messages that have not yet been sent. You can later re-open the message, continue composing, and send it.

Sent – All the mail you have sent automatically gets put in your Sent Folder.

Spam – Yahoo! Automatically routes suspect mail that could be spam into your Spam Folder.

Trash – Deleted mail goes into Trash Folder 7

Spam

Spam is any message or posting, regardless of its content, that is sent to multiple recipients who have not specifically requested the message.

Websites that are less reputable or that have privacy policies that are less strict may sell your email address to spammers. Just as some merchants send junk mail to your house, spammers send unsolicited email with the hope that you will buy their products or services. Since it is very inexpensive to send an email message, spammers can afford to send millions of them, even if only a small number of people respond by purchasing their products. They send their messages from numerous different-and often falsified-addresses, which makes them hard to track.

The following are some things you can do to help reduce the amount of Spam that comes to your Yahoo! Mail account:

Never respond to unsolicited email – A response lets the spammer know that your email address is active, which makes it more valuable and opens the door to more spam.

Never send your personal information – (credit card numbers, passwords, etc.) in an email. No legitimate company would ever ask for personal information via email.

Never follow a spam email’s instructions to reply – This is often a ploy to get you to react to the email, which let’s the spammer know that your email address is valid.

Never sign up with sites that promise to remove your name from spam lists – Although some of these sites may be legitimate, most are actually address collectors and may actually sell your address to spammers.

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Yahoo! SpamGuard

The SpamGuard utility includes filters that automatically send suspected spam to a special Spam folder. When SpamGuard is turned off, Yahoo! Mail delivers all incoming email, including junk mail messages, to your inbox. When turned on, SpamGuard identifies suspect messages and routes them to your Spam folder, where you can review them.

You have the ability to control your SpamGuard filter and change certain settings. Click the “Options” link in the upper left, then “Mail Options” from the drop down menu. Click “Spam” from the left menu.

SpamGaurd identifies suspect messages and routes them to your Spam folder

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Composing and Sending Email

The Yahoo! Mail Compose page is where you write and send email messages. You can get to this page from the main Yahoo! Mail page. Click the “Compose Message” button.

Just as you address a letter that you send through the post office, you address email messages so that Yahoo! Mail knows where to send them. Do this by entering one or more email addresses in the To field. Multiple addresses can be separated by a comma, semicolon, or a space.

You can also send copies of your message to other contacts by entering their addresses in the Cc (carbon copy) field. Everyone who receives your message can see the addresses in the To and Cc fields.

To send a copy of your message to someone without revealing that person’s email address to the other recipients, enter the contact’s name in the Bcc (blind carbon copy) field. Click “Add Bcc” to display a Bcc field.

Click the “Compose Message” button to type an email.

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Your email message includes an optional subject field. The subject provides a short description about the message. Although the subject is optional, including it lets someone receiving your message know right away what it’s about.

Type your message in the big empty box. Write as much as you like; the text field won’t limit your composition. It expands and scrolls.

Use the Formatting tools above the text box to change fonts, change font size, bold, italicize, underline, change text color, indent, bullet check spelling, and more!

Fill in the e-mail address of the person you are sending in the To: field. Remember, there are no spaces in an email address.

In the subject field include a brief phrase that describes your e-mail.

Type your message in the big empty box.

When you are finished composing your message, click the ‘Send’ button to send your mail.

Use various formatting tools to compose your message.

Check spelling by clicking spelling button.

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Save as a Draft

To save a message that you are composing but not ready to send, click the “Save as Draft” button. You can later re-open the message, continue composing, and send it.

Re-open saved messages to continue composing by opening your “Drafts” folder.

Click “Save as Draft” to save a message before sending.

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Attaching Files

An attachment is a file that you can include as part of your email message. You can attach all types of files to your message, including word processor or spreadsheet documents, audio files, image files, and more.

When someone receives your message with the attachment, he or she can open the file in the file’s native application (the application in which the file was created).

You can add attachments to a message by doing the following:1. Click “Attach” button (It’s below the To: field)2. Then “Attach Files” button that appears.3. In the window that opens, Find the file saved on your computer.4. When you’ve got it, click it, then click “open.” The file will attach to

your message and will appear.5. Repeat these steps to attach more files.

Click “Attachments” to attach a file or photo.

Find the file you want to attach in a folder or drive on your computer.

When you find the file you want to attach, click it and then click “Open.”

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Creating an Address Book

The Yahoo! Address Book is like any other address book in that it contains contact information for your friends, associates, family, etc. It’s easy to get started with your Yahoo! Address Book, just open it and start adding contacts. Click “Contacts” from menu at top.

Click ‘New Contact” to add detailed contact information in your Address Book

To add contacts to your Address Book, first click “Contacts .”

For each new contact type at least a name or an email address. Type additional information in the remainder of the form if you would like.

Remember to click “Save” after entering your contact’s information

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Sending Email to Multiple Contacts

You can send one or more people an email message from your contacts as long as their details contain an email address.

Display all your contacts that contains the name you want to email Click the box next to each name you want to email Several options will appear on the right Click “Compose Message” The Mail compose page opens with the email addresses automatically

displayed in the To: box

To send mail to multiple contacts, check the box next to each name in your address book and click “Compose Message.”

The email addresses of your contacts automatically will appear in the To field of your Compose page.

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Creating Groups of Contacts (Lists)

If you often send email to a group of contacts, you can group these contacts into a category so that you can easily send emails to the same group over and over.

Click “Contacts” tab. Click “New List” near the top of the page. In the box that displays, type the List name (no spaces), then click

“OK”

Adding Contacts to a List

You can add one or more contacts to one or more categories. Display all of your contacts Check the box next to each contact that you want to add to the List The right side of the page will list several options Click “Assign to List” button A window will appear showing current Lists, select one or more Lists

or type a new List and click “Done”

Click “Contacts” and then the “New List” button

Type in List name and click “OK”

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Check the box next to the name of the contact that you want to add to a category

Click “Assign to Lists”

Select desired List or create a new List

Click “Done” to add checked contacts to selected List

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