Once you have received an email message, you have a number of options for responding to it.
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Not everyone is comfortable with "instant" email responses (you get a message from them and reply minutes later). When you respond instantly, you convey an expectation that they should also respond quickly. You might want to consider waiting a bit . . . |
There are subtle variations between each option. See the table below for a summary of the variations.
The table below shows you the differences between each of the commands in Eudora for responding to messages.
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Field |
Reply |
Forward |
Redirect |
Send Again |
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To: |
Sender's Address |
Recipients address |
Recipients address |
Recipients address |
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From: |
Your address |
Your address |
Original sender's address ("by way of" redirector's address) |
Your address |
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Text of the message |
Copied |
Copied |
Copied |
Copied |
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Copied text indicator |
Symbol |
Symbol |
None |
None |
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Signature |
Yours |
Yours |
None |
Yours |
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Original attachments |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
All email programs give you the ability to reply to a message. The reply command:
Many times you receive an email message from someone who sent copies to one or more other people. You need to decide if you want your reply to be sent to all the people or just the sender. Most email programs (for instance Eudora) let you decide to automatically reply to only the sender or all of the people. This means you have to remember how you set up the program. Some programs can be set up to ask you each time you reply to a message.
"Re:" stands for Regarding. So the new subject is regarding the original message. If you have been replying and re-replaying to a particular message, there might be a number of "Re:"s in the subject field. You can cut out the extras if you like.
It is a good idea to include the original text in your reply (unless the original message is really long and your reply is really short). This makes it easier for the person who sent the message to remember what they sent. Otherwise, they have to dig through the mail they sent to figure out what they sent to you.
Failing to include at least some of the original text with your reply could make a response of "I agree" or "Fine with me" not very useful.
People have different ideas on where to put the text of their reply. You can put it before the original text, you can put it after the original text, or you can break up the original text and insert the appropriate part of your reply just before or after the appropriate part of the original text.
What are the advantages of doing any of these methods?
If you place your reply before the original text, the sender will see your reply first. If they need to review their message, they need only to scroll down to it.
If you place your reply after the original text, the thread of the message follows a natural progression. This is very important when a message is replied to a number of times. Anyone reading the message starts at the first message and can read down to the current reply.
If you choose to insert your reply, the person reading your reply can more easily see which of their points your reply pertains to. This is useful when you reply to a longer message which covers several different points.
It is a good idea to separate your reply from the original text because this makes it easier for the person reading the message. Many programs can be set to put a ">" symbol at the beginning of each line to indicate this line is part of the original text. The program receiving the reply can often be set to color the lines with the symbol differently to set them off.
> What is your opinion on this project?
For messages that are replied to several times, you will see the symbol once for each time a reply was made. Programs which color the lines with the symbol can also be told to give a different color to lines with one, two, three, or more symbols.
> What is your opinion on this project?
>> I thought it was fine.
>>> Let's get together and talk about it.
Some programs set off the original text with a phrase ("You Wrote:" for instance) and a line. They might even include the person name ("Ted Bade wrote:").
Signatures might be a problem if a message is "replied to" a number of times. If each reply includes the previous text and signature, there will be a lot of unnecessary text in the message. You might want to choose not to include your signature on every reply.
Why would you want a copy of your reply? Most programs store a copy of your outgoing mail on your computer, so if you just want a copy, you don't need to send a copy to yourself. However, if you are uncertain that your mail server isn't working properly, sending a copy to yourself lets you know the message got to the mail server.
If you are sending a reply from a computer that is not your own, you will need to copy your own email address to be sure you get a copy.
When you forward a message, you are sending email you received from one person to another person. Using the forward command brings the entire text of the original message, any attachments to the message, and inserts your address in the "From:" field.
Forwarding a message also adds header information to the forwarded message. Header information includes things like who it was originally from, where it went to, the time it was sent, the date, and so forth. This information is not very important in most cases. Here is a sample of a long header.
When you redirect a message you are sending an email from one person to another person, just like forwarding. The text and all attachments are included with the message. However, when you redirect a message, the "From:" field will contain the original sender's address and not yours. Some programs might add a line indicating that the message was sent "by way of" your email address.
Sometimes you might receive an email message that really should go somewhere else. If you are contacting a company and don't know exactly who your email should reach, you can send it to what you think is an appropriate address and ask that they redirect it to the right person. The person receiving the email message would redirect it.
Some programs include the Send Again command. When you send a message again it simply re-sends your message and all its attachments, keeping everything the same. If you need to make changes to the message, you will be able to make them.
You might use this if you think an email you sent was lost on the Internet or the person who got the email accidentally deleted it. You might have received a cryptic message telling you the message couldn't be sent. Inside the text somewhere should be the reason why. More than likely, you had an incorrect email address. Use the send again command, correct the problem, and send it. This command saves several steps when compared to rebuilding your message. Here is a sample of a returned message.
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