Emailing Your Grandchildren

Pleasures and Pitfalls

Obstacles to Overcome

Getting set up for email Learning your email interface Handling the unusual: attachments, viruses

The Payoff

An inexpensive and quick way to communicate Fun things: pictures, stories, greeting cards,

smiley faces Grandma and Grandpa are pretty cool!

Getting set up for email

Two kinds of email– Email that comes with your Internet access account– Free email that you access on the Internet from any

computer

Email that comes with your Internet access account

This includes email through AOL, or local companies such as Westelcom, Localnet, Road Runner or Charter Cable.

This kind of email offers you more abilities, since you are a paying customer.

Free email that you access on the Internet

This includes email accounts from Yahoo and Hotmail. You can get one or more of these accounts even if you have email already.

You don’t need to own a computer or pay for Internet access to have this kind of email.

This kind of email is accessible from any Internet computer – at most libraries, for example.

There are some space limitations, and you have to put up with advertising.

How do I get an email account?

If you have a computer at home, and you are able to access the Internet, you already have an email account. Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) can help you set your computer up to receive email.

If you don’t have a computer, you can use library computers or a friend’s computer to sign up for a free email account.

Signing up for a free email account

To sign up, you will need to use a computer that is connected to the Internet.

Use the program Microsoft Internet Explorer to go to the website (either www.yahoo.com, or www.hotmail.com )

Follow instructions and fill in on-line forms to receive your free email account.

Most libraries can help you with this.

Learning your Email Interface

By “interface,” I mean either the computer program (such as Outlook Express) or the web page that you use to manage your email (such as Yahoo.)

Let’s look at Yahoo as an example.

Yahoo’s Email Interface

After signing up, you can send and receive email by visiting www.yahoo.com.

Click on Email, and a password screen appears

Type in your user name (the first part of your email address, such as applebranch) and password – mnhmht

Now you will see the email interface.

The Most Important Functions

Zero in on the most important functions of email: Compose, and Check Mail.

Because it is free, the Yahoo Email Interface is cluttered with advertising. Try to ignore the colorful, flashing ads!

You may need to close pop-up windows by clicking in the “x” in the upper right hand corner. There may even be pop-up ads UNDER your browser after you finish!

Sending Your First Message

Send your first message to yourself – as a test. Click on “compose.” Type in your own email address in the “to”

blank. You will need the entire address, such as applebranch@yahoo.com

Make up a subject – such as “Testing.” Type something short in the message box. Click the “send” button.

Checking Your Inbox

After you send your message, you will receive confirmation.

Click on the “Back to Inbox” link to check for new mail

Soon, your message to yourself should arrive. You can click on “Check Mail” to tell the computer to see if you have new messages.

Common Problems: Address Problems

You may have a problem sending or receiving mail if you or your grandchild has the email address wrong – computers are very picky.

You should receive a message back if your email does not reach its destination. It may include the word “undeliverable.”

Don’t give up!

Solving Address Problems

You may need to talk to your grandchild or your child to confirm that you are using the correct spelling for their email address.

One way to check this is to ask them to send you a message – then you will have their email address and can simply click “Reply.” You can also add them to your address book on Yahoo.

Make sure you tell them YOUR correct address!

Common Problems: Losing Messages While Typing

If you spend a long time composing your message, you may lose all of your work if the telephone connection is lost or some other computer problem occurs.

Short messages are usually best – make it quick and breezy!

If you need to send a lengthy message, click on the “save as draft” button every so often as you work.

Experiment and Play

The best way to learn any computer process is to experiment with it. Click on the buttons and see what they do. Send different emails to yourself and see how they look.

More advanced features to explore are the address book, the spam filters and the folder system.

Fun things to try include adding colors and smiley faces to your messages, sending greeting cards, and including photographs as attachments.

Email Other Than Yahoo

If you use AOL, Outlook Express, or some other mail interface, the features will be similar.

Every mail interface has the basics – composing mail, sending mail, and checking mail.

Outlook Express is different from Yahoo – it stores email on your computer. You must have up-to-date virus protection for this type of email.

Handling the Unusual: Viruses

Yahoo and Hotmail offer some built-in virus protection.

Your email is stored on their computer, which also protects you.

Most viruses are spread by attachments. It is safest to delete messages with

attachments without opening them, unless you were expecting them and know the sender.

Safety Steps

Delete unexpected messages with attachments Install an antivirus program on your computer:

Norton Antivirus or McAfee. Keep your antivirus subscription up-to-date. Use Yahoo, Hotmail or AOL instead of a

program like Outlook Express that stores email on your computer.

The Good Side of Attachments

Attachments can be wonderful. Photographs, pictures and documents that

aren’t just plain text are sent by using attachments.

With the growing popularity of digital cameras, sending attachments by email will probably become more and more common.

Common Problems With Attachments

Your computer may need an extra computer program to “read” the attachment.

The attachment may be a picture that is too large to view or print.

The attachment may be so large that it takes forever to download, especially if you have a dial-up connection to the Internet.

Solving Attachment Problems

Ask the sender if they used a special computer program to create the attachment. Perhaps they can help you find out what program you need to view it.

Ask the sender to try to make the picture smaller so that it will fit on the screen or page, and so that it won’t take too long to download.

You and your sender may need to experiment!

Problems with Junk Mail, or Spam

If you use email, you know that your Inbox can become overloaded with advertising mail.

This happens over time, as your email address becomes known to advertisers.

Be careful who you give your address to! They may sell it.

Yahoo offers some good tools to deal with spam. If all else fails, you can also abandon a free account

and sign up for a new one.

Now, the Payoff

Email is a great relationship “supplement.” You can send fun, free greeting cards on the spur of the

moment. If you enjoy storytelling, you could try sending a story in

short installments. Older grandchildren away at college or in the military love

getting email (although they may love regular mail more, especially care packages!)

You can use email to guide your grandchildren to fun and safe websites, and help them with homework.

Have Fun!