When I'm at work: Using a computer - Trainer's guide
Chapters
Sending and receiving email
- What is email?
- What is the Internet?
- Email addresses
- Opening Microsoft Outlook®
- Reading your emails
- Replying to an email
- Deleting an email
- Creating a new email
- Attaching files
- If supported employees in your organisation do not have email access, leave this section of the training out.
- If email access is available make sure that each of the learners has an email address and send each learner a couple of emails, one without any attachments and one with an attachment.
What is email?
Email stands for electronic mail and you can use email to:
- send messages to another person or a group of people
- receive messages from people
- attach documents, pictures or sounds to messages.
What is the Internet?
The Internet is a network of computers all over the world that allows you to access, download and send information through your computer.
The Internet is avilable 24 hours a day, and the types of things you can do on the Internet include:
- email, using platforms such as Hotmail
- research information, using search engines such as Google or Yahoo
- online buying and selling, using places such as eBay or stores that are online
- online chatting, using facilities such as MSN or MySpace
- financial transactions, such as Internet banking
- access online libraries and encyclopaedias.
Email is one of the most used services on the Internet.
- Explain to the learner that we will only be looking at email in this resource and not at the other Internet services available.
- If appropriate for the group, explain some of the Internet terms above, for example, 'platform' and 'search engine'.
- A computer platform describes the hardware or the framework that lets software programs operate on the computer. Typical platforms include the operating system.
- A search engine is designed to search for information on the web. Search engines use key words to search for information. For example Google® is a search engine and you can search for information by typing in a word or a phrase. The search engine will then search the web for articles, documents, etc, that have those words or information about the topic.
- Download means to open and copy, print or save information that is on the Internet onto your computer. The information is said to have been downloaded.
- Explain to the learner what their Business Services' policy is on accessing the Internet.
Email addresses
Every user needs their own individual email address.
Typical email addresses may look like:
allyson@bigpond.com.au
bwilliams@fahcsia.gov.au
| User name | This is the name or identity of the person sending the email | allyson | bwilliams |
| @ | At | @ | @ |
| Domain name | This is the organisation that gets paid for you to use emails | bigpond | fahcsia |
| Organisation | Indicates the type of organisation or group, for example: com – commercial organisation net – local Internet service provider edu – educational institution gov – government body. |
com | gov |
| Country | This is the country code, for example: .au – Australia .nz – New Zealand .uk – United Kingdom The only country that does not use a code is the United States. So their addresses end after .com |
au | au |
Opening Microsoft Outlook®
Open the email program used in your workplace.
Please note our example here is for Microsoft Outlook®.
- Click on the Start button.
- Choose email or Microsoft Outlook® from the menu.
- Your Microsoft Outlook® window will now be on screen.
Email features
The areas at the top of the screen are called the Menus and Toolbar. From the menus and toolbar you can choose menu items and 'tools' to tell the computer what you want it to do with an email. Your supervisor or trainer will show you some of the menu items and 'tools' you can use.
| Inbox | This is where you receive your emails |
| Outbox | This is for emails you are still sending |
| Delete | This is where you delete your messages after you don't need them anymore – sometimes this is called the Recycle Bin |
| Forward | You can forward a message that you have received to another person |
| Attach Files | Sometimes you want to send more than just a message. Attaching allows you to add files, images, sounds and videos to the message to send |
| Sent Items | This is a list of emails you have sent |
Inbox toolbar
| Button | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
1 
|
New | Create a new email |
2 
|
Print this page | |
3 
|
Move to folder | Move this email to a folder |
4 
|
Delete | Delete email and send to Recycle Bin |
5 
|
Reply | Reply to this email |
6 
|
Reply all | Reply to all people on this email |
7 
|
Forward | Forward this email to someone else |
8 
|
Send/Receive | Send/receive all emails in draft folder |
9 
|
Find | Find |
10 
|
Rule | Make a rule for email |
11 
|
Contact | You can type the name of someone you have sent an email to before and their email address will be on the screen |
12 
|
Help | Access the Help Menu |
Talk with the learner about the toolbar and demonstrate the common menus and icons.
Reading your emails
The emails area shows the emails you have received. If the text is bold, this tells you that it is an email that you have not read yet.
- Click on the Inbox. You will now see a list of all of the emails that you have received.
- To read your emails click on each of the bolded entries one by one and read.
Activity: Reading your emails
Read the emails in your Inbox that are bold.
Replying to an email
After you have read an email you can send a reply to the person who sent you the message.
To reply to an email:
- With the email you received open, click on the Reply icon
from the toolbar. On the table on page 47 this is number 5. - On the screen will be an email with the address of the person you are sending the email to.
- Type your message.
- Click Send.
- The email will no longer be on your screen.
Deleting an email
When you have finished with an email you can delete it.
To delete an email:
- Click on the Delete icon
on the toolbar. This was number 4 in our table on page 47. - Notice that the email is now gone from the list of emails in your Inbox.
Activity: Deleting your emails
Click on the email you wish to delete in your Inbox.
Click on the Delete key 
on the toolbar.
Your email is now in the Deleted Items folder.
Explain to the learner how to empty the Deleted Items folder .
Explain to the learner why they need to empty their Deleted Items folder.
Creating a new email
To create a new email message:
- Open Microsoft Outlook®.
- Click on the New button
. A blank message will be on your screen.
Explain to the learner each of the icons on the toolbar and how they can be used.
- Type in the address of the person you are sending the email to.
- Type in the subject of the email.
- Type in your message.
- To send your email click on the Send button
.
Activity: Creating a new email
Create an email to your trainer or to another learner.
Type in a message and click send.
Encourage learner to create, send and reply to emails during the training session.
Attaching files
Sometimes you might need to attach a document, picture, or another type of file to your email. For example, you might need to send your supervisor an email telling them about a safety problem in your work area and you might need to attach a file such as a report.
To attach a file to an email:
- Open Microsoft Outlook®.
- Create a new email. Remember to fill out the address and the subject.
- Click on the Attach button
. - A dialog box will be on your screen.
- Ask your trainer to help you choose an attachment for your email.
Show the learner how to turn the computer off at the end of the session.
Summarise this topic with the learner and sign the topic checklist in the learner's workbook.