What does the BCC option in e-mail programs mean?

BCC is short for blind carbon copy and means that e-mail addresses listed on that line will receive the message but not the names of other BCC-listed addresses. So if you want to send a message to a group of people without them knowing the identities of the other recipients, use BCC.

Note: While it's tempting sometimes to send a message to a list of BCC addresses with nothing in the To: or CC: fields, some older e-mail programs have a bug that displays the whole BCC list if there isn't at least one address in the To: field. To avoid this privacy leak, put your own address in the To: field.

How do I send a "Recipient List Suppressed" e-mail?

From time to time you may want to send a message to dozens - even hundreds - of people, and you don't want all of their email addresses to appear in the "To" box: either the box would be too cluttered, or you want to keep the email addresses of the recipients confidential. It's very easy to do, using Distribution Lists.

First, set up an entry in your Contacts list called "Recipient List Suppressed" and give it your email address. Then set up a Distribution List - say, "Monster" - that includes all of the recipients.

When you create the message that's going out to the unwashed masses, use "Recipient List Suppressed" in the To box, and stick the giant Distribution List "Monster" in the BCC field. Viola!

E-Mail Shortcuts Using the 'Signature' Feature

PROBLEM: You often use the same blocks of text in different Microsoft Outlook e-mail messages, and you'd like to be able to drop them into messages quickly rather than having to type them again and again or copy them from previous messages.

SOLUTION: Use Outlook's handy Signature feature. First, select Tools, Options, Mail Format. Next, create a Signature by clicking on the Signature Picker button. This feature is for creating different formal sign-offs for your e-mail messages, but you can use it to create boilerplate paragraphs of text. Then, when you're composing an e-mail and want to add that text, click on the Signature button on the Standard toolbar and choose the appropriate "Signature" entry from the drop-down list.