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Using the To button vs To line, CC and BCC to AutoFill email addresses

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2.02, Autofill Email Contacts - Exercise.docx
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Quick reference

Autofill Email Contacts

Using the To button vs To line, CC, and BCC to AutoFill email addresses.

When to use

Every time a new email is created an email address is entered. This is done from either the To 'button', or the To 'line' with a click of the mouse.

Instructions

Click the Outlook Home ribbon, "New Email" button to start a new email.

When the new email is open, click the To button and choose a name from your contact list.

If the name you need is not in your contact list, then simply type the name onto the To line of the email.

This new name is now a part of the "Autofill" list that is created in the background of Outlook.

The Autofill list cannot be manually prepared in advance, but rather it builds itself as email addresses are entered.

CC and BCC

Almost all email programs feature these basic fields when preparing to send your message:

  • CC: "Courtesy Copy" or "Carbon Copy" - the email will be sent to anyone added to the CC field, and their email addresses will be visible to everyone else
  • BCC: "Blind Courtesy Copy" - the email will be sent to anyone added to the BCC field, but they will be invisible - nobody will see their email address

The BCC field can be toggled on or off under the Options ribbon.

From Field

If you have multiple email address accounts set up in Outlook, you can choose which email address to send From when writing your email message.

The From field can be toggled on or off under the Options ribbon.

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  • 00:04 So I am inside of a brand new email and
  • 00:08 I've got my To and my Cc buttons right here on top.
  • 00:13 But with To comes in from contacts, but the line next to it comes in from
  • 00:18 a mystery autofill list, so that's why this is called autofill contacts.
  • 00:23 This isn't a contacts lesson, this is how to send the email to the right person.
  • 00:28 All right, so I'm going to go ahead and shrink this.
  • 00:31 So you can see my contacts on the left-hand side.
  • 00:34 Notice, I do have my contacts.
  • 00:36 So when I click the To button on email, here is the matching contacts,
  • 00:43 on the left and on this dialog box, cancel on that.
  • 00:49 Now notice, I'm going to go ahead and click on the line itself.
  • 00:52 I didn't hit the To button, I hit the To line.
  • 00:55 It's got different people in here that are not on the list on the left on my contact.
  • 00:59 Well, what's going on?
  • 01:01 Well, the answer is this, and it's not a simple answer, it's complicated answer.
  • 01:06 I can send an email to someone and not have them in my contacts.
  • 01:10 Well, then those email addresses accumulate on this list.
  • 01:14 It's like this little secret background list.
  • 01:16 You can't import it, you can delete things from it.
  • 01:20 So maybe there's one on there that I don't need, I could just come over and
  • 01:24 hit the X and make it vanish.
  • 01:25 It would be gone just like that.
  • 01:27 There's no way I can really add to this list manually,
  • 01:31 it just happens as I send, receive emails.
  • 01:34 But the To line, the To button that is connected to my contacts,
  • 01:39 as well as the Cc button connected to my contacts.
  • 01:43 Let me show you something you can set up in here.
  • 01:45 I'm going to go to the options.
  • 01:46 Again, I'm in a brand new email, go into Options, and
  • 01:50 right under the Options button, I have two other buttons.
  • 01:54 One is a Bcc, that means courtesy copy.
  • 01:58 So whoever is on the Bcc line will be able to see who I've sent this email to.
  • 02:06 But the To and the Cc will not know that I send an email to a Bcc.
  • 02:11 They will not know that.
  • 02:13 It's perfectly fine to use it.
  • 02:15 It's been around for generations, even in paper letters.
  • 02:18 Okay, the other button up here is the From line.
  • 02:21 When I click From, up pops my email address,
  • 02:24 who I'm sending it from, but also a drop-down arrow,
  • 02:28 because you can have multiple email addresses set up in your Outlook.
  • 02:33 So when I click the From, here could be my list of email addresses that I want to
  • 02:37 send something from different email account.
  • 02:40 The basic purpose of that is so you can keep your emails categorized and
  • 02:45 sorted even as they leave your door.
  • 02:47 You can turn those off, the From and the Bcc, and go back down to just main email,
  • 02:53 To and Cc, or you can turn them on under Options.
  • 02:56 I'm going to set my view back to Message, and that's it for
  • 03:01 this lesson about autofill contacts.

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