How to Send an Email Message

This topic shows you how to send an email message to individuals in your program. To send an email message, you need a Web-based email client or program, such as Gmail or Hotmail, or Microsoft Outlook.

Using a Web-based Email Program

Using Microsoft Outlook

Using a Web-based Email Program

If you use a web application (for example, AOL, Mail, Gmail, Yahoo, or Outlook.com) to send email, follow these instructions. You can send email from any page that has this email button: .

Internet Explorer Users: To use Outlook.com to send email from within the ParishSOFT Family Suite, you must enable Internet Explorer's ActiveX capabilities. If you need instructions, go to How Enable ActiveX Controls in Internet Explorer.

1. Create a list of potential recipients. Then, select the desired recipients.

There are several ways to do this:

• If on the Classes page, you can combine classes and then select recipients from the combined list. First, select the classes you want to combine from the list on the Class List tab. Next, click to create a list of students (displayed on the Students tab) and a list of leaders (displayed on the Leaders tab) in those classes. Finally, select the desired names from the lists.

• If the page contains a set of rolodex filters, select the desired filters to find your recipients. Then, select the ones you want to receive your email.

• Use the page buttons at the bottom of the grid to advance through the records in the list. Select the desired individuals. The application stores your selections as you move from page to page.

• Click this button in the grid header to select all individuals on the page you are viewing: . A checkmark appears next to all selected names.

To deselect all currently selected individuals, click this button again: .

2. Click to open the View Recipients window.

The email addresses of selected recipients are displayed. For example:

Only unique email addresses are displayed. If you select multiple recipients who have the same email address, the application selects the first individual it encounters with the duplicate email address and puts that individual's name in the View Recipients list.

3. By default, Recipients list includes the email addresses of students only. To change the list of recipients, select one of the following options from the Recipients dropdown list:

• Parents:  the list includes email addresses of parents only.
• Students & Parents: the list includes email addresses of both students and parents.

4. Verify that the recipients' list is correct. Then, do the following:

• If you need to add one or more recipients to the list in the View Recipients window:

1. Click to close the window and return to the list.

2. Check the names of individuals that you want to add to the View Recipients window.
3. Click .

The View Recipients window is re-displayed. The individuals you selected are added to the list.

• If you need to remove one or more email addresses from the View Recipients window, select the checkbox to the left of each individual's name. Then, select Clear Unchecked to remove the addresses.
• To remove all email addresses from the list, select Clear All. You can then add new recipients to the list by repeating Step 1.
• To remove all email addresses from View Recipients window and load all unique email addresses from your selected recipients, select Load from Grid.

If you selected recipients from a filtered list, the Load from Grid function loads all unique email addresses from that filtered list. If you selected everyone on the list, the application loads all unique email addresses from that list.

5. Click . Then, do the following:

Be aware that the email addresses of multiple recipients listed in the To: and  Cc: lines can be seen by all other recipients. This is typically not desirable because it makes your recipients' email addresses public. Consider using the Bcc: line to keep your recipients' email addresses private

1. Select the line in which you want the selected recipients' email addresses to appear:

• To: recipients to whom you are directly communicating. If have multiple recipients in the To: line, each recipient can see the email addresses of all other recipients.
• Cc: (short for Carbon Copy or Courtesy Copy) recipients who receive a copy of your email message.
• Bcc: (short for Blind Carbon Copy) recipients to whom you are not directly communicating, but whom you want to receive a copy of your email message. Email addresses of recipients listed in the Bcc: line cannot be seen by other recipients.  

The Send Web Based Email window is displayed. By default, the application puts your email address in the From: line the sender and in the To: line as the first email recipient:

You can use your keyboard's Delete key to delete an email address. For example, if you do not want to receive a copy of your email message, you can delete your email address from the To: line. You can also cut or copy one or more email addresses from one line and then paste them into another line.

You must use a comma to separate email addresses.

2. Complete the fields in the email header:

• (Optional) Type (or copy and paste) email addresses in the remaining email recipient fields.

• Type the subject of your email message in the Subject: line.

• If you have a file to attach, click Attach. Browse to the location on your hard drive and select the file. Click to close the Attach File(s) window.

3. In the Message field, type the body content of your email message.

4. Select a format for the body content of the message.

• Design: Rich Text Format (RTF), the default message format for Web-based email. Supports formatting, including bullets and alignment, various font styles and sizes, and background and text colors.

• HTML: an HTML version of the body content for recipients who prefer HTML email.

5. In the Password field, type the password you use to log in to your web-based email application. If you want the system to remember your password, check the Save Credentials box.

6. To send your email message, click .

Using Microsoft Outlook

Follow these instructions if you are using Microsoft Outlook as your email program. You can send email from any page that has this email button: .

To use Outlook, you must have both Outlook and Internet Explorer installed on your computer. Your browser must be Internet Explorer and you must also enable Internet Explorer's ActiveX controls.

1. Create a list of potential recipients. Then, select the desired recipients.
2. There are several ways to do this:

• If on the Classes page, you can combine classes and then select recipients from the combined list. First, select the classes you want to combine from the list on the Class List tab. Next, click to create a list of students (displayed on the Students tab) and a list of leaders (displayed on the Leaders tab) in those classes. Finally, select the desired names from the lists.
• If the page contains a set of rolodex filters, select the desired filters to find your recipients. Then, select the ones you want to receive your email.\
• Use the page buttons at the bottom of the grid to advance through the records in the list. Select the desired individuals. The application stores your selections as you move from page to page.
• Click this button in the grid header to select all of the individuals on the page you are viewing: . A checkmark appears next to all selected names.

To deselect all currently selected individuals, click this button again: .

3. Click to display the View Recipients window.

The window lists the recipients you selected. For example:

Only unique email addresses are included in this list. If you have multiple recipients in a list who have the same email address, the application selects the first individual it encounters with the duplicate email address and puts that individual in the View Recipients list.

4. By default, the Recipients list includes the email addresses of students only. To change the list of recipients, select one of the following options from the Recipients dropdown list:

• Parents:  sends the email to the parents' email addresses only.
• Students & Parents: sends the email to both the students' and parents' email addresses.

5. Verify that the recipients' list is correct. Then, do the following:

• If you need to add one or more recipients to the View Recipients window:

1. Click to close the window and return to the list.

2. Check the names of individuals that you want to add to the View Recipients window.
3. Click .

The View Recipients window is re-displayed. The individuals you selected are added to the list.

• If you need to remove one or more email addresses from the View Recipients window, select the checkbox to the left of each individual's name. Then, select Clear Unchecked to remove the addresses.
• To remove all email addresses from the list, select Clear All.
• To remove all email addresses from View Recipients window and load all unique email addresses from the list you selected your recipients from, select Load from Grid.

If you selected recipients from a filtered list, the Load from Grid function loads all unique email addresses from that filtered list. If you selected all recipients from the list, the application loads all unique email addresses from that list.

6. Click . Then, do the following:

Be aware that the email addresses of multiple recipients listed in the To: and  Cc: lines can be seen by all other recipients. This is typically not desirable because it makes your recipients' email addresses public. Consider using the Bcc: line to keep your recipients' email addresses private.

1. Select the line in which you want the selected recipients' email addresses to appear:

• To: typically used for recipients to whom you are directly communicating. If have multiple recipients in the To: line, each recipient can see the email addresses of all other recipients.

• Cc: (short for Carbon Copy or Courtesy Copy) recipients who receive a copy of your email message.

• Bcc: (short for Blind Carbon Copy) typically used for recipients to whom you are not directly communicating, but whom you want to receive a copy of your email message. Email addresses of recipients listed in the Bcc: line cannot be seen by other recipients.  

Outlook opens. By default, the application puts your email address in the To: line as the first email recipient.

2. Complete the fields in the email header:

• (Optional) Type (or copy and paste) email addresses in the remaining email recipient fields.

• Type the subject of your email message in the Subject: line.

• If you have a file to attach, click . Browse to the location on your hard drive and select the file. Click to attach the file.

3. In the Message field, type the body content of your email message:

4. To send, click .

Related Topics

About the Student Directory Page

About the Leaders Page

How to Enable ActiveX Controls in Internet Explorer

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