Tutor Tips from ... the Computer Tutor

19 December, 2004

Bcc: to Everyone

Mass e-mailing can be a good thing and it can be a bad thing. It really depends on the sender. Most sane people consider spam to be a bad thing, although you can find some interesting bargains contained within a few.

Sending the same e-mail individually to 200 of your closest friends can be a pain in the outbox for you. Fortunately, e-mail programs allow you to send the one message to a large group enmasse. There are three methods for adding numerous addresses to one e-mail message – one proper and two improper.

Improper Mass Mailing
 In programs such as Outlook, Outlook Express, Netscape Mail, Mozilla Thunderbird, and Eudora, you can open the address book and select several or all of your contacts. Then, you can put the names in the box called “To:” and send the message to all of them. Another method is to put all of the names in the box called “Cc:” (carbon copy – a term from antiquity when typewriters and carbon paper roamed the Earth).

There is a downside to these methods and it affects both the sender and the recipients. If you use the “To:” or the “Cc:” options, the address of EVERYONE to whom you sent the message appears in each message. Not only does the recipient have to scroll through the list of 200 e-mail addresses, the recipient now has the list of the 200 addresses. In many professions – health care and legal come to mind – this can be illegal if the list contains even one patient or client address. It can be embarrassing too, for example, if your spouse sees your former paramour is still on your mailing list.

Proper Mass Mailing
 Fortunately, e-mail programs have a safe and sane way to send mass mailings. It is the “Bcc:” or blind carbon copy feature. Historically, Bcc: has been used to send a message to an individual with a copy to someone else. That someone knows he or she received a copy, but the first individual does not know someone else received a copy.

Some Internet service providers (Isp) automatically tag messages with a large number of recipients as spam. You may have to experiment to see what the largest group is you can include in a single message.

Here is how to use Bcc: in a variety of programs:

Outlook Express

  1. Start a new message by clicking on the Create Mail icon or by selecting File, New, Mail Message.
  2. In the To: box type your e-mail address (some Isp’s balk if the To: box is blank)
  3. Click the book icon next to the Cc: box. This will open your address book.
  4. Click the first name you wish to Bcc: to highlight it.
  5. Hold down the CTRL key and continue to click the names you want until you have all of them highlighted. [To select the entire group, click the first name on the list, scroll down to the end of the list. Hold the Shift key and click the last name on the list.]
  6. To the right of the highlighted list, click the Bcc: button and then click Ok.
  7. Add the subject and type the message, then send it.

Outlook

  1. Start a new message by clicking on the New icon or by selecting File, New, Mail Message.
  2. In the To: box type your e-mail address (some Isp’s balk if the To: box is blank)
  3. Click the book icon next to the Cc: box. This will open your address book.
  4. Click the first name you wish to Bcc: to highlight it.
  5. Hold down the CTRL key and continue to click the names you want until you have all of them highlighted. [To select the entire group, click the first name on the list, scroll down to the end of the list. Hold the Shift key and click the last name on the list.]
  6. To the right of the highlighted list, click the Bcc: button and then click Ok.
  7. Add the subject and type the message, then send it.

Netscape Mail

  1. Start a new message by clicking on the Compose icon or by selecting File, New, Message.
  2. In the To: box type your e-mail address (some Isp’s balk if the To: box is blank) and press enter. This will put another “To:” box below the address.
  3. Click on Options from the menu and click “Select Addresses.” This will open your address book.
  4. Click the first name you wish to Bcc: to highlight it.
  5. Hold down the CTRL key and continue to click the names you want until you have all of them highlighted. [To select the entire group, click the first name on the list, scroll down to the end of the list. Hold the Shift key and click the last name on the list.]
  6. To the right of the highlighted list, click the Bcc: button and then click Ok.
  7. Add the subject and type the message, then send it.

Mozilla Thunderbird

  1. Start a new message by clicking on the Write icon or by selecting File, New, Message.
  2. In the To: box type your e-mail address (some Isp’s balk if the To: box is blank) and press enter. This will put another “To:” box below the address.
  3. Click the down arrow to the left of the second “To:” box. This will drop a list from which you can select “Bcc.”
  4. Click on the Contacts button or click View, Contacts sidebar. This will open your address book.
  5. Click the first name you wish to Bcc: to highlight it.
  6. Hold down the CTRL key and continue to click the names you want until you have all of them highlighted. [To select the entire group, click the first name on the list, scroll down to the end of the list. Hold the Shift key and click the last name on the list.]
  7. Right-click the group of selected names and click “Add to Bcc field.”
  8. Add the subject and type the message, then send it.

Eudora

  1. Start a new message by clicking New on the Message menu.
  2. In the To: box type your e-mail address (some Isp’s balk if the To: box is blank) and press enter.
  3. Click on Tools, Address Book. This will open your address book.
  4. Click the first name you wish to Bcc: to highlight it.
  5. Hold down the CTRL key and continue to click the names you want until you have all of them highlighted. [To select the entire group, click the first name on the list, scroll down to the end of the list. Hold the Shift key and click the last name on the list.]
  6. Click the Bcc: button and then click Ok.
  7. Add the subject and type the message, then send it.

If you are going to forward the mass mailing you received from someone, be kind enough to clear out all of the addresses and other extraneous “>”s. Your friends will appreciate it greatly. You might want to forward this Tutor Tip to the sender of that mass mailing as a subtle hint.

Most e-mail programs allow you to create mailing lists in the address book. This will allow you to click on the group and add them to the Bcc: line. Check your e-mail program’s help file for instructions.