This series is dedicated to specific e-mail providers on the internet. In this installment, the service provider concentrated on will be Yahoo! Mail.

Yahoo! Mail is one of the oldest free e-mail providers on the internet. It was originally launched on October 8 1997, and to date has one of the largest userbases in the world.

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Working with drafts

When composing an e-mail, Yahoo! Mail will automatically save a draft copy after a few minutes – or – if you click to another tab in the middle of composing it will auto-save a draft immediately.

You can also immediately save as a draft for later by clicking the “Save Draft” button at the top in the composition window.

You will know you have a draft (or drafts) by looking at the “Drafts” folder to the left – next to it will be a number. Whatever that number states is how many drafts you currently have.

If you want to delete drafts, just click the drafts folder and delete them.

Note: If a draft is read the number will no longer show but the draft will still be in the folder. You should check it periodically to make sure it doesn’t get cluttered up.

Working with File Attachments

Yahoo! Mail’s free version allows up to 10MB of file attachments.

When composing an e-mail and you want to attach a file, simply click the “Attach” button (right next to “Send”).

All attached files are shown directly below the subject line and looks like this:

Each file will have a small paperclip next to it indicating it is a file attachment.

Note: Any file uploaded is scanned by an anti-virus program on Yahoo!’s side to ensure you don’t send someone a virus-infected file by mistake.

Working With Options

The Options section of Yahoo! Mail is something you should familiarize yourself with as there are many things there you can change to suit your preferences.

General

Recommended settings:

• You should have “Save a copy of the message in the Sent folder” checked.
• Examine the shortcuts section and select which you feel should be underlined when reading e-mails (at bare minimum, Email addresses and URLs should be checked)

Signature

This is completely optional to use. Most people won’t see the need to add in a signature. However if you want to, I recommend composing one in “Rich Text” so you can add in things such as emoticons and colored text.

Spam

Recommended settings for this area:

• “Automatically send suspected spam to my Spam folder” should be checked.
• “Show images only from contacts” should be selected.

“Disposable Addresses” is only available to paid Yahoo! Mail users, which allows for the fabrication of other “temporary” e-mail addresses to use in the efforts of thwarting spam.

The best option you may use here often is the Blocked Email Addresses list. Here you can enter in e-mail addresses that you absolutely DO NOT want to receive mail from (particularly useful if someone is bothering you).

Filters

The free version of Yahoo! Mail allows up to 15 filters. A filter allows you to route mail to a specific folder upon receive if it fall within the filter criteria you set. You can route it anywhere (including the Trash).

Accounts, POP & Forwarding

These options screens allow you to be able to send mail “as another” if you choose and allow the download of mail via POP or to forward all your Yahoo! Mail to a different address entirely. Note: The POP & Forwarding is a paid option.

Vacation Response

If enabled, this auto-sends a response mail (i.e. a “canned response”) to people who send you mail for a set period of time.

It is recommended that you DO NOT use this option. If you tell people you’re on vacation, some people could use this information to know you’re not there so they can break into your house and steal your stuff!

Conclusion

Yahoo! Mail is still one of those most powerful and intuitive mail systems out there on the internet – and whether you’re a paid or free user it’s tough to find anything else that works as well.

Next up… Gmail!

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