The use of e-mail is increasingly becoming the most common and beneficial form of communication in the workplace.  Abiding by a few rules can help ensure your recipients receive your message in the most effective way possible.

Blind Carbon Copy (BCC):

By using the BCC feature you preserve the identities of those who are on your mailing list and ensure that anyone receiving your email cannot email your list or harvest their email addresses for profit. 

In addition, the BCC feature allows you to craft a simple yet effective distribution list.   Simply add the e-mail addresses, separated by semi-colons, to the “bcc” field. Then, add your e-mail address to the “To” field. If you add a recipient's name to this box in a message, a copy of the message is sent to that recipient, and the recipient's name is not visible to other recipients of the message.

Carbon Copy (CC):

The CC feature allows you to include third parties in your correspondence. In addition, the function allows you to copy your e-mail address for important correspondence. Including an e-mail address of a colleague who asked you to reply to a third party in the CC field is perhaps the most common use of this function. If you add a recipient's name to this box in a message, a copy of the message is sent to that recipient, and the recipient's name is visible to other recipients of the message.

Signatures:

You can create custom signatures for different types of audiences. For example, use your first name for messages to friends and family or internal colleagues, or your full name and e-mail address for messages to external business contacts. You can also use a signature to add "boilerplate" text, such as an explanation of how you want others to respond to your messages. Simply right-click on your standard signature in the message box to change your signature.

To create a signature in Microsoft Outlook, complete the following steps.

1. From the main Microsoft Outlook window, on the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Mail Format tab.
2. In the Compose in this message format list, click the message format that you want to use the signature with.
3. Under Signature, click Signatures, and then click New.
4. In the Enter a name for your new signature box, enter a name.
5. Under Choose how to create your signature, select the option you want.
6. Click Next.
7. In the Signature text box, type the text you want to include in the signature.

You can also paste text to this box from another document.

1. To change the paragraph or font format, select the text, click Font or Paragraph, and then select the options you want. These options are not available if you use plain text as your message format.
2. To add an electronic business card — vCard — to the signature, under vCard options, select a vCard from the list, or click New vCard from Contact.

Click Finish when you are done editing the new signature.