We hope you are sending and receiving email-if you're reading this, you must be! Email is a great way to keep in touch with family and friends. If you have forgotten any of the basics of Yahoo! Mail, you can review the steps to sending and receiving mail, as well as the other features of Yahoo! Mail, using the online tutorials. Sign in to Mail; the tutorial link is on the upper right. Here's another page of Yahoo!Mail hints from a longtime email user.

You can customize your Yahoo email, too. After you sign in to your email account, click on Options (upper right corner), then click General Preferences. You can make changes to how your name appears in the From line, how messages are sorted, the color scheme, and more. One useful feature is changing the default font size for your email.

Just a reminder--when you are finished viewing your email on the library's computer, always click Sign Out in the upper left of Yahoo!Mail. This is especially important if you are using a computer at your library or another public place. Just clicking Close or the X in the upper right of the screen doesn't break the connection to Yahoo! It's the difference between hanging up at the end of a conversation and putting the phone on "hold." The next person who picks up a phone on hold is connected to your conversation. You don't want the next person at the computer to be able to read your email!

Modern methods of communication have created a need to re-think etiquette. While the basics of writing a "friendly letter" or a business letter remain the same,email has its own set of dos and don'ts that may not seem obvious at first.

• Rereading what you've written to correct typos, grammar errors, and other mistakes is a thoughtful start toward good email manners.
• Typing in all capital letters means you are shouting (except in cases when your recipient has poor vision or other disability that makes reading easier with capitals).
• Summarize your message in the Subject field. This helps people organize their email. Leaving the subject field blank or just putting in "Hi" or some other meaningless phrase may cause the recipient to delete your email as spam or a scam.
• Sending huge files as attachments may fill up the recipient's mailbox, causing their other email to be undeliverable. Use your Yahoo!Photo account to send photos to avoid large attachments.
• Hitting the forward button is too easy. Think before you forward chain letters, jokes, and similar items. Not everyone wants their email box cluttered up with this type of mail.
• Be aware of your words; don't say anything in an email that you wouldn't say in public. Emails are easy to forward, even accidentally. It can be embarrassing to have that happen.

There are several sites that discuss netiquette. Netmanners gives tips on how to use email politely and effectively. This site offers an online newsletter that will keep you up-to-date on Internet courtesy. Learn the Net is a good site for all kinds of information on the Internet, including email netiquette.

Don't let the anonymity of writing on a blank screen and pushing "send" make you forget your manners. A real person is receiving your message.

Every issue of Stay Connected@your library has mystery links to take you to interesting and informative Web sites. Have fun exploring by clicking the links under Just for Fun in the sidebar. For more exploration and learning, click on the hypertext links on each of these Web pages, too. If you find an interesting site you would like to share, send us the link at the email address below.

Watch for new Mystery Links in each issue.