Short Tutorial - Taking Carbon Copied Names Out Of Email Messages
May 15, 2005

Are you looking for a simple way to remove long recipient lists from messages you want to forward to others? These are the emails that have been forwarded many times over or have been carbon copied to dozens of people by a single sender. Cornerstone Publishing and STI would like to provide a simple method for "cleaning-up" messages like these –– and it's good Internet etiquette to do so.

In Outlook Express, follow these simple steps:

1. Highlight the text of the email message (not including the list of all of the carbon copied email addresses) you'd like to send to your friends and then copy it. This can be done by using the keyboard command CTRL + "C". (You can also use a handy right click short cut to copy. Just right click on the selected text and choose "Copy" from the drop-down menu.)

2. To create a new email message, click your cursor arrow on the "Create Mail" button. Paste the original copied text in to the new message window by using the keyboard command CTRL + "V" or by right clicking and choosing "Paste" from the drop-down menu.

3. To send the cleaned up version to others, place your own email address in the "To:" field and place the email addresses of your friends in the "Bcc:" (blind carbon copy) field of the email header. Click your cursor arrow on the "Send" button located in the email header to send the message. Delete the message when it comes to you. When your email arrives at its destinations, your friends' email addresses will not appear within the email header nor within the message itself if the email is then forwarded to others. Only your email address will appear as the original sender. Hopefully, your friends will follow proper Internet etiquette by "cleaning-up" (removing) your email address from his/her message before forwarding your email message to others.
If a "Bcc:" option does not show up on your email header when using Outlook Express, click your cursor arrow on "View" in the menu bar located at the top of your screen. Next, select "All Headers" from the drop-down menu. The "Bcc:" field will be visible below the "Cc:" field. The "Bcc:" field will now appear as an option each time you create a new message from scratch or when forwarding or responding to email messages.

For those using Netscape, go to "Mail" and click on the "Compose" button. The "To" field will have a flashing insertion bar. The "To" label is actually a button. Click your cursor arrow on it and a drop-down menu will appear with several options. Select "Bcc" and begin entering email addresses.

For those of you using Apple's Mail.app, click on the "New" button to create a new message and type your addresses in the "Bcc" field directly below the "Subject" field. Remember when copying text to use the Command + "C" keys. Use the Command + "V" to paste. You can also "Control" + click (right click if you have a two button mouse) on the selected text and select "Copy" or "Paste" from the resulting drop-down menu.

NOTE: With most email client software like Outlook Express, Netscape, or Mail.app you don't have to put anything in the "To" field to send to the addresses you list in the "Bcc" field. However, many spam filters will flag or block messages to Undisclosed Recipients because it's a common spammers' trick to load hundreds of addresses in the Bcc field with nothing in the "To" field. Putting your email address in the "To" field will keep the phrase "Undisclosed Recipients" out of your message.

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