Email communications are common in the corporate environment.
Electronic mail (also known as e-mail , an English term derived from electronic mail ) is a service that allows the exchange of messages through electronic communication systems.
The concept is mainly used to name the system that provides this service via the Internet through the SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) protocol, but it also allows us to name other similar systems that use different technologies. Email messages make it possible to send, in addition to text, any type of digital document (images, videos, audios, etc.).
How email works
The operation of email is similar to that of postal mail . Both allow you to send and receive messages, which reach their destination thanks to the existence of an address . Email also has its own mailboxes: these are servers that temporarily hold messages until the recipient checks them.
The American Ray Tomlinson was the one who incorporated the at sign ( @ ) into email addresses, with the intention of separating the name of the user and the server on which the mailbox is hosted. The explanation is simple: @ , in English, is pronounced at and means "in" . For example: [email protected] is read carlos at server.com (that is, carlos at server.com ).
Structure of an email
In addition to everything stated above, we also have to make known what the basic structure of any email is. Thus, we find the following basic elements:
The recipient. In this box called "To", you can include both one and several addresses of people to whom the email will be sent. In addition, the opportunity is given for those addresses that are going to be included not to be visible to the rest of the people who receive them.
Emails can be sent from computers and phones.
The matter. It is the section where the topic on which the email revolves should appear briefly and concisely.
The message. In this large section, you write the message you want to send. So that said text is, aesthetically speaking, just as we want, tools are offered with which to choose the font, alignment, color, hyperlinks and even emoticons.
Files attached to email
However, we cannot ignore that when sending an email, in addition to the aforementioned text, and as we have highlighted previously, we can incorporate various materials or files. This means that we can attach documents of various types (texts, spreadsheets, databases, PDFs...) as well as photographs and even videos.
Then, whoever receives said email has different possibilities. Thus, not only can you read it and respond to the sender, but you can also forward it to other recipients, archive it, permanently delete it, mark it, add tags to it, and also classify it as spam.
The email service is offered in two modalities: known as webmail or webmail , where messages are sent and received through a web page designed especially for this; and the service through an email client , which is a program that allows you to manage received messages and write new ones.