301 E. Lockwood Avenue
Webster Groves, MO 63119
314-961-3784
How to Set Up an E-mail Account
1. These instructions are for e-mail accounts using yahoo.com. Signing
up with other providers will be similar.
2. Turn the computer on and go to the internet. In the address line,
type www.yahoo.com and push the “enter” button.
3. As shown in the sample page below, the Yahoo home page will
appear. Near the top of the page under the yellow bar labeled “Web
Search” are the words “New here? Sign Up.” Move the cursor to those
words and click the left mouse button.
4. The next page, as shown below, is the application for an e-mail
account. In the first section, it asks for some simple personal
information like your name and birthday. Type your information in the
spaces provided.
Section 1
Section 2
Section 3
Section 4
5. Section 2 asks you to select a Yahoo ID. Followed by the phrase
“@yahoo.com”, this will be your e-mail address. Your ID can be almost
anything you like as long as it has 4 to 32 characters and starts with a
letter, but it helps if it is fairly easy to remember. Most people use
some variation of their name. Yahoo may suggest some ID names for
you to use. This is helpful because you will need to use a name that no
one else has and you may need to try several phrases to get one that is
unique. If you do want to choose your own phrase, after you type it in
the space, click the mouse button on the word “check” just to the right
of the phrase line. Yahoo will tell you if the name is taken and that you
can’t use it. If it is already taken, you will need to try a new phrase.
6. The next step is to choose a password. Again, it helps if this is easy to
remember but a complex password is more secure. On the right side of
the password space is a gauge that will say how strong or secure the
password is. Combinations of letters and numbers are stronger than
just letters, for example. The application will ask for the password twice
to make sure you typed it correctly. This is important because the
password will not be visible to you except as black circles. Write your email address and password in a safe place. Be sure your password is
exactly as you typed it, including capitalized or lower case letters; the
password “Webster” is not the same as “webster”.
7. Section 3 asks you to provide information in case you forget your ID
or password. It first asks you for an alternate e-mail address. If you
have one, type it in the first line. If not, leave it blank. The next two
parts are security questions that Yahoo will ask you if you forget how to
access your e-mail. On the right side of the line that says Select One,
there is a blue downward pointing arrow. Move the cursor to it and
click the mouse button. A list of questions will appear. Read through
them and pick one that is easy for you to answer. Move the cursor
down to the one you like – it will turn blue when you are at the right
place - and click the mouse button. The question will then appear in the
line. If the cursor is not already blinking on the answer line, move it
there, click the mouse button and type your answer. Repeat these steps
with the second question.
8. Section 4 has a code box with some blurry or wavy letters and
numbers. Type those characters in the space just above the box.
Sometimes this is hard to do and if you can’t tell what it says you can
ask for a new code by clicking the mouse button on the “Try a new
code” box.
9. The last step is to say you agree to Yahoo’s policies by clicking on the
yellow space “Create My Account”. (If you are interested in knowing
what you have agreed to, move the cursor to any of the blue phrases in
the sentence that starts with “By clicking the “Create My Account”
button below” and click the mouse button. Those pages will appear on
the screen. To get back to the application page, you need to look on the
screen about 2 inches down from the top. You will see a little red
square in the middle of the page. Click the mouse button on it and you
will go back to the application.) If you didn’t type the correct characters
in the code box, you will be asked to do it again with a new group of
characters and will need to click on “Create My Account” again.
10. Yahoo will automatically send you a letter congratulating you for
your new e-mail account. If you would like, you can print that page by
clicking on the blue words “Print account details”. If you want to use
your e-mail right away, click on the yellow “Continue” button on the
right.
How to Use Your E-mail Account
1. Turn the computer on and go to the internet. In the address line,
type www.yahoo.com and push the “enter” button.
2. The Yahoo home page will appear. A sample page is below. On the
left side of the screen will be a list with the heading “YAHOO! SITES”.
The first item in the list is “Mail”. Move the cursor there and click the
left hand mouse button.
3. As shown in the sample page below, on the right side of the next
page, it will say “Sign in to Yahoo!”. Type your e-mail address in the line
that says “Yahoo! ID”. Your address is the ID name you created plus the
phrase: @yahoo.com. Type your password in the password line and
click the mouse on the yellow box that says “Sign in”.
4. Your e-mail page will appear. There may be a box introducing you to
some of the ways to use your e-mail account. If you click on any of the
blue-lettered phrases, you will be shown some helpful instructions.
5. On the left side of your e-mail page (see sample page below), there is
a list with the words “Inbox”, “Drafts”, “Sent”, “Spam”, and “Trash”.
You can click on each of these words and it will take you to that part of
your e-mail account. Clicking on “Inbox” will take you to a list of the emails you have received. “Drafts” are e-mails that you have written and
saved but not sent. “Sent” are e-mails that you have sent. “Spam” is like
junk mail from the Post Office. “Trash” is e-mails that you have deleted.
(The computer saves them to give you a second chance, in case you
deleted them by mistake.)
6. Under the word “Trash” is the word “Contacts”. (See the previous
sample page.) This section will work like an address book. To put
someone in your address book, click on the word “Contacts”. On the
next page click on the box with the words “Add Contact” (see sample
page below). The resulting page (see second sample page below) will
have boxes to fill in with information such as name, address, and e-mail
address. You can fill in every box if you like, but all you need to fill in are
the First and Last name boxes and the e-mail address box. Click on the
word “Save” in the orange box when you are finished. You can add
more names by clicking on the “Add Contact” box again or if you are
finished, you can click on the “x” in the blue box that says “Contacts”.
7. You are now ready to write an e-mail. Under the words “Yahoo!
Mail” on the left side of the screen is a box with the word: ”New”. Click
on the word. The resulting page is shown below. To choose your
recipient(s), click on the box with the word “To”. A list of the people on
your contact list will appear. To choose one, click on the name and then
click “OK”. To choose more than one, press and hold the shift key while
you are clicking. The address of the person(s) you chose will then
appear in the box to the right of “To”. You may also just type an
address in the box. Be sure to include the entire address including the
part after the “@”. Below “To” is a “CC” box. You can add contacts to
this area in the same way and they will be sent the e-mail too. Below
“To” and “CC” is the word “Subject”. If you like, you may type the topic
of your e-mail in that space. To write your e-mail, move the cursor to
the large blank area and type your message. When you are done, send
the e-mail to your recipient by clicking on the word “Send”. If you
decide not to send the message, click on “Cancel”. If you want to finish
the message later, you can save it by clicking on “Save Draft”. (When
you want to finish the letter, you can get to it by clicking on the word:
“Drafts”.)
Message area
8. As shown in the sample pages below, to see if someone has sent you
an e-mail, click on “Inbox” or “Check Mail”. The number of new e-mails
will be in parentheses after “Inbox”. The next screen will have a list of
your e-mails – who they are from and the subject. New e-mails that you
have not read will be in Bold print. You can then click on any item in the
list and read the message. The e-mail message will be below the list. If
you would like it to be larger, click on “full view” in the upper right hand
corner of the e-mail message. Once you have read an e-mail, you can
keep it by clicking on another message, on “Inbox” or on “Check Mail”.
You can delete it by clicking on the “Delete” button. When you delete
the message, the computer will take you back to your e-mail list.
Unread e-mail
Read e-mail
9. To answer an e-mail, click on the word “Reply” in the box next to the
“Delete” box. There is a small arrow to the right of the box. If you click
on it, you will have the option of choosing “reply to all”, meaning
everyone in your contacts list. Normally you will just click on the
“Reply” box and that will send your reply only to the person who sent
you the e-mail. Automatically, the computer will put the address of the
person who sent the e-mail to you in the “To” box and will provide
space to write your reply above the message you received. Type your
message there. If you want to send your reply to additional people, you
can click on the “To” and the “Cc” boxes and add other addresses. To
send your reply, click on the “Send” button.
Your reply will go here.
The e-mail message to you would be here.
10. There are many additional ways to use your e-mail account such as
organizing your e-mails into folders, attaching and sending photos and
checking your spelling. Practicing and experimenting with all the
features is a good way to learn. If you need help, please ask us.
11. When you are finished, end your session by clicking on the words:
“Sign Out”.