Understanding BCC (Blind Carbon Copies)
Windows all Versions - Outlook Express

First of all it's important to understand what a BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) is for: Let's say you send a mail to person "A" and a copy to person "B". But you don't want person A to know you sent it to person B. It sounds kind of sneaky, but it's not. There are many legitimate reasons why you'd want to do this, I'm sure you can think of some legitimate reasons yourself.

We use it all the time when we answer support email so that we have a copy of the support mail -besides the one in our sent folder. It allows us to sort our support mail better and separate it into appropriate folders. BCCs are one of the least used but most useful features of any email program.

Another way you can use BCC is if you want to send an email to several people and don't want any of them to know who the other recipients were besides themselves, you can leave the "To" field blank and insert all the email addresses on the "BCC" line. When each recipient receives the mail he'll see "To: Undisclosed recipient" in the "To" line. If you put all the email addresses of all recipients in the "To" line then each recipient would know the name and email address of all the others to whom you've sent the email. This is not always good. And not everyone is going to be happy having their email address passed on to strangers. Just because you know all of the recipients does not mean all the recipients know each other - know what I mean?

Many folks have asked us if it's true the person you've sent an email to can see the people you've sent it to using the BCC line by viewing the email properties. The answer is simple - no they cannot.

But you as the originator (sender) can see everyone you sent blind copies to, as well as the recipient. Go to your sent folder and right click on the email you want to check. Choose "Properties" from the dropdown menu that opens, then choose "Details." You will be able to see who you sent BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) to. The recipients will not be able to look in the Properties/Details to see though; it only shows on the originating computer. In other words, the recipients of your BCCs will not be able to see the others who received the same message via BCC, only you, the originator can see everyone that was sent a particular email using BCC.

And, one more thing. We still get people asking us why it is they don't see a BCC line in their Outlook Express (Windows Mail). Well, because, it's not there by default. You have to put it there. It couldn't be easier. Open Outlook Express (or Windows Mail if you're using Windows Vista) and start a new message. When you're in the message compose window, click "View" and check "All Headers". The BCC line will appear in the message you're now composing and in all future messages unless you go back in to "View" and uncheck "All headers".

Bonus! A Quick Tip for Firefox

Importing IE Favorites, Options, History, Passwords into Firefox
Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP, and Windows Vista - Mozilla Firefox (all versions)

Many of you are using Firefox and some of you, especially those of you who are having problems with IE 7, are thinking about switching to Firefox. Still others, are curious and want to try Firefox. This tip is for you.

Import Your Internet Explorer Settings and Favorites Into Firefox! It's easy to import all your Internet Explorer settings into Firefox. Here's how:

1. Click on File (on the Firefox toolbar)
2. Click Import
3. Select Microsoft Internet Explorer

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