Email Bcc or Blind carbon copy... - Digital Literacy Dover

Saturday 10 August 2013

Email Bcc or Blind carbon copy...



If you are a Bcc superstar feel free to ignore this, you are clearly already more geeky than you possibly thought.

If in the other hand you think it might be some sort of strange skin condition, or a British TV channel, please read on.

Bcc is essential for all avid emailers out there, which of course includes you.

First let's clarify:

Cc means (depending on who you speak to) Carbon/Courtesy/Circulate Copy, and as you probably know means everyone gets to see your email, even if you haven't sent it to them. This should be avoided if at all possible, as it inevitably leads to the terminal condition known as 'Reply All' something best avoided, that is what made me bald.

Bcc stands for 'Blind Carbon Copy' same as above, but the clever (or sneaky) thing is no one can see  all the other email addresses you circulated the email to, this protects the privacy of the people being circulated to, and also avoids the dreaded 'Reply All' scourge.

So when contacting your parents using those wonderful parent contact lists you made a few weeks ago, try to Bcc, not Cc them. 

In Google Mail you can find the 'Add Bcc' option just below the 'To:' field, as follows:


I've attached a couple of images to show you where to find the Bcc option in Googe, all email applications have this option if you have a little poke around... 

In Apple Mail it is a little shy and has to be coaxed out of its little nook/cranny/shmengoloid, whatever takes your fancy... Just click on that little envelopy thing next below Subject and tick/check 'Bcc Address Field'.


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