On the subject of CC and BCC

CC and BCC

Hello denizens of the internet for the first of many (hopefully) posts on e-mail usage.Today we shall be covering the wonders of CC and BCC.

'Oh No's!' you might cry. 'These are acronyms, so must be complicated!' Strangely, this isn't so. CC stands for Carbon Copy and BCC for Blank Carbon Copy. There purpose is simply to make your life easier.

I am sure that you are aware of how to send an e-mail? You compose it, you select the recipient and then you send it. But what if you need to send it to multiple people and don't want to perform the same action a dozen or more time? That's where these bad boys come in.

CC to the rescue! This superhero of the virtual world shall save the day by allowing a single e-mail to be sent to more than one person in a single click of the 'send' button. Neat, huh?

Alas, there are some issues with CC that he just can't fix. For one thing, anyone included by CC can see everyone else who the message has been sent to, while the original person you intended to send to would see their e-mail addresses as well, which you might not want, and this is bad for them since their e-mail address would be spread around. We need a more discrete option...

Enter BCC, Blank Carbon Copy! He's closer to a spy than a hero, anyone attached via BCC can view the message but the original sender won't be able to know that the other person is reading it as well.

In a nutshell, CC for if you want to send a message to many a person without fear of their e-mail address, BCC for more privacy for the additional sender, or to mask the fact that you've sent that message to additional people.

Think of all the possibilities...