Parts of an email message
An email message consists of these three basic distinct parts:
- Header,
- Message body, and
- Signatures
Figure 1 shows these three basic parts of an email message:
Figure 1 parts of an email address: headers, body, and signatures
|
Although there are many header fields in an email message, to the average email user only the following headers are probably the most important:
Header field |
Description |
What it contains |
Provided by |
From |
This specifies sender’s email address. |
Sender’s email address |
Automatically by the sender’s email server. |
To |
This specifies the person who will receive the message |
One or email address(es). For emailing multiple recipients, separate each email address with a comma. Note there is no comma after the last email address. |
By the sender. |
Date/Time |
Indicates when the message was sent. |
Date and time. |
Automatically by the email server |
Subject |
This specifies the subject of the email. |
Email subject |
The sender |
Size |
This specifies the size of the email message. |
Email message size |
Automatically by the email server |
Detailed headers of an email message.
|
Message body
This is the main part that the recipient is interested in. A message can be any number of things or combination of:
- Text,
- Graphics,
- Web page,
- Animation,
- Video or audio, or
- Attachments
Signature
A signature appears at the end. A signature can be a graphic, web page, or just plain-text. An email client can be configured to automatically add an signature to each outgoing message.
Posted on 8/20/2007
31,972 views
by Raj Singh