How & Why to turn on the BCC field for email messages

(Jim originally posted this tip on April 1, 2008. No fooling!)

How & Why to turn on the BCC field for email messages (Blind Carbon Copy)

The reason to use Bcc is to keep other people's email addresses private, and to keep them from falling into the hands of spammers.

Use the Bcc Blind Carbon Copy Field in Email Messages

How to turn on the Bcc field

• To begin, create a New Message.
• Click on the Options Tab at the top of the message.
• Click on the Show Bcc icon.

The Bcc field will remain available on all new messages, as well as Forwards or Replies, unless you repeat these steps to turn it off.

Before Bcc is turned on. Notice the Options Tab is the third one.

After turning on the Bcc field. Notice the Show Bcc icon on Ribbon for the Options Tab.

Comments

[Nick Nicholaou]

I fully agree with your post, Tony, but believe it is missing the essential flip side of BCC-- and that's when NOT to use it. We strongly recommend never using BCC to copy someone's manager or supervisor as though we're telling on them behind their back. Frankly, that doesn't seem to fit with Jesus' teachings about confrontation. If you're going to copy an email to someone's manager or supervisor, use the CC field instead so they know.

[Tony Dye]

Excellent point, Nick. Obviously, that wasn't the theme of Jim's tip, but it's a good comment to make during our training. I'll pass that along.