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Where’s the BCc:?

ByJudith Updated on Reading Time: 2 minutes
Protecting your contact's email privacy is worth making the effort to learn where the BCc: field is located in your email program of choice.

A Teachable Moment…

I received an email this morning where I was being scolded. First, they noticed how I am always “harping” about using BCc: to shield your contact’s email addresses from strangers. I was then reprimanded for not mentioning how to find the BCc: feature.

How dare I tell anyone to do something without telling them how. When in reality, all you have to do is search your software support site, favorite search engine, or click the Help area within your email program, right?

Each Program is Different

Part of the problem is that most programs do not make the BCc: intuitively findable or visible. I use and highly recommend PostBox, which allows you to decide what to display with every email — a BCc: box included.

I choose not to display the BCc globally because I do not use it. On the rare occasions I have, I open a new email, click view and check BCc: so the field displays for that particular email.

The BCc: is not consistently located or easy to find for all the other programs, and you have to search for this option.

How do you find it?

  • If BCc: isn’t showing for Outlook, open a new email message and click Options. Then, on the Fields area, click Show BCc.
  • Using Outlook Express, click View > All Headers.
  • In Thunderbird, click the To field and choose Bcc: from the drop-down list.
  • AOL, put the BCc: addresses in the “Copy To” box, using parentheses and separating each address with a comma.
  • Yahoo! click Cc: (at the To line’s right end). Then click BCc:.
  • BCc: on Mac mail: Select View: “BCc Address Field” from the menu to ensure the menu item is checked. Type the BCc: recipient’s email address in the BCc: field

The BCc: feature is used when emailing a bunch of onliners who don’t know each other. You make this effort because you don’t want to publish their email addresses without permission or expose them to strangers.

Please let me know if you would like to contribute to “How to Find the BCc:” on software or platforms I’ve not mentioned above. I am pleased to add your tips and suggestions to this post.

Take Responsibility and Learn

The bottom line is that it is your responsibility to learn to use all the features of your email software program. Each user’s responsibility is to understand the technology they are participating in to engage in an informed and courteous manner.

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