Compose a New Email With iPhone Email

Once you've added email accounts to your iPhone, you'll want to do more than just read messages — you'll want to send them, too. Here's what you need to know.

To send a new message:

1. Tap the Mail app to open it.
2. In the bottom right-hand corner of the screen, tap the Compose icon (square with a pencil in it). This opens a new email message.
3. There are two ways to include the address of the person you're writing in the To: field. Begin typing the recipient's name or address, and if he or she is already in your address book, options will appear. Tap on the name and address you want to use. Alternatively, you can tap the + icon at the end of the To: field to open your address book and select the person there.
4. Next, tap the Subject line and enter a subject for the email.
5. Then tap in the body of the email and write the message.
6. When you're ready to send the message, tap the Send button in the top right corner of the screen.

Just as with desktop email programs, you can CC or BCC people on emails sent from your iPhone. To use either of these options, tap the Cc/Bcc, From: line in a new email. This reveals the CC, BCC, and From fields.

Add a recipient to the CC or BCC lines in the same way that you'd address an email as described above.

If you've got more than one email address configured on your phone, you can choose which one to send email from. Tap the From line and a list of all of your email accounts pop up. Tap on the one from which you want to send.

In addition to writing an email with the onscreen keyboard, you can use Siri to dictate an email. To do that, once you've got a blank email open, simply tap the microphone icon and speak. When you're done with your message, tap Done, and Siri will convert what you said to text. You may need to edit it, depending on the accuracy of Siri's conversion.

You can send attachments — documents, photos, and other items — from the iPhone, just like from a desktop email program. How this works, though, depends on what version of the iOS you're running.

If you're running iOS 6 or higher, you can attach a photo or video directly in the Mail app. To do this:

1. Tap and hold on the message area of the email.
2. When the magnifying glass pops up, you can let go.
3. In the pop-up menu, tap the arrow at the right edge.
4. Tap Insert Photo or Video.
5. This lets you browse your photo and video library. Browse through it until you find the one (or ones) you want to send.
6. Tap it and then tap Choose (or Cancel if you decide you want to send a different one). The photo or video will be attached to your email.

Photos and Videos are the only kind of attachments you can add from within a message. If you want to attach text files, for instance, you'll need to do that from within the app you made them in (assuming that the app supports email sharing, of course).

Things are pretty different on iOS 5 or earlier. In those versions of the iOS, you won't find a button in the iPhone email program to add attachments to messages. Instead, you have to create them in other apps.

Not all apps support emailing content, but those that do have an icon that looks like a box with a curved arrow coming out of the right side of it. Tap that icon to pop up a list of options for sharing content. Email is one in most cases. Tap that and you'll be taken to a new email message with the item attached. At that point, write the message as you normally would and send it.