Dan's Mail Format Site:

E-Mail Headers

An e-mail message consists of two parts, the headers and the body. (This site has a third section dealing with trailers, but that's really just an appendage to the body, not a truly separate message part defined under the standards.) The main content of the message is in the body portion, but the headers have a vital role to play in making sure the message gets where it's supposed to go, and that the recipient knows who it's from and what it's about. Here is some information about headers.

Introduction -- The basic structure of the header portion of an e-mail message, and how to take a look at the darn thing (some e-mail programs make this difficult).
From / To / CC -- Where did it come from, and where did it go?
Subject -- What's it all about?
MIME Headers -- A versatile way of handling a multiplicity of formats, attachments, and character sets.
Other Headers -- Lots of other stuff can be found in the headers of an e-mail message.

Next: The body of an e-mail message is not buried; it's where the main content of the message is found. Learn more about it in the next section.

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