It is described in, and more precisely of that RFC.Here's the actual fragment that describes usage of 'To' and 'Cc':The destination fields specify the recipients of the message. Eachdestination field may have one or more addresses, and each of theaddresses indicate the intended recipients of the message. The onlydifference between the three fields is how each is used.The 'To:' field contains the address(es) of the primary recipient(s)of the message.The 'Cc:' field (where the 'Cc' means 'Carbon Copy' in the sense ofmaking a copy on a typewriter using carbon paper) contains theaddresses of others who are to receive the message, though thecontent of the message may not be directed at them.The difference between 'To' and 'Cc' is in semantics, and determines how recipients should treat the message (as directed to them or 'copied' only for their information).
What Does Cc Mean In Email Heading
The difference is mainly social and informative - address the letter To some people, and send others a CC (carbon copy) so that they can be aware of the facts. Because it is a distinct header it is frequently used for filters, with CC mail being held to higher standards than To.So, while it doesn't matter at the protocol level, it can determine whether a message gets sent directly to the trash, to a to be read if there's time folder or read immediately.My rule of thumb is to put the person in the To header only if I directly address them in the body, otherwise use Cc. The people you include in the To field should be the people you expect to read and respond to the message. The CC field should be used sparingly.
The term cc stands for carbon copy. It indicates people not addressed in the memo who should receive a copy. For example, if a memo is sent to a manager about an upcoming meeting at corporate, it would be appropriate to cc the manager's secretary so that he can put the date on her calendar. To, Cc and Bcc. If you are sending to more than four people, don't bother with this and just start with Hi all or Hello team. The To field can be used for as many addresses as you like - some people mistakenly think the Cc line is for multiple addresses. The Cc (or carbon copy).
You should only CC people who have a need to stay in the know. The BCC field should be used even more sparingly.
People you include in the BCC field will not visible to others.Cc stands for carbon copy and it means that whoever name appears after the Cc: will get a copy of the message. People who receive the mail can see who else is getting the copy of the message. The Cc header would also appear inside the header of the received message.Bcc stands for blind carbon copy. With Bcc the recipients specified in this field do not appear in the received message. So all the recipients will get the message but cannot see others' name on the sent addresses.From.
It depends on the e-mail client, and any post-processing rules the user has set up.From the most general point of view, there is little difference in that the user receives the message either way (assuming everything is working the way it is supposed to, but if it's not working it would fail in either case the same way).But if you want to pay attention to details, then they're not identical. The differences, or whether there are any differences, will vary from e-mail client to e-mail client. To give just one example, Lotus Notes will display a different icon in your Inbox depending on whether the message is addressed to you or you are receiving a carbon copy of it. This is a pretty trivial difference, which you may not care about. I mention it, however, because now matter how trivial, it is a difference in how one particular e-mail client handles the presentation of the mail.More significant are differences based on e-mail rules that a user has set up. For instance, I've often created rules to divert messages from certain addresses to a folder I can ignore, unless I'm listed in the To: field.
This is useful for junk mail that comes from within one's company. There are always those who think the whole company needs to know everything they're doing. But I want any e-mail from them that comes directly to me, especially if they're in management.Differences based on mail rules will obviously vary from user to user, and again: you may not care about them.
But if you want a thorough understanding of possible effects of putting an e-mail address in the To: or Cc: field, this is something you may want to consider.You asked about the effects your choice of field will have on the e-mail client, but the biggest effect is the one it will have on the user. By putting a user's address in To:, you're communicating that the content of the message is directed to them, while by putting it in Cc: you're communicating that it's just an FYI. This affects what 'you' means within the context of the message. If a message comes to me that says 'you need to do such-and-such' then I take that to mean I have to do it. If it's addressed to someone else and I'm Cc:ed on the message, then I take that to mean the other person has to do it.You didn't ask about the difference in meaning between To: and Cc:, but that difference in meaning is the underlying reason for any differences in the way an e-mail client handles the message, as subtle or negligible as those differences may be. Mainly we write the email ids in the 'TO' field of those people whom we want to send the mail and we write email ids in 'CC' field of those people whom we just want them to have an idea or knowledge of whatever has been written in that mail.Lets say there is a software development team of 5 people including manager. Manager wants his team members to update the daily work status individually to him through e-mail.In this case, each employee will write an e-mail to the manager and he/she also want that e-mail to send to other team members so that they are also updated with the status.
So he will write managers' email id in 'TO' field and other team members' email ids in 'CC' field.So the intention was to send an email to the manager and not to everyone but just for the sake of the information we are sending it to each member. That's where we use 'CC' field.