cleaning up e-mail - keep styled text off the list, please

[Ari Davidow <ari...>]

The readability of e-mail messages to those list participants who are not 
checking their e-mail clients to make sure that they are sending plain text to 
the list, continues to decline.

=If= it is important to you that your e-mail to the list be read, please follow 
the instructions below, for your e-mail program. I copied them from 
http://www.birdhouse.org/etc/evilmail.html 

(I say "if" because of the vast number of messages that include paragraphs and 
paragraphs of citation, all to deliver a few words. To those folks, it clearly 
hasn't sunk in that most people aren't going to scroll through all of that 
extraneous stuff, and with that little thought, it may not be fair to 
characterize such e-mails as having been sent for the purpose of being read, or 
otherwise communicating. Not that I am having a bad e-mail day or anything. Not 
that this behavior annoys me, not at all ;-).)

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MS OUTLOOK and OUTLOOK EXPRESS

     Pull down Tools | Options. Select the Send tab. Look at the section 
labeled "Mail Sending Format." Change the radio button from "HTML" to "Plain 
Text." 

MS OUTLOOK 2000

     For Outlook 2000, it's: 

     Tools | Options | Click on the Mail format tab | select Plain Text from 
the Pulldown box, then click OK! 

HOTMAIL
     You can ensure that you're not sending out HTML email from Hotmail 
accounts by not using the "Rich Text" option in the message compose window. If 
you dig around in the options, I believe there's a setting that lets you turn 
off the Rich Text bar for all messages. 

EUDORA

     Here's how to do it in Eudora (all types), version 4 and up: 

        1.From the Tools menu, choose Options. 
        2.In the Category list, choose Styled Text. 
        3.Choose the "Send plain text only" radio button. 
        4.Clear the "Send the signature with styles" check box. 
        5.Clear the "Ask me each time" check box. 

     To strip HTML from a message you are currently viewing in Eudora: 

        1.With the cursor somewhere on the message body, press Ctrl-A to select 
the entire message text, or choose Select All from the Edit menu. 
        2.From the Edit menu, point to the Text cascading menu, and choose 
Clear Formatting. 

     Alternately, the Select All and Clear Formatting commands can be added to 
the tool bar to simplify this task. 

     Saint John (StJ at mac dot com) adds: 

     Something that can be done in Eudora to cut down on the annoyance of 
others' HTML is to uncheck all of the codes in Special:Settings...:Styled Text. 
There's a
     section at the bottom of that panel, "When receiving styles, pay attention 
to"; unchecking everything makes HTML mail look like plaintext. 


NETSCAPE COMMUNICATOR

        1.Click Edit | Preferences 
        2.Click "Mail & Newsgroups" (click the "+" to expand)
        3.Click Formatting
        4.Select "Use the plain text editor to compose messages" 



APPLE'S Mail.app

        1.Pull down Mail | Preferences 
        2.Select "Composing" in the top icon row 
        3.Change "Default message format" to "Plain Text" 
        4.Close Preference panel. 

     You can also disable the display of HTML email by going to the Viewing 
icon and deselecting "Download all images, animations and other HTML 
attachments." 

MS ENTOURAGE (Mac OS X)

     To disable all HTML email in Entourage, pull down Entourage | Mail and 
News Preferences. Uncheck the "Show HTML Formatting toolbar" box and set the 
Mail
     Format picklist to "Plain Text." 


CALYPSO

     Here's how to disable HTML in Calypso v.3x: 

        1.Highlight mailbox name in tree; 
        2.In the top menu click Mailbox; 
        3.Click Properties; 
        4.Click Security tab; 
        5.Check the box beside "Disable rich text (HTML) messaging;" 
        6.Click OK. 

MAILSMITH for Mac (Classic and OS X): 

     Mailsmith refuses to render HTML but (nowadays) offers a simplified plain 
text version. If you want to read the html you have to open the attachment in a 
browser. Thus it is impossible to get caught in many of the problems. At least 
this way you can protect yourself against the menace, if not receiving it. And 
you certainly can't send it! 


Hope this helps,
ari


Ari Davidow
ari (at) ivritype(dot)com
list owner, jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
the klezmer shack: http://www.klezmershack.com/

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