Configuring Mail Clients to Send Plain Text MessagesWhy send emails in plain text?Most email programs allow users to include attachments (converted into MIME) or HTML formatting within email messages. Email formatting makes URLs into clickable links and can include graphic images and text formatting. While this makes your email interesting it may cause problems for people receiving your email. All programs and operating systems treat email differently and the formatted email you send may have a completely different look than you intended when your receiver opens the email. Sending files as attachments in email is also almost universal and a valuable email feature, however, you always need to be aware of what computer program and operating system the person receiving the attachment is using. If they do not have the proper software or operating system, they will not be able to open the attachment. Most importantly, HTML formatted messages or messages containing attachments can leave unwanted and destructive files known as malware on a computer. A great deal of anti-virus software has been developed and is now being used throughout the internet, however, this software must constantly be updated because new viruses and other types of malware are being propagated all the time. We can help prevent the spread of these malicious programs and ensure the most universally readable messages by posting mailing list messages in plain text format (ASCII text format). Setting your email client to send email in plain text formatThere are a wide variety of email programs, including but not limited to, what follows below. Find your email program and follow the step by step instructions to send a message to the list in plain text format.
Agent/Free AgentAgent currently does MIME quoted printable. Free Agent does not. The MIME quoted printable option can be configured separately for each language you have configured in Agent.
CompuServe 2000Compuserve 2000 only supports Windows 95/98 and closely resembles AOL because it uses an identical installation routine, the same email client, and a similar interface. CompuServe 2000 also shares the same V.90 network as AOL. So to send plain text email using CompuServe 2000, see the instructions for AOL 5.0 and earlier . Comcast Web Mail
Your email sent via Comcast Web Mail will now be sent as Plain Text. Earthlink 5.0
The text of your email will now be sent as Plain Text. Entourage 2001 (MacIntosh)Microsoft Entourage is a new email and personal information manager that makes it easy to communicate with others and organize your personal information. Entourage comes bundled with Office:Mac 2001. It is only available for Macintosh. Since it was built from the foundation provided by Outlook Express for Mac, the instructions are somewhat similar to that program.
Entourage X (MacIntosh)Microsoft Entourage X complete email and personal information management program designed specifically for Mac OS X. Entourage comes bundled with Office v.X. It is only available for Macintosh. Since it was built from the foundation provided by Outlook Express for Mac, the instructions are somewhat similar to that program.
Eudora Light v3.0.5 and earlierYou can have Eudora warn you before sending messages that contain styled text or HTML.
If you want to make sure that you never accidentally send a message with styled or HTML text, you can have Eudora automatically discard the styles before sending any message.
This means that even if your message is filled with bold and italics, colors, and font changes, the message will be sent out without any of this formatting; instead it will be stripped down to the basic plain text before Eudora sends it. Also, the quoted-printable method of character encoding (used by non-US versions for foreign character recognition) can cause some formatting problems for some mail readers. If you do not need to type these foreign characters, you should turn off the quoted- printable option. Eudora Light v3.0.6If you want to make sure that you never accidentally send a message with styled or HTML text, you can have Eudora automatically discard the styles before sending any message.
This means that even if your message is filled with bold and italics, colors, and font changes, the message will be sent out without any of this formatting; instead it will be stripped down to the basic plain text before Eudora sends it. Also, the quoted-printable method of character encoding (used by non-US versions for foreign character recognition) can cause some formatting problems for some mail readers. If you do not need to type these foreign characters, you should turn off the quoted- printable option. Eudora Pro v4.0.2 and earlierEudora Pro has a "Styled Text" option, which makes messages available in RTF. Currently Eudora Pro doesn't support HTML within the body of a message. When posting a message to a mailing list, you can click on the button on the far right of each individual message's tool bar to "Clear Formatting." You can also set up the options to either warn you of outgoing messages that contain styled text or to discard the styles before sending the messages:
You can have Eudora turn off MIME encoding when sending messages that contain special characters. Eudora automatically uses quoted-printable (MIME) encoding if your mail contains special characters. Eudora also uses quoted-printable encoding for attached plain text files. Eudora Pro v4.2 and laterEudora Pro has a "Styled Text" option, which makes messages available in HTML format within the body of a message. When posting a message to a mailing list, you can click on the button on the far right of each individual message's tool bar to "Clear Formatting." You can also set up the options to either send plain text or styled text or both.
You can have Eudora turn off MIME encoding when sending messages that contain special characters. Eudora automatically uses quoted-printable (MIME) encoding if your mail contains special characters. Eudora also uses quoted-printable encoding for attached plain text files. If your recipients don't have MIME, then just turn off the QP button in the message icon bar when you are sending text files to those recipients. Eudora v5.0Eudora has a "Styled Text" option, which makes messages available in HTML format within the body of a message. When posting a message to a mailing list, you can click on the button on the far right of each individual message's tool bar to "Clear Formatting." You can also set up the options to either send plain text or styled text or both.
You can have Eudora turn off MIME encoding when sending messages that contain special characters. Eudora automatically uses quoted-printable (MIME) encoding if your mail contains special characters. Eudora also uses quoted-printable encoding for attached plain text files. If your recipients don't have MIME, then just turn off the QP button in the message icon bar when you are sending text files to those recipients. Hotmail
Juno v5.0With Juno you can now send HTML email as well as plain text messages. The default format for new messages you compose in the Write screen is plain text. As you write your message and add any kind of formatting (color, images, font), the format automatically changes to HTML. If you know that the person you are sending the message to uses an email program that is not HTML compatible, make sure to change the message format to plain text (otherwise, the person might not be able to read your message). To change the email message format to plain text:
Outlook 97 (without Service Release 1 SR1)The original version of Outlook 97 (the one without the Office 97 Service Release 1 (SR1) installed) automatically formats all messages you send when you hit the "Reply" button in Rich Text Format, which then shows as an attachment on a mailing list (or in any email program other than Microsoft Exchange or Outlook). This "Reply bug" can be fixed in any of the following four ways:
If you are using your Outlook 97 address book to send messages to the mail list, make certain you do not have Rich Text Format selected for that address book entry:
Outlook 97 (with Service Release 1 SR1)
If you are using your Outlook 97 address book to send messages to the mail list, make certain you do not have Rich Text Format selected for that address book entry:
Outlook 98 (Work group version)
Outlook 98 (Internet version)
Outlook 2000
NOTE: Outlook 2000 uses what Microsoft calls Auto Format Reply. Due to the variety of message formats supported by different email clients, Outlook 2000 ensures that email recipients receive replies they can read easily. When users reply to a message, Outlook automatically uses the format of the original message. This is especially frustrating if you receive HTML email and wish to send Plain Text email. To override the default for any individual message, click on the "Format" menu within the message and choose plain text format. IMPORTANT: If you are using a version of Outlook 2000 that has been installed with the corporate workgroup installation you may discover that when you set email to send "Plain Text" that it has been changed to a formatted email by the email server. Contact your system administrator if this is the case. Outlook 2002Outlook 2002 eliminates the distinction between Corporate/Workgroup and Internet Mail Only modes. You can now change the format of a message you already received or created to make the message either easier for you to view or to send to someone else.
Outlook 2003 Web AccessOutlook 2003 Web Access, when viewed in Internet Explorer v. 6 and up, closely resembles the full version Outlook Desktop. Many of the functions of the original Outlook are now available using the Outlook 2003 Web Access. However, one major omission is the ability to convert messages to true plain text format! The default message format seems to work with the NIFL Discussion lists as long as you make sure that the format is set at "Normal" and font set at "Times New Roman" Size set at 12. As of June 2005, we have not found a way to convert to real plain text using Internet Explorer. However, if you are getting bounced messages sending to the NIFL lists, open the Outlook Exchange interface in any other browser such as Mozilla or Firefox. Since the default is set as plain text, you will easily be able to send in true plain text format. (the desktop, however, has the limited function of previous versions of Outlook web access.) MS Internet Explorer 4.0, 5.0, 5.50 and 6.0Unfortunately Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 4, 5, 5.50, and 6 come packaged with the program Outlook Express as its mail client whose default configuration is to send HTML formatted mail. To configure Outlook Express to send text only messages see appropriate Outlook Express sections below: Outlook Express 4.0
All of your messages will now be sent as plain text. Outlook Express 4.x can also be configured to send Business Cards (also referred to as vCards) with your email. These are attachments, which show up as strings of unreadable code on most mailing lists. To turn these off: Outlook Express 5.0, 5.50, and 6.00
NOTE: It has been brought to my attention that Outlook Express occasionally breaks all lines at the set margin after you send an email message on a reply or forward. So the lines Outlook Express marks with "> " get wrapped after the "> " mark and the recipeient gets something awful to look at and entirely different than what it looked like before you sent it.
MSN Explorer 6.0MSN Explorer Tech support states "that MSN Explorer and MSN.com send web-based HTML email ONLY and cannot be configured to send plain text." However, if you use MSN as your mail service (i.e., username@msn.com) you can simply go to Hotmail.com and send email from there in plain text (via their so-called PASSPORT system). Same inbox, address book, etc. You just have to remember to send or reply to POP3 and plain text email from Hotmail and not from MSN. A real nuisance but at least an option. Unfortunately the transfer to Hotmail from MSN email takes you through 3 screens and requires you to reenter your password even if you checked the "remember my password" box. See Hotmail above for details on how to send plain text email. MSN Explorer 7.0MSN Explorer Tech support states "that MSN Explorer and MSN.com send web-based HTML email ONLY and cannot be configured to send plain text." With version 7.0 of MSN you are now automatically connected to MSN Hotmail.com, MSN Messenger Service and MSN calendar so that you no longer have to retype passwords. If you use your MSN Hotmail sign-in name as your MSN Messenger sign-in, you can simply click on the Hotmail.com link to logon directly to send plain text email from Hotmail. You just have to remember to send or reply to POP3 and plain text email from Hotmail and not from MSN. MSN 8.0
Mozilla 1.1
Note the section titled "Plain Text and HTML Domains". You should add your mailing list domains under the "Plain Text Domains" to ensure that all email sent to a mailing list is always in plain text. When in a new message screen (Compose)
Netscape Communicator 7.1
As an alternative, you can select "View Settings for this Account" under "Accounts" after starting "Mail & Newsgroups". Netscape Communicator 7.0 (PR1 & Final)
Lotus Notes R5By default all mail in Lotus Notes is in the Notes Rich Text Format but may be set to MIME.
To send mail or news postings in plain text or HTML or both:
Mac OS X MailMIME and HTML are enabled by the mail program's default rich text format (RTF) but can easily be turned off on a message-by-message basis. Simply opening a new message window and then go to the "Format" menu and select "Make Plain Text". You can turn off RTF permanently by going to the "Mail Menu" and select "Preferences" then choose "Composing". At the top of the new window select "Format: Plain Text". Now all outgoing messages are plain text by default. NOTE: AOL 10.2.1 for Mac OS X appears incapable of sending plain text email. Novell Groupwise 1When composing mail:
WARNING: The GW client will turn the HTML setting back on all by itself if the user receives or reads email that has been MIME encoded with HTML. Poco v2.xxPoco supports receiving and sending of both Styled mail (also known as HTML mail) and plain text mail.
Yahoo MailNOTE: Some features are only available to IE users. Netscape and other browsers will not show formating options even if selected. After signing in to Yahoo Mail:
WebTVThere are some sites on the 'net like How To Use HTML In WebTV email that inform users to add HTML coding to their WebTV signature, PLEASE IGNORE THIS BAD ADVICE! WebTV users should NEVER leave an HTML signature "added" when posting anywhere outside of the WebTV Community OR emailing to a non-WebTV user. Unless you remove it, they will probably receive your message as an attachment and will be less than happy with you. Attachments are the number one purveyor of viruses. See WebTV Flood virus for example. How to Set Up a Signature and Remove HTML coding
If you using an HTML signature, then you MUST make sure to remove it before posting to non-WebTV users. Your mail should be compatible with other user's systems by using only plain text and no HTML.
NOTE: The default in the WebTV email Write page is set to include the signature. References:
ABOUT NOVELL GROUPWISE: Generally it is assumed that the email server does not alter the message at all, and that the sender and their client software is entirely in control of the message which is sent. In some systems, such as Lotus ccMail, Lotus Notes, Microsoft Exchange or Novell Groupwise, the client and server do not follow this model, do not use Internet standards and do not necessarily follow the conventions and standards of Internet email. In those cases compatibility with Internet standards may be handled by a third item of software - a gateway. Thus there can be problems of a significant difference between what the sender sees when they write the email (which is probably similar to how it appears to recipients in their office), and what is actually sent to Internet recipients. Users of Internet compliant software sometimes disparage the continued use of proprietary systems such as Novell Groupwise or Lotus Notes, based on the awkward or hard-to-read emails they sometimes receive from these systems. However their continued use is inevitable since within their own system they provide additional powerful "groupware" functionality which is valuable to larger organizations and which cannot currently be provided with standard Internet protocols. All these systems can be configured to respect Internet technical standards and conventions (although perhaps not in a way which the sender can see or control) - the problem is that they are sometimes mis-configured by default, creating difficulties for all their users. Some email client programs can be configured (or are configured by default) to send each paragraph as one long line. Some email systems such as Groupwise (and apparently Lotus Notes), have a single setting in the server (the Message Transfer Agent, which may include a SMTP gateway) which either wraps all outgoing emails of all users to a particular line length, or sends all emails of all users with each paragraph as an arbitrarily long line (unless the user manually sets the line length by pressing "enter"). In neither case does the user control this single, system-wide, setting. Nor may the server's wrapping correspond to what they see on screen when writing. Arbitrarily long lines can be sent within SMTP standards using the "quoted-printable" MIME type. If such arbitrarily long lines are sent as plain text, then the 1,000 character limit of SMTP may be reached and the sending client or system may wrap the line arbitrarily there, or may send it out longer than 1,000 characters. If this happens, a recipient SMTP server may reject it, or break the line. In one instance a plain text email from Groupwise 4.2 exceeded the 1,000 character per line limit. That paragraph, of 1,253 characters was broken in mid word by a SMTP server just before the 1,000th character. This and later versions of Groupwise are used in a significant number of VET institutes, where the system is valued for many functions apart from its Internet email capabilities. Quoting styles. The established approach to quoting a line of text: "> " or ">" is no longer the only approach. Other methods, which are the default in Groupwise and perhaps other clients or email systems, are much harder to understand, at least in some circumstances, since they mark only the start of the paragraph as a comment, rather than the start of each line. A plethora of incompatible quoting styles is a source of error and frustration for novices and experienced users alike - so an operational guideline standardise on "> " or ">" was decided upon, with the matter to be reviewed within 12 months or so. The issue regarding line wrapping is indeed set at the gateway - in Groupwise 5.2 and up, this is known as the "GWIA". There are additional settings controlling the type of MIME encoding, etc. Additionally, in GW5.5 EP (for Enhancement Pack) and higher on Windows, HTML first became available for reading and authoring mail (provided Internet Explorer is installed). |
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