When sending messages to Haikutalk it is very desirable for such messages to be sent as plain text
with no coding. Many other mailing lists also make this a condition.
The most common complaints concern users of Microsoft Outlook Express.
The program comes with defaults many users consider undesirable, and newcomers have difficulty
knowing how to change their settings.
To permanently change your mail settings
see How to change mail settings in Outlook Express
The information given here applies to users of MS Outlook Express as shipped with Windows 98.
It may not apply to other versions, but you should find that similar options are available within
other programs.
Before sending your emails to a mailing-list that insists on plain text messages,
-
Go to the "Format" menu
- select "Plain text"
as opposed to "Rich text (HTML)"
- When you send as plain text
you will lose all the fancy fonts and formatting.
- On a mailing list this loss very rarely matters.
- If you are sending something like poetry for the purpose of critiquing,
95% of the time
formatting is not critical
and when it is,
a note about the formatting
is usually sufficient.
-
More importantly
sending plain text messages to mailing lists
means your text will be read easily by everyone on the list
including those who may be using mail-software
that cannot handle some of the MS-specific formatting.
-
The message will be smaller in file-size
— a 2k plain-text message can grow to 36k sent as rich-text/HTML —
and therefore be quicker to download for those
with slow access.
-
It will make life much easier for those who subscribe
to digest-versions of the list
as all the rich-text/HTML
ends up as unreadable chunks of goobledook.
- As an alternative to altering the format of individual messages, it is possible
to set the mailing-list address so that it will only accept plain text messages.
- Firstly make sure the list address is in your address book.
- Open up the address book and select the list
address from your list of addresses.
- Click on the Properties icon and then the Name tab.
- In the bottom left hand corner you will find an option to "Send email using plain text only".
- Make sure this option is ticked.
- If you then try to send a message to the list that is not in plain text, an error message box
will appear, allowing you to change the setting at this stage.
See also Copy-pasting Word documents into emails.
and How to change mail settings in Outlook Express.
If you have any queries concerning this page, the author is Gerald England who may be contacted at
england@spunge.org.