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E-mail: plain text is best - WebHostingBuzz US Blog
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E-mail: plain text is best

Posted on 14 Apr 2011 by Alan Burns

I can sum up my advice on this topic in one phrase: compose and send e-mail in plain text.

When e-mail began 45 years ago, all messages were in plain text. For the technically inclined among you, it was 7-bit ASCII text. In more modern times, the explosion in the popularity of e-mail has led to more features being added. One of those features, formatted e-mail, is in my opinion of dubious value.

Most e-mail clients, whether running on a local computer such as Outlook or Eudora, or web based such as Gmail and Yahoo mail, offer a formatted mail option. For many it is HTML, the same encoding used for web pages. Some offer another formatting method, as Microsoft Outlook uses Rich Text Format.

Formatting allows the creator of a message to select font size and colour, place images in-line, embed links, italicize or boldface text, and more.

For the recipient, formatted mail has drawbacks. If the recipient’s mail software is incapable of rendering the chosen format, then the message will not appear as desired. This is especially the case when a sender use Microsoft’s Rich Text Format (RTF) in such software as Outlook. As far as I know, it may be only Microsoft products that can properly read RTF formatted mail.

HTML formatted mail can be read by most mail clients, but is often not welcome. If the sender chose a specific font size, that size may be too small for the recipient to read comfortably. Or, it may be unnecessarily large. Lines may wrap awkwardly. My friend’s messages, sent from his Mac using Apple Mail, are formatted such that they do not wrap in my e-mail software. The lines of text extend far past the right-hand edge of my mail reader, requiring me to scroll horizontally to read the message.

My sister often sends photos, composing her messages with Gmail’s “Rich formatting”. The result is that many of us can’t immediately see the photos. We must click individually on each photo file to view it, then close it and repeat the process to see the next photo. It’s tedious. Had she sent those messages in plain text, all the attached photos would display automatically in my mail software.

For most e-mail, send in plain text. Don’t use HTML or rich text unless you have a specific need for formatting. Plain text is viewable by all e-mail clients. If you send in plain text, you guarantee that all recipients will be able to read your message, and will see it in their own preferred font and font size.

Each mail software has its own method of changing the default to plain text. Check the help files or Google for the specific steps needed by your software.

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