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HTML, Plain Text
and Editing (Trimming)


Letter from Rick:

Personally, I am delighted that there are more and more people posting that I haven't heard from previously. As moderator, I get to read all these fresh perspectives and gleefully add them to the discussion. Recently, the discussion has become positively vibrant with ideas and discoveries.

However, please allow me to remind all of us responding to other messages, to snip away all but the vital few lines to a previous post to which you might be responding, and use plain text format. This does two key things for our list:

A) Our archives are quickly becoming a priceless resource and testimony to an incredibly healthy way of interpreting the horse - human relationship. I predict that many of us will find value in being able to research the past. As such, a computer search "engine" works best for you if there is a minimum of repetition.

B) Many people choose to receive a daily digest of messages. It is such a kindness for us to post our messages without repeating previous posts. Improved readability also improves comprehension and retention.

Finally, It makes me feel like such an ogre to reject a post and ask someone to trim a previous message. Especially if they do not resubmit. More than once, I have diverted what I thought was a critical post or commentary, only to never hear from that person again. Now that idea is lost to the list.

In fact, there is one that I bounced yesterday, a wonderful explanation and discovery. I pray that he resubmits.

Thank you for your consideration,

Your once again outspoken servant,

Rick Larsen

Moderator Page
Yahoo Info

Email Netiquette Rules:
V and X cards are not acceptable for email list attachments.
Signatures should be not more than 4 lines or 150 characters.
No excessive advertising in the signature.
Excessive quoting of previous message is unacceptable.

Please do not cross-post to other lists. If it's not important enough to send a separate message, don't send it; just part of email list netiquette.

Many e-mail programs now offer some really fun and interesting features, such as HTML and RTF (rich text format). These features allow you to include colored and specially formatted text within your e-mail messages. They even allow HTML (hypertext markup language) that is normally used in web pages. This makes URLs into clickable links and it means that graphics can even be included in e-mail messages. While this makes your e-mail fun, pretty and interesting to look at, it can cause a lot of havoc and various problems for other people online:

  • Not everyone has software (or hardware) that is compatible with these new features, so they cannot see the intended benefits. Many times what they see is garbled text or the actual HTML code behind the message.
  • Using HTML and RTF in e-mail messages makes the messages very large in size. They will take longer to download and they take up more storage space than standard e-mail messages. E-mail storage is important because some people retain copies of messages they receive and in the case of mailing lists, the messages are archived so that they can be searched later.

Following are the instructions you need in order to turn OFF the HTML and RTF features in various e-mail software programs:

Eudora Pro

Eudora 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:
  • Tools
    • Options
      • Styled Text
        Check either or both of these boxes:
        • Warn me when I queue a message with styled text.
        • Discard styles before sending messages.

Internet Explorer 3.02 with Internet Mail

  • Mail
    • Options
      • Choose the Send tab
        Near the bottom are two choices. choose:
        • Q Plain Text
        • To use HTML in individual messages, choose HTML in the Format menu found within each e-mail message. Otherwise all other messages will now be in plain text.

Microsoft Exchange

The "bottom line" is to switch the character set from "ISO 8859-1" to "US ASCll".

  • From the Microsoft Exchange toolbar choose "Tools"
    • Choose "Services."
      • Highlight "Internet Mail" then click on "Properties." An "Internet Mail, General" window will appear.
        • Choose "Message Format," then "Character Set."
          • In the "UUENCODE Character Set" window, click the down arrow that shows beside the little rectangular "window" below where it says "specify a character set for message" text. A set of options will appear, including both "ISO 8859-1" and "US ASCll". Click "US ASCll", then click "OK".*

Note: As you close the various windows on the way back a message will appear, advising that "configuration changes will not take effect until the next time you log onto Internet Mail".

Netscape Communicator

  • Edit
    • Preferences
      • Select "Mail and Groups | Messages" from the menu on the left
        * do not check the box that says "By default, send HTML messages".

Outlook Express

  • Tools
    • Options
      • "Send" tab
        Make sure that both settings there are to "Plain Text" (not HTML)
        • Within Settings:
          Set Message format as MIME, set "Encode text using:" to None.
          Set Automatically wrap text at 70, and > is used to indent original text.

Outlook Express for Macintosh

  • Edit
    • Preferences
      • Within Preferences window, make sure the triangle next to "Outlook Express" is pointing down instead of to the right (otherwise click once to make it so).
      • Under the "Outlook Express" heading select "Message Compostion".
        • Choose plain text radio button for the "mail sending format" box at the top left.
          Also make sure "Uuencode" is selected next to "Attachment sending:" (near the middle bottom).

Outlook 98

  • Tools
    • Options
      • "Mail Format" tab
        "Message Format" - select either Microsoft Word or Plain Text
        * (do not select RTF format or HTML format)

Pegasus Mail 3.01b

  • Tools
    • Options
      • Sending Mail
        Check the box "Always remove formatting."

AOL6.0

I have AOL 6.0 and in order to post to a list in plain text I have to do the following (per the instructions from my own list):

THIS LIST PERMITS PLAIN TEXT EMAIL ONLY. IF YOU HAVE AOL 6.0, YOU MUST FOLLOW THESE DIRECTIONS OR YOUR MESSAGES WILL NOT APPEAR IN PLAIN TEXT.

1. To compose a message, click WRITE MAIL, select Arial 10, as the default font and size, and type your message, then hit send.

2. To reply to a message, click the left mouse button and highlight the relevant portion of the message, then hit REPLY, and you will see your quoted text in a new email window, marked off with a blue line.

3. Write your reply, add a signature or your name if appropriate, then hit CTRL A to highlight the entire message.

4. Press your right mouse button and a menu will appear. From that menu select TEXT and then NORMAL.

5. If you have done this appropriately, the blue line will disappear. Send your message.

6. If you do not follow these directions exactly; hit REPLY without trimming or quoting only the relevant portion of the message; or are replying to a message written in html (styled email with graphics) your email will be sent in html and not plain text and may not be viewable by some members of the group or may be dumped altogether.

How do I stop AOL 6 from sending HTML to the Internet?

With the release of version 6.0 of its client software, AOL began to embrace the use of full HTML in email. This included a controversial feature in the sending of email to the Internet, in which messages were sent in a format known as multipart/alternative, which uses MIME enclosures to include two copies of every message: one in plain text, and one in HTML. Ideally, Internet email programs should be designed to display the version that they understand. HTML-compliant programs can display the HTML section, showing the formatting that the original sender included with the message; while text-only programs would only show the text section. Even HTML-enabled programs could be made to allow their users to choose (or switch to) the text portion if they prefer simplicity. However, some Internet email programs were never designed to recognize these MIME sections, resulting in the recipient of such a message seeing both the plain text and HTML versions of the email.

Solution

When communicating with Internet recipients who are not using an email program capable of selecting which MIME section to view, an AOL 6.0 user can turn off the HTML using the following steps:

Change your global email preferences (only needs to be done once): Go to Keyword: Preferences (or choose Preferences from the Settings menu on the AOL 6.0 toolbar).

Click on Font, Text, & Graphics Preferences.

Click on the Reset button at the bottom of the resulting window. Do not make any changes in the Font Preferences area of the window. Click on the Save button.

Change a specific email to plain text (must be done for every email): Compose and address the email as desired.

Choose Select All from the Edit menu to highlight the entire message. With the mouse arrow somewhere over the highlighted text, click the Right mouse button, revealing a contextual menu (AKA Right-Click). Choose Normal from the Text menu.

Taking care not to make any further changes to the message, send it. Note that changing the text to normal will eliminate the "blue bar" quoted text indicator, but will not remove some HTML elements of the quoted text. The entire quoted section must be deleted (or simply not quoted in the first place), followed by the re-entry of the text quoted manually, prior to changing the text to normal. Changing the text to normal will also eliminate any styled text that would have been seen by AOL recipients of the message, which cannot be re-added. Testing also suggests that messages with hyperlinks cannot be converted to normal text, requiring the prior removal of the link.

As to AOL Version 6, I understand from a reply from AOL support to a question that I have made, that AOL Version 6 sends "ALL e-mail as HTML, as our subscribers requested that feature.."

There are two ways that AOL subscribers can deal with AOL Version 6:

1. Install an older version of AOL over Version 6..

2. AOL subscribers have the ability to use NETSCAPE Communicator as their web browser. All recent versions of Netscape support popular AOL functions (Including Buddies, chat & instant messaging), Netscape 4.07 & above, Messenger E-mail program permits switching defaults under: EDIT, Preferences, Mail, where one can un-check "Send all e-mail" HTML (This may be listed in "Additional Options" in some versions of Netscape Communicator.).


Trimming Messages

"Trimming" messages when posting to email lists is done for several reasons. First, it is a courtesy to other readers and it is part of email list netiquette. Secondly, it makes our Digests and Archives much more easily readable. Additionally, not deleting information that has already been presented on the list, may affect some of our subscribers who pay for bandwidth and/or long distance charges to collect their mail.

Trimming means to delete most of the previous message and leave just a few lines for reference.

If you use Reply to Sender on the list, all of the "junk" that is not necessary for a reply should be deleted. As mentioned the "junk" is headers (the to, from, date, subject stuff), salutations (Hi Patti), signatures (self-explanatory?), addresses (any other addresses not covered by previous categories), and trailers (the "ads" at the bottom of each message), and the parts of the original message that are not necessary for the reply to be addressed.

To delete this stuff when using Reply to Sender (and this may be different for various email programs), you will need to "highlight" each portion to be deleted and this is accomplished by placing your cursor on the start of the section, holding down the left click button, and scrolling to the end of the section. The text to be deleted should appear as white letters with black background (or something similar). At this point, go to Edit--Cut (or the little pair of scissors), click, and the text should disappear. Each section to be deleted will be done separately.

There should be a setting within your email program in regard to using the brackets in Reply to Sender (i.e. >>). If you manually include brackets, please use them like this: >> for the start of the quote and this << for the end of the quote. Reversing them makes the quote invisible on some email programs that are html sensitive.

Trimming should happen BEFORE you start your reply. This habit will prevent mistakes of sending off untrimmed messages. This is all part of netiquette. For further information, a search on any search engine will give plenty of netiquette websites.

If this is too much to do, just use a new clean email when posting to the list rather than Reply to Sender.

It's generally considered better netiquette to edit out previous posts, retaining only pertinent parts. This is much more considerate especially to digest readers who will have already seen all the previous posts and now have to scroll thru all of them again. And then there's people in countries other than the US who pay for phone and/or internet access by the minute and so it takes that much longer to download their mail.



Comments from List Owners:

As far as the edit function goes, I use mine in support of the digest users. We have a very heavy flow of posts to the list and by making each post as clean as possible it is a much more enjoyable experience for the digest people. Our list rules clearly state the limits on quoted lines, signature lines, widowed lines, quoted salutations/ads/signatures. I make no bones about going in and deleting the 90 million lines that someone who was too lazy to quote properly left in his post when he quoted the entire digest. Some people simply aren't educated enough on computer equipment to understand what we're telling them even with as many times and how clearly we've explained it; others are just too lazy and inconsiderate of others. While most of the people follow the list rules for quoting, we do have those that we have to help out and we use the edit function to do it. I rarely ever have to edit someone's response, it's the quoted material that causes all the problems.

I do not allow HTML on my lists not only because of KAK but because of the problems it causes for some list members in terms of space, in terms of their programs not being able to read it, in terms of the HTML banner ads that are attached to HTML posts trying to sign them on to the Net when they're trying to read posts and prepare responses offline, a whole raft of things. Any possible benefit to HTML emails to lists (and I don't see any, frankly), are way overridden by the problems.

The basic thing is that it's polite to send messages to groups in plain text. Given that your average HTML posting is 3 times as large as the plain text, consider how much space is being wasted storing and transmitting that post. Consider a list with a mere 1000 members. Your transmission/storing problem increases at least a thousand fold.

With the sole exception of lists on which HTML is stated as the preferred method, so that everyone on that list can be assumed to have equipment that can handle it, and also that everyone on that list is in this country and thus not paying for their online time by the minute, it *is* more polite to send the form that is likely to be most widely readable and cause the least problems for fellow list members. And that's not a matter of personal preference, that's a matter of polite consideration for those with whom you are "conversing".

We have non sighted people on the list and their screen readers have a heck of a time with HTML. Then there are people who have old computers and trouble downloading big HTML files. They tell me it locks up their computers more than a jpg?

Sorry, but I have to go along with the text-only mail as more polite as well. There is nothing impolite about html if you know you are emailing people who have the capacity to read it, but to send html to a list which has some members only capable of reading plain text is very exclusionary and impolite. My lists include many non-US members who are more likely to pay by the minute and have less up-to-date computer setups than we've come to take as the norm here, too, so sending them html not only excludes them, it costs them money and often fouls up their systems. Sounds rude to me...

Guess that's what it boils down to - and why it's a matter of being polite and considerate to others. Sending in HTML to a list blocks out those less fortunate than yourself.

For some lists it is definitely is more acceptable and proper - mine, for one. HTML loaded messages have caused lock-ups and other problems for some of my subscribers and such a message sent by an unknowing newbie always generates a number of requests to post only in plain text. We do permit attachments, which are always jpeg images, and those cause no problems.

Text is preferrable because anyone and everyone can access it. Not everyone can access HTML e-mail. Try accessing one on a computer similar to an old one and watch how it works - P133, 16MB RAM. Takes a good 3-4 minutes to load. Now let's assume everyone on this list had such a machine and HTML mail was allowed to go through. Then you'd be talking about an awful lot of upset subscribers. And let's also not forget that HTML e-mail can carry a virus, a text e-mail can only carry a very MINUTE (read Mine-oot) amount, if any, viruses (those it does are newer ones).

Here in Australia, most home users are still on Dial-Up ISP connections, especially those in the country, where not only do they have to pay exhobarant connection prices, but they end up paying by the minute for connection.

Suburban customers still get charged by some ISP's fro the amount they download by the Meg.

Some still, are charged by time (yes, in the suburbs).

Now, considering an RTF or HTML e-mail is anywhere between 2 to 10 times the size of a plain-text e-mail due to all, that means these people end up being charged for the extra time (or Meg) that they download.

Not everyone in the world has unlimited broadband access, and it's unfortunate that a lot of people of people in the US don't understand this (where unlimited broadband is cheap and available by many ISP's).

And therein lies the heart of the controversy - whether it's all up to the other members of my list to make sure that I don't have to do anything to accommodate them (they should be willing to pay extra to see my fancy HTML posts, IOW, or not be on the list at all), or whether I should make some accommodations and skip the fancy stuff in order to have the pleasure of their company.

It is NOT a preference for people who are restricted to email clients that can only read text emails. And there can be no doubt that html emails add to the size of the messages. If you get 1000 messages a day you dont need those to be 5 times the size......

You also have those html emails which need to connect to the sender's site to download pictures etc. If you download your mail, disconnect and then start to read your messages, which alot of people on dial-up do, you're not getting good messages ebcause you're not seeing pictures.

Not allowing html on discussion lists is a way of not annoying those who have problems with html messages.