![[Dialog box in Outlook Express for Windows]](oe6_plain_text.gif)
HTML is the language used for formatting web pages and it works very well for that purpose. It is less efficient for sending formatted e-mail, as such messages may be three times as long as a corresponding plain text message, and sometimes considerably longer. HTML-formatted messages may be rendered poorly when received in older email programs (Some recipients see the message jumbled together; some see raw HTML tags). Use of HTML formatting has allowed malicious code writers to send highly damaging e-mail, such as messages that infect your computer with a virus when you simply read the e-mail. Also note that if you post to a mailing list or list-serve, it may require you to send in plain text rather than HTML format.
Nearly all current e-mail programs are supplied in a configuration that sends formatted (HTML) email by default. In this article I will illustrate, usually with screen captures, how to reconfigure many popular e-mail programs to send plain text instead of HTML by default. Also, I will provide links to other references for e-mail programs for which I don't have personal experience. Finally, you may wish to read my companion article presenting some additional e-mail tips, for example, how to avoid activating "web bugs" in e-mail messages that you receive.
Now, here are the instructions to disable sending of HTML messages in various e-mail programs:
As the free e-mail program supplied with Windows, Outlook Express is widely used. As normally supplied, it always composes new messages in HTML format. When replying or forwarding, it uses the same format (plain text or HTML) as the message you are replying to or forwarding.
To specify plain text as your default sending format in Outlook Express: Choose Tools > Options and click the "Send" tab, resulting in the dialog box below. Select "Plain Text" as your Mail Sending Format, and UNcheck the box labelled "Reply to messages using the format in which they were sent":
Note: After configuring Outlook Express this way, you will normally send only plain text, but may override that choice for individual messages by choosing "Rich Text (HTML)" from the Format menu while composing a message.
Microsoft no longer provides the free Outlook Express program for the current Macintosh operating system (OS X); therefore, only Mac users who haven't yet upgraded to OS X might still be running a Mac version of Outlook Express. If you are one of those people and you wish to set plain text as your default sending format: choose Edit > Preferences and click the "Compose" tab. This brings up a dialog box where you can set the same two items illustrated in the screen capture above from the Windows version.
Outlook is sold as part of the Microsoft Office productivity suite. It can be used, like Outlook Express, as a standard Internet e-mail program when you have a direct connection to the Internet. It can also be used on a Microsoft Exchange network which large organizations often use for their internal e-mail systems. Some behaviors of Outlook vary depending on which of these modes it is used in.
To specify plain text as your default message composition format in Outlook (probably a reasonable choice if you aren't on an Exchange network): choose Tools > Options and click the "Mail Format" tab, resulting in the dialog box below. Then select "Plain Text" as your message format:
![[Microsoft Outlook Mail Format dialog box]](outlook_plain_text.gif)
(I'll explain later why my circled portion in this screen capture includes the options regarding use of Microsoft Word.)
Outlook offers three choices of sending format: Plain Text, Rich Text, and HTML. The "Rich Text" option is especially problematic, as it's a private format which isn't shared by any other e-mail program except Microsoft Outlook. If recipients complain that your messages include strange, undecipherable attached files named "winmail.dat", it means that you've been sending messages in Outlook Rich Text format to people who don't use Outlook.
If you aren't on an Exchange network, my advice is to avoid this "Rich Text" format entirely. You might use Plain Text for most of your messages, and occasionally use HTML when you want to add some formatting. But stay away from Rich Text.
If you are on an Exchange network, it's okay use Rich Text (and you may even wish to set it as your default format in the dialog box shown above). However, in this case, you need to make sure that your Rich Text messages will be delivered only to people within your Exchange network. For this purpose, click "Internet Format..." in the dialog box pictured above. This brings up the dialog box shown below, where you can specify that Rich Text messages be converted to Plain Text when delivered to recipients on the outside Internet:
![[Microsoft Outlook Internet Format dialog box]](outlook_plain_text2.gif)
Note: After configuring Outlook this way, you'll have to remember that messages you compose as Rich Text will ultimately be delivered as Plain Text to any recipients outside your Exchange network. If you want those recipients to see your formatting, you'll have to compose in HTML instead of Rich Text.
Finally, regarding those occasions when you wish to use HTML formatting (whether or not you're on an Exchange network): If you're using the default option that uses Microsoft Word to edit e-mail messages, your HTML formatted messages will contain a huge amount of unnecessary junk inserted by Word, often making them many times bigger than a more sensible HTML formatted message. Therefore, I urge all Outlook users to disable use of Microsoft Word in Outlook, as illustrated in the circled portion of the first screen capture in this section.
Entourage is sold as part of the Mac version of Microsoft Office. It includes all of the features that were previously in the (free) Mac version of Outlook Express, while also incorporating many features from the Windows Outlook program, such as Calendar and Address Book that integrate with other MS Office applications. In fact, as of Office/Mac 2004, Entourage can even be used with an Exchange network, although previous versions of Entourage worked only with a direct Internet connection.
To configure Entourage to use plain text as default sending format, choose Entourage > Mail & News Preferences... and click the "Compose" tab, resulting in the dialog box below. Set Mail format to "Plain Text" and UNcheck the checkbox for "Show HTML Formatting toolbar..."
![[Microsoft Entourage Compose dialog box]](entourage_plain_text.jpg)
Also, click the "Reply & Forward" tab and UNcheck the checkbox labeled "Reply to messages in the format in which they were sent" as shown in the screen capture below:
![[Microsoft Entourage Reply & Forward dialog box]](entourage_plain_text2.jpg)
Note: More recommended settings for Entourage can be found in my companion article of additional e-mail tips.
Apple's "Mail" program is provided with Mac OS X. To set plain text as your default sending format in Mail, choose Mail > Preferences... and click the "Composing" tab, resulting in the dialog box below. Set your Format to "Plain Text" and UNcheck the checkbox labeled "Use the same message format as the original":
![[Apple Mail Composing dialog box]](applemail_plain_text.gif)
Unlike the programs discussed previously, Apple Mail doesn't really have a capability to send HTML format. It offers a choice of Plain Text or Rich Text (with its usual default being Rich Text). But this "Rich Text" isn't HTML and it's also not the Rich Text used by Outlook (which is a private format known only to Outlook). Apple Mail's "Rich Text" is actually "text/enriched" format, which is an Internet standard, although one that isn't supported as widely as HTML. Many of the common desktop e-mail programs, such as Outlook and Outlook Express, can successfully display received messages that include text/enriched formatting, although they won't compose in this format. At the same time, many e-mail programs (especially web-based mail readers) don't understand text/enriched format at all, and display only plain text when receiving a message in this format. For this reason, you may choose to avoid Apple Mail's "Rich Text" option, even if you are inclined to add formatting to your message.
An additional complication occurs when sending messages with attachments. Even when composing in "Plain Text," Apple Mail tries to display attachments inline at the position of the insertion point when you insert the attachment. It does this by creating a multi-part MIME e-mail whose structure is rather different than a standard plain text message with attachments. As a result, some of your recipients may not see any of your text past the location of your first attachment. To avoid this problem, when using Apple Mail, insert all attachments at the end of your message, making sure that you don't have any text between attachments or after the last attachment.
Note: More recommended settings for Apple Mail can be found in my companion article of additional e-mail tips.
Here, I consider Mozilla software which includes the standalone Thunderbird e-mail client and the integrated Mozilla suite, and I also include all recent (6.x or greater) Netscape versions which, although produced by Netscape which is now owned by AOL, are based on software from the open source Mozilla project. In all of these programs, the option to send in plain text or HTML is tied to individual e-mail accounts. Thus, you must view settings for a particular e-mail account. In some of these programs, you will then immediately see the option whether to compose in HTML format. The screen capture below is from Thunderbird, where you must take the additional step of clicking "Composition & Addressing" on the left side. Finally, UNcheck the checkbox labeled "Compose messages in HTML format":
![[Mozilla Thunderbird Composition & Addressing dialog box]](thunderbird_plain_text.gif)
Note: More recommended settings for Thunderbird and the other programs in this group can be found in my companion article of additional e-mail tips.
If you still use a Netscape 4.x (Netscape Communicator) browser to handle your e-mail, you may configure it to send plain text by choosing Edit > Preferences... Then, in the left-hand column, click "Formatting" under the "Mail & Newsgroups" heading. Select the radio button labelled "Use the plain text editor to compose messages" as in the screen capture below:
![[Netscape 4.x Mail Formatting dialog box]](ns4_plain_text.gif)
Note: Above screen capture is from a Netscape 4.6x or 4.7x version. In earlier Netscape 4.x versions, you won't see "Formatting" in the left-hand column but you'll find an analogous setting by clicking "Messages."
AOL has distributed many versions of its client software for both Windows and Mac. These versions have varied considerably in use of plain text or HTML when sending to the Internet (i.e., to recipients outside of AOL's proprietary system). The best reference on this topic is the Unofficial AOL Email FAQ, particularly their question, "How do I stop AOL from sending HTML to the Internet?" and their detailed answer to this question. Here, I'll summarize some of the issues.
AOL 5.0 and earlier versions had little HTML capability and could only send plain text. So you needn't worry about sending HTML if you're still using one of these. (This includes Mac users who haven't upgraded to OS X, for whom AOL 5.0 is the last version available.)
Most recent AOL software always tries to send HTML. It isn't possible to reset its default behavior to prefer plain text. The best you can do (with some AOL versions) is reset the formatting of individual messages to force them to send in plain text instead of HTML.
Some AOL versions (8.0 for Windows; 10.2.1 and 10.3 for Mac OS X) seem to be incapable of sending plain text.
AOL 6.0 for Windows could be forced to send an individual message as plain text by using the following trick: After composing and addressing the message, select its entire text (e.g., choose "Select All" from the Edit menu), right-click on the selected text, and select Text > Normal. (Before using this technique, you may need to reset your global AOL Font Preferences to default values.)
AOL 7.0 for Windows could send plain text by simply composing a message without any explicit formatting (such as bold, italics, font changes, etc.). Unfortunately, this feature was lost in AOL 8.0 which is totally incapable of sending plain text.
AOL 9.0 for Windows restores the capability to send plain text by using a technique similar to that needed for AOL 6.0 although it's a little simpler (You don't need to select the whole message before right-clicking on it).
AOL Open Mail Access: As of April 2004, AOL users are no longer forced to use AOL client software (or the AOL website) to handle their e-mail. AOL now provides Open Mail Access which allows sending and receiving AOL e-mail using any standard e-mail program such as Outlook Express, Thunderbird, Entourage, etc. This is probably the best way for AOL users to avoid sending HTML: Instead of trying to use some obscure trick that may or may not exist in your version of AOL client software, take advantage of Open Mail Access to use a standard e-mail program and use the capability of that program to send plain text (See the section of this page devoted to your selected e-mail program).
Mailsmith from Bare Bones Software is a powerful Macintosh e-mail program that sends only plain text. If you use this program, you won't ever have to worry about sending HTML messages.
Here are some links to pages containing instructions for other e-mail programs not discussed above:
You may also be interested in my companion article of additional e-mail tips.