Plain Text ASCII vs. Styled Text in AOL

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Thu Feb 22 10:08:06 EST 2001


We have been urging new subscribers and as many of the long-time
subscribers as we've been able to persuade PLEASE NOT to use Styled Text
with its varied fonts and font-styles but to use Plain Text ASCII; the
primary reason for this is that messages in styled text appear in some mail
programs in HTML-coded format that is a nuisance to read--or characters in
a font chosen will appear as gobbledygook on the screen of a reader who
doesn't have that font installed in his/her computer system. A further
reason is that Styled-text messages appear in both a plain-text and an
HTML-formatted text form in the digest which is the primary manner in which
many of our list-members receive B-Greek mail; this can sometimes double
the length the daily digest apart from being a distraction. At any rate,
that is the reason we have been urging new members and old members to use
plain-text ASCII rather than styled text.

Novices to computers and e-mail programs repeatedly ask me how they can do
this in the program they use. I personally use Eudora, which I think is
sophisticated enough for anybody's e-mail needs and is free to anyone who
will accept the little advertising block in the corner of the screen (it
does not interfere with reading); many use Outlook Express or Navigator's
Communicator programs for e-mail, and I've found that the help files
regarding Settings for these programs give information on how to set your
defaults for e-mail to plain text or how to make sure that particular items
will be sent as plain-text ASCII rather than as styled text. Recently I've
been asked how to set this in AOL's e-mail program; can someone who uses
AOL make that formatting information public here, please? Thanks.

-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Co-Chair, B-Greek List
Department of Classics, Washington University
7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714 (828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad at ioa.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/



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