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Sending Plain Text E-mail Messages

Outlook Express 4.0

• Select "Tools" then click on "Options..."
• Click on "Send" tab
• In the "Mail Sending Format" and "News Sending Format" sections, click on "Plain Text" bullet in both places
• In the "Mail Sending Format" section, click on "Plain Text Settings..." button.
• In the "Plain Text Settings" window and the Message format section
  • Click MIME bullet
  • Set "Encode text using:" to None.
  • Uncheck the "Allow 8-bit characters in headers"
  • Set Automatically wrap text at 72
  • Check the box in front of "Indent original text with > when replying or forwarding"
  • Click OK
• In the "News Sending Format" section, click on "Plain Text Settings..." button.
• In the "Plain Text Settings" window and the Message format section
  • Click MIME bullet
  • Set "Encode text using:" to None.
  • Uncheck the "Allow 8-bit characters in headers"
  • Set Automatically wrap text at 72
  • Check the box in front of "Indent original text with > when replying or forwarding"
  • Click OK
• While still in the "Send" tab, Uncheck "Reply to messages using the format in which they were sent"
• Click on "OK" and on "OK" again.

All of your messages will now be sent as plain text. Outlook Express 4.x can also be configured to send Business Cards (also referred to as vCards) with your e-mail. These are attachments, which show up as strings of unreadable code on most mailing lists. To turn these off:

• Select "Tools" then click on "Stationery..."
• In the "Signature" area, click on the "Signature" button.
• In the "Personal Business Card" area, uncheck the check box in front of "Attach card to all outgoing messages"
• Click on "OK" and on "OK" again.

 

Original material courtesy of Gerald E. Boyd.