Tom Neff wrote,
| If, on the other hand, one's mail client is like AOL6, which arbitrarily
| switches to HTML in response to a huge number of rather non-intuitive
| things (pasting a URL into the text will often do it, for example), or
| Outlook Express, which encourages you to have a 'personal decor' for your
| correspondence, then it is more "poster intensive" to have to keep around
| little Post-Its with six part instruction sequences for plain-text-izing
| your messages.
True of AOL 6.0 (worse than you say, in fact, Tom) but not true of Outlook
Express.
As I understand about AOL 6.0, there's no arbitrary switching; there's no
switching at all. It always forces HTML and doesn't need a rationalization
like finding a URL in the text. To prevent it you go through the
configuration procedure to permit plain text and then, on each outgoing
message, through further steps to evade markup. So AOL 6.0 is worse than
you describe.
However, Outlook Express can be set once and for all to send plain text
except on messages where the sender specifically selects rich text or adds
an attachment or stationery. It can also be set to include forwarded
messages as text rather than attaching them. Once the user sets those
options, all outgoing messages are in plain text with no extra steps that
have to be redone on each mailing. There's no need to keep post-its around.
OE is not nearly so bad as you describe. (It's no paradise either, but I've
yet to find anything better for my uses.)
