[b-greek] AOL6 & Plain Text

From: Bob Read (bobread@ids.net)
Date: Sat Jul 07 2001 - 20:38:39 EDT


From the Unofficial AOL faq: (Note that option #1 is preferred and easiest.)

http://members.aol.com/adamkb/aol/mailfaq/#aol6html

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

     Discussion

     With the release of version 6.0 of its client software, AOL began to
embrace the
     use of full HTML in email (see FAQ item 8). 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 by taking the following steps exactly as described:

       1.Change your global email preferences (only needs to be done once):
            a.Go to Keyword: Preferences (or choose Preferences from the
Settings
               menu on the AOL 6.0 toolbar).
            b.Click on Font, Text, & Graphics Preferences.
            c.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.
            d.Click on the Save button.
       2.Change a specific email to plain text (must be done for every email):
            a.Compose and address the email as desired.
            b.Choose Select All from the Edit menu to highlight the entire
message.
            c.With the mouse arrow somewhere over the highlighted text, click
the
               Right mouse button, revealing a contextual menu (AKA
Right-Click).
            d.Choose Normal from the Text menu.
            e.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.

     If this process is unappealing, other options include reverting to a
prior version of
     AOL or using AOL Mail via the web.

     (Thanks to Carpenma for identifying step two of the plain text solution.)

--
Bob Read
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/b/e/bestill.htm

Soli Deo Gloria-Solus Christus-Sola Gratia-Sola Fide-Sola Scriptura
____________________________________________________________
The Church of The Master [Baptist]
    Providence, Rhode Island
http://users.ids.net/~bobread/cotm.htm

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