Natural Handmade Soap
Mailing List
Services
Soap Naturally Web & mailing list
E-mail settings FAQ
 |
<-- Back to Soap Natch Handbook
How to control quoted text
How to make sure that the amount of quoted text is kept to a minimum, is quite simply done in a number of ways, and here are a few suggestions:
- In general, when you click "reply" to a message, the whole contents of the message you are replying to is inserted in the "message form" (i.e. the window where you type in your mail). In MOST cases, for Soap Naturally it is perfectly safe to delete all this old contents, and simply add your wording.
- If you prefer to include a portion of what was written by the original poster, open a post (email), read the message and click on the reply button. Type out your reply and scroll down to the original message and delete everything bar the few words or sentences that apply to your reply. We are ideally saying that we can keep up to 5 lines maximum of the original message. Check also that the subject is correct.
- Another option is to open a post (email), read the message and having decided you want to reply to that, click on new mail, address the mail to the list, type in the subject, go back to the original post and drag the mouse over the area you want to keep to highlight the text and with a right click to the mouse, select copy. Go back to your new mail, right click and paste the original paragraph/words/sentences into your new mail.
| The Soap Naturally mailing list (software) is |  |
How to make sure PLAIN TEXT is used
The reason why on SoapNatch we only use PLAIN TEXT emails, is that styled and HTML-formatted text add unnecessary complexity to e-mail messages and can introduce serious security risks for PC users. Malware, spyware, viruses, and all other types of malicious code distributed via e-mail, typically rely on HTML-formatted messages to install themselves on the Windows operating system.
These problems only concern PC's running any of the many versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system; because of substantial differences in the security model, viruses and malware in general DO NOT affect Apple computers running the Macintosh operating system (Mac OS X) and can be avoided on PC's running Linux.
If you wish to make sure you are using PLAIN TEXT when posting to Soap Naturally, you can refer to the instructions given below for the most common email programs:
Outlook, Outlook Express
Before sending your message, go to Format and change the option from Rich Text Format or HTML format to Plain Text.
After setting your outgoing emails to PLAIN TEXT as described above, make sure that the option that says "return the mail in the format it's been received" (or some similar wording) is NOT selected.
This works with most Outlook versions. If you can't find this setting and need some help, we suggest that you browse Microsoft's online support (if you can find your way from Microsoft's home page), or contact whoever suggested that you use Microsoft's email program (this could be your ISP, some well-meaning friend or family member, or Microsoft's local reseller where you bought your computer/software).
Eudora
You can have Eudora warn you before sending messages that contain styled text or HTML. For this, go to Tools: Options and click on the Styled Text category. Click to put a bullet in the radio button for "Send both plain and styled." Put a check in the box for "Ask me each time." With this set, if you send a plain text message it will send automatically; when you queue a styled message or one with HTML, Eudora will bring up a dialog to warn you of the styled text and give you the option to send it or discard the styles.
If you want to make sure that you never accidentally send a message with styled or HTML text, you can have Eudora automatically discard the styles before sending any message. For this, go to Tools: Options: Styled text and click to put a bullet on the radio button for "Send plain text only." This means that even if your message is filled with bold and italics, colors, and font changes, the message will be sent out without any of this formatting; instead it will be stripped down to the basic plain text before Eudora sends it.
For further information, you can refer to the online support pages from the Eudora Website.
Note: As of 1st May 2007, Eudora is only available in sponsored mode. The developer community at Mozilla is currently working on Penelope, an open source version of Eudora, which will be available for free sometime in the future.
AOL mailer
"Bohemian" Wendy posted the following suggestions for AOL users:
For those of you with AOL that can't seem to get through to this list.. May I suggest what I finally figured out...and was finally able to start posting-
Before sending your email- (R) click your mouse- a box will come up and you will see one of your choices as being "Compose as Plain Text" click on it and then send your post!
We have been told there are many different versions of the AOL mailer around... so if the above does not work, you might refer to the instructions below, which we were given for older versions of this email program:
A) Change the text preferences to send plain text for only one email:
- On the AOL toolbar, click on WRITE.
- In the dropdown menus, select Arial and 10, ensure the buttons for Bold, Italics, and Underlined are not selected, then click on the TEXT COLOR button.
- Select Black, then click on OK.
- Click on the BACKGROUND COLOR button.
- Select White, then click on OK.
- Type the Address, Subject, and Message as usual, then click on SEND NOW.
- Click on OK if you receive a confirmation message.
B) Change the text preferences to send plain text for all email
NOTE: Following the steps below will set your e-mail text preferences to plain text for all messages you send in the future.
- On the AOL toolbar, click on SETTINGS, then click on PREFERENCES.
- Click on FONT, TEXT & GRAPHICS.
- Click on RESET to restore the default settings for AOL e-mail, then click on SAVE.
- Click on the X to close the Preferences window.
If none of the above instructions help... please ask the AOL support staff to help you set your email preferences to "PLAIN TEXT".
Apple Mail
In Apple Mail's Preferences, open the Composing tab. In the Composing: Message Format: drop down list, select Plain Text. If you wish to make sure that Rich Text formatting is never used unless you really want to, also untick the checkbox next to Use the same message format as the original message under the Responding: header.
Netscape Navigator/Communicator
Nancy H is our resident expert for Netscape Navigator/Communicator. Here's what she says:
I am very limited to Netscape 4.7 browser knowledge.The way I learned about this one, was to just thoroughly explore the various dropdown menus. Takes a bit of poking around. Feel free to ask me the 'idiot' questions. (That's the kind of answer you'll probably get!)
You can contact Nancy using the following form:
Opera Mail
Opera Mail sends in plain text by default. That is to say, you don't have to worry about changing your email program settings if you are using Opera Mail and never changed its settings (preferences for Mac users).
Pegasus Mail
Pegasus Mail is only available for Windows and for DOS. Last time we had a PC user check, Pegasus Mail's default mail format was plain text, same as Opera (see above).
If you know differently and would like to write a short description of how to set plain text in Pegasus Mail, feel free to post your contribution to the list.
Web-based email
Many Internet Service Providers (ISP) offer Web interfaces to access one's e-mail. A number of popular (so-called) free email address providers also use Web-based e-mail systems.
In general, we at SoapNatch advise against relying on free Web-based email addresses, such as Yahoo, Hotmail and Gmail, to access the mailing list. This is both for security, privacy and copyright protection concerns, and because (so-called) anti-spam filters on these popular "free" email services often confuse mailing list posts with spam.
If you must use Web-based email to maintain your membership in the Soap Naturally mailing list, we invite you to contact your Web-based email provider directly for support and assistance.
Brand names, company names and logos are copyright and/or trademarks of their respective holders
Soapmaking Books: |
Editors & maintainers:
Ersilia Vitale
[ ccdream --at-- iprimus.com.au - Cosmetic grade colours: oxides and ultramarines ],
Marina Tadiello
[ Soap book co-author, Soap Naturally - Ingredients, methods and recipes for natural handmade soap ]
[ AquaSapone - natural soap, essential oils, soap making supplies & kits ]
Email mailing list on natural soap making: information & options
