How to Turn Off MIME and HTML in Email

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From: "Prodigal" 
Date: Fri, 10 Sep 1999 15:05:57 -0500

From: Elizabeth McCoy 
>
> Microsoft emailers and browser/emailers are particularly
> prone to sending stuff in MIME or HTML. There are at least
> _two_ preference toggles you have to turn off to get plain
> text.

It's actually a little easier than that, with Outlook Express
at least.

In the Options window, there's an option to reply to messages in
the format that they were sent in, which takes care of it, IF
you are replying to a plain text message.

If you're replying to a message in HTML or posting one that is
not a reply, just click Format, and choose Plain Text. It's what
I do, to make sure I don't violate the spirit of the list (or
since this is about IN, would that be "the celestial of the
list" instead?)

From: "Yeager, Alex" 
Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2000 16:49:02 -0400

FYI - it now appears that our server/firewall setup is
charitably attaching the HTML commands after
leaving my machine.  It might be worth a mention
in the "don't post if..." instructions (with the caveat
that it's still a Bad Thing To Post...)

As/if I get more info, I'll pass it along.

Alex Yeager

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AOL 6.0

(Special thanks to Steve Manes for the original post, and
to Beth McCoy for forwarding it.)

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
using the following steps:

Change your global email preferences (only needs to be done once):

   Go to Keyword: Preferences (or choose Preferences from the
    Settings menu on the AOL 6.0 toolbar).

   Click on Font, Text, & Graphics Preferences.

   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.

   Click on the Save button.


Change a specific email to plain text (must be done for
every email):

   Compose and address the email as desired.

   Choose Select All from the Edit menu to highlight the
    entire message.

   With the mouse arrow somewhere over the highlighted text,
    click the Right mouse button, revealing a contextual
    menu (AKA Right-Click).

   Choose Normal from the Text menu.

   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.

(A caveat from Beth: This Doesn't Always Work.  Use this
method at your own risk.)