Should e-mail be sent as plain text or HTML?
by Tim North
Most modern e-mail programs allow you to send messages in either
plain text or HTML (also known as styled text).
With plain text, there's only one font, no colours, no bold, no
italics, no pictures. Just plain ol' text. On the other hand,
HTML-formatted messages can contain multiple fonts, bold,
italics, colour, pictures and other formatting.
So why do I stick with plain text when I send e-mail? Well, I'm
glad you asked. :-)
It comes down to this: there are many reasons not to open e-mail
messages that contain HTML; thus, if you send HTML-formatted e-
mail it's LESS LIKELY TO BE READ.
Let me explain why I (and many others) filter out most of the
HTML-formatted e-mail that I receive:
1. HTML-formatted e-mail can contain destructive software.
Destructive software can be embedded within the HTML of the
message. For instance, the "Forgotten" worm was written in
Visual Basic Script and spread WITHOUT any attachment.
Instead, the worm code was embedded into the HTML formatted
message body.
Similarly, the "I Love You" worm exploited an ActiveX
vulnerability and was executed just by VIEWING or previewing
the e-mail message.
In neither of these cases did you have to open an attachment
to be infected. Just viewing the message was enough.
2. HTML-formatted e-mail often contains porn.
Porn sites love HTML e-mail because it allows them to send
pictures that they hope will lead to more visitors to their
sites.
3. Viewing HTML-formatted e-mail can lead to more spam.
(The following explanation is a little technical. Feel free
to skip to the next point if it's not your cup of tea.)
Let's say that a spammer sends you an HTML-formatted e-mail
containing a small picture (even a single pixel) that's
stored on their server. When you open the message, that
picture is fetched from their server.
Normally, this would only give them your IP address (which
they could find by looking in their server's logs), but
that's not enough to identify you. A smart spammer, though,
will make the URL to the picture something like this:
spammer.com/image.php?image=pixel.gif&addr=fbiouwgkxmsyts
The "fbiouwgkxmsyts" part is your e-mail address, but it's
encrypted so that you don't recognise what they're doing.
So, just by VIEWING the message, you've confirmed to the
spammer that your e-mail address is valid and currently in
use. This makes it much more likely that you'll receive
further spam from them and anyone that they sell their
mailing list to.
4. HTML-formatted e-mail is larger and thus slower to download.
For all these reasons, many people dislike receiving HTML-
formatted e-mail and thus automatically filter much of it out
without reading it.
Of course, if it comes from a friend or colleague that's another
matter. My filter's "white list" always lets their mail through.
But if you're sending e-mail to people outside your business or
circle of friends then it's more likely to be read if you stick
to plain text.
You'll find many more helpful tips like these in Tim North's much
applauded range of e-books. FREE SAMPLE CHAPTERS are available,
and all books come with a money-back guarantee.
http://www.BetterWritingSkills.com
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