jfstreeter
Lurker
I am looking for an email application that won't switch to plain text when I edit the email body of a previous message in the same thread. Anyone know of an application with that feature?
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Email Applications
- Thread starter jfstreeter
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Rukbat
Extreme Android User
The email protocol is specified as text, so any email program that uses fonts, HTML or any other non-pure-text is a program not written according to the protocol.
What does this mean to you? It means that unless you control what email client the recipient uses (like a company-wide email sent to people whose computers you control), you can't be certain that what you send is what they'll receive - or that they'll receive anything. (One of my email filters is HTML - anyone sending me an HTML email is someone whose emails I wouldn't read anyway, so it gets deleted by the filter before it even gets to the email program.) Send HTML to some people and they'll just see the HTML tags, not what the tags are supposed to do, because their email program doesn't support HTML. (The protocol is plain text - the 127 characters and non-printing characters [like new line, tab, etc.] in the character set.) So instead of seeing your text in bold italics, they'll see <b><i>bold italics</i></b>.
Bottom line: Unless you know that all your recipients can receive the non-textual parts of your emails, send plain text. If you want to send fancy stuff, put it on a web server somewhere and email a link to it.
What does this mean to you? It means that unless you control what email client the recipient uses (like a company-wide email sent to people whose computers you control), you can't be certain that what you send is what they'll receive - or that they'll receive anything. (One of my email filters is HTML - anyone sending me an HTML email is someone whose emails I wouldn't read anyway, so it gets deleted by the filter before it even gets to the email program.) Send HTML to some people and they'll just see the HTML tags, not what the tags are supposed to do, because their email program doesn't support HTML. (The protocol is plain text - the 127 characters and non-printing characters [like new line, tab, etc.] in the character set.) So instead of seeing your text in bold italics, they'll see <b><i>bold italics</i></b>.
Bottom line: Unless you know that all your recipients can receive the non-textual parts of your emails, send plain text. If you want to send fancy stuff, put it on a web server somewhere and email a link to it.
Crashdamage
Android Expert
Maildroid should fully support HTML mail. So does the very good Enhanced Email, however it was recently bought by Boxer, the iOS email client and is being merged into that. An Android version of Boxer is in Beta. EE is still available but no longer actively being developed. Aquamail and K-9 don't fully support HTML. Offhand, I don't remember what clients do HTML other than Maildroid and EE, but there are probably more.
I get Rukbat's point about the evil nature of HTML email. For years I used Mutt for email and railed against sending anything but plain text.
But unlike him I can't just filter it out. Not anymore. Probably 2/3 of all the email my wife and I must deal with in our businesses is now HTML. We would quickly go broke if I filtered it out. Our monthly bills, statements, etc are mostly HTML. Like it or not, HTML email is here to stay.
And, I admit to being guilty of sending HTML. For certain things you can't avoid it. For example, my wife wanted to include her company logo in her signature. The only way to do it is to send as HTML.
I get Rukbat's point about the evil nature of HTML email. For years I used Mutt for email and railed against sending anything but plain text.
But unlike him I can't just filter it out. Not anymore. Probably 2/3 of all the email my wife and I must deal with in our businesses is now HTML. We would quickly go broke if I filtered it out. Our monthly bills, statements, etc are mostly HTML. Like it or not, HTML email is here to stay.
And, I admit to being guilty of sending HTML. For certain things you can't avoid it. For example, my wife wanted to include her company logo in her signature. The only way to do it is to send as HTML.