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Thread: Plain Text

  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    Glasgow, Scotland
    Posts
    112

    Default Plain Text

    Can anyone explain what this mystery is about plain text? I use Windows XP and BTyahoo and when asked by certain websites to submit in plain text there is nothing obvious in my email to do this. When I call it up on the internet I get a very complex list of details which I cannot believe is necessary with a modern computer. The result is that I do not submit to sites requesting PLAIN TEXT. There must be a simpler solution. Anyone out there know what it is?

  2. #2

    Default

    Hi Marion
    Once I've finished writing my email/reply I right click mouse and click on plain text. That seems to work. Don't know how to alter permanently so I do sometimes forget to hit the mouse!
    Fiona

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Posts
    2,340

    Default

    I use Thunderbird rather than OE and it has a plain text option if you send emails if you don't have an address book entry which specifies the formatting preferred.

    In Thunderbird you appear to have the choice between plain text or HTML...or Unknown..and heaven knows what that gives you.

    In OE, if you go into Tool/Options/Send you can stipulate HTML or plain text for sending or receiving, but I have no idea if you can do this for individual email recipients.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Posts
    1,460

    Default

    Plain text is what you get if you use notepad to create a text document.

    If you have text in for example a word document, its not plain, its got all kinds of "dodgy characters" contained within, "smart" quotes are a good example.

    To get closer to plain text before you mail/post cut and paste whatever text you have into notepad and then cut and paste out of notepad to where ever your text needs to go. You might notice that in notepad some characters are converted to squares, these are the types of characters that cause problems on systems requiring plain text. Usually its obvious what they should be (line breaks are a common one) and they can be replaced in notepad with something more suitable before you go on to use the text.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    Wick
    Posts
    1,020

    Default Might be useful ...

    Hi Marion,

    I don't want to overcomplicate the situation, but there is a simpler solutions than what Niall suggested (which essentially does the same thing but with only a few mouseclicks).

    PureText (http://stevemiller.net/puretext/) will convert anything in the clipboard (when you copy something it goes to the clipboard) to plain text removing any formatting.

    For example, if you copy something to the clipboard by highlighting it, going to the Edit menu and clicking Copy and then you go to the PureText application which is in your System Tray (down on the bottom right next to the clock) and click the icon. It will then convert what's in the clipboard (the bit you copied at the beginning) to plain text.

    As I said, this might be overly complicating things for you (I don't know how experienced you are with PC's so I apologise if I'm teaching you to suck eggs here) but once you get the hand of the program it saves time. I actually use it all the time!
    Kind regards,

    Paul Broadwith
    Blue Ivy Ltd, Wick - Certified Microsoft Small Business Specialist

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