[arachne] Joe's formatting problems

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> There are three options here :
>  
> 1) I can post using "rich text" format, in which case you get
> the main message with correct headers, so that it's readable.
> You may _also_ get 'winmail.dat' (even if I use Linux!), which
> you can simply ignore (this will probably add about 2 or 3
> seconds to your download time).
>  
> 2) I can post plain text (as Sam and others keep suggesting),
> in which case the server will mangle the headers and the
> message will be _unreadable_ by all, including myself.
>  
> 3) I can stop contributing to this list.
>  
> It's all up to you, I'm happy to oblige.
>  
> Joe.

Joe,

I just ran across a similar problem with Outlook email to another
application.

I'm not saying this is the same as the problem you've experiencing, but
it looks awfully familiar.  Anyway, if you want to try something,
here's some background and my findings:

From Outlook mail can be formatted as plain text, rtf, html or MSWord.

If html or rtf formatting is chosen, formatting data for Outlook mail
clients is included as a winmail.dat attachment.  I'll leave the MSWord
format out of the discussion -- I can't imagine why people choose this,
although it seems to be a common default on corporate Outlook.

If plain text formatting is chosen the treatment varies depending on
the version of Outlook.  By default, some type of encoding is done. 
Older versions of Outlook (2000 and prior) let you control encoding of
plain text in Internet Only mode.  Outlook 2002 removed those controls
and introduced "Intelligent" (I use that term loosely) encoding based
on the following rules:
 - Clients of an Exchange Server use the server's specified format
 - Clients of an Exchange Server use the server's rule set. 
From MSKB artical Q278134 - "Outlook 2002 encodes each plain text body
part for which Outlook creates Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions
(MIME) by using the same algorithm that Exchange servers use to send
plain text to the Internet. In general, if 25 percent or more of the
message is comprised of 8-bit characters, Outlook uses Base 64
encoding, otherwise Outlook uses Quoted-Printable encoding."

Here's the good bit -- you can override Outlook's encoding, but it
takes a registry edit:

Close outlook and open the registry editor.

Look for the appropriate registry key:
 * Outook 2002 (OFFICE10\OUTLOOK.EXE)
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Outlook\Options\Mail
 * Outlook 2003 (OFFICE11\OUTLOOK.EXE)
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Options\Mail
If the DWORD value InternetMailTextEncoding isn't there, create it.

 From the MSKB artical above, Outlook acts based on this registry key
and value pair as follows:
* If the value data is 0, Outlook is set to Encode Intelligently.
* If the value data is 1, Outlook uses Quoted-Printable encoding.
* If the value data is 2, Outlook uses Base 64 encoding.
* If the value data is 3, Outlook uses no encoding and leaves 8-bit
characters as 8-bit characters.

Set the value to 3 to ensure that no encoding will be applied to plain
text messages.

Exit the registry editor and re-open Outlook.  That should be it.

Of course, if you're using corporate Outlook your registry may be
locked down so you can't do anything about this anyway...

Regards,

Kevin FitzGerrell



                
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