From Heinz Tschabitscher,
Your Guide to Email.
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With Windows Mail and Outlook Express, you can compose messages containing formatting such as different fonts, colors, or images. Such rich messages are sent in HTML, the format of Web sites.

Why Send Plain Text?

Not all email programs know how to display these messages, however. Instead of your perfectly crafted message, the recipient may see nothing but garbage.

To avoid this unfortunate situation, you should send messages in plain text only by default in Windows Mail or Outlook Express.

Send Plain Text Messages by Default with Windows Mail or Outlook Express

To send emails in plain text by default in Windows Mail or Outlook Express:

• Select Tools | Options... from the menu in Outlook Express.
• Go to the Send tab.
• Make sure Plain Text is selected under Mail Sending Format.
• Click OK.

Send Richly Formatted Emails Overriding the Default

Of course, you can send rich HTML emails even if you have switched to a plain text default in Windows Mail or Outlook Express.

If, on the other hand, you don't want to make plain text messages the default, you can also send plain text emails individually.