**Author:**  [@black\_rabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/black_rabbit)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2000, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/html-formatted-email/38661/1 "2000-10-27T21:13:27Z")
How do Netscape mail, Outlook, &c format email as an html page? How do they manage to send the message out as both plain text and html so that both text-only and html email programs can read the message? In other words, I like to write my own code, and would like to jazz up my band’s email newsletter a bit. I’ve tried to do it simply by writing the code in the body of the email message, but all I get is plain text when viewing the sent message.
Is there some special tag that I don’t know about? Like maybe putting \ before the html bit and \ after it?
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**Author:**  [@Meephead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meephead)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2000, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/html-formatted-email/38661/2 "2000-10-27T21:27:40Z")
but in Outlook Express 5, while editing a message, you can click on the View, amd make sure that Source Edit is checked. At that point, you have will have tabs at the bottom of the message body area that let you switch between “Edit” (the normal view), “Source” (html code), and “Preview” (uneditable). This should help in a situation like what you are talking about.
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**Author:**  [@troub](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/troub)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2000, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/html-formatted-email/38661/3 "2000-10-27T21:35:44Z")
Just a guess, but email is usually sent with header information for each message that the mail program uses to determine various things (if there are attachments, multiple parts to the message, attachment encoding, etc.). This header also indicate the content type of the message you are sending. This has to be set to the proper value in order for the message, when received, to appear HTML-formatted instead of plain text. The easiest way to do this is to tell your email program to send HTML formatted email. Then, I would take Meephead’s advice and try to edit the source.
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**Author:**  [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\
**Post date:** [October 28, 2000, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/html-formatted-email/38661/4 "2000-10-28T00:57:39Z")
The content is sent in plain text and in HTML and the mail program will choose HTML if it can read it.
The following is a _complete_ email with a graphic included. Notice the header, the separators, etc. First blank line indicates end of header.
Try this: Open notepad and copy and paste this text. Now change the extension to EML and it will be opened by OE. You can also drag it from the desktop into you OE folders.
Now change the extension of the copy on the desktop to MHT and see what happens. Interesting stuff and useful once you know how to handle email files.
From: Joe Blowe \<[poblo@earthlink.gov](mailto:poblo@earthlink.gov)\>
To: [asf@asf.gov](mailto:asf@asf.gov)
Subject: test
Date: Fri, 27 Oct 2000 20:48:32 -0400
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/related;
type=“multipart/alternative”;
boundary="----=\_NextPart\_000\_003C\_01C04057.44F03820"
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2314.1300
This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
------=\_NextPart\_000\_003C\_01C04057.44F03820
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="----=\_NextPart\_001\_003D\_01C04057.44F03820"
------=\_NextPart\_001\_003D\_01C04057.44F03820
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset=“iso-8859-1”
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
This is a test =20
------=\_NextPart\_001\_003D\_01C04057.44F03820
Content-Type: text/html;
charset=“iso-8859-1”
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
\
\\
\
\
\\
\
\
\ \
\\\This is a test =
\\\\
\ \
\ \\\
------=\_NextPart\_001\_003D\_01C04057.44F03820–
------=\_NextPart\_000\_003C\_01C04057.44F03820
Content-Type: image/gif;
name=“smile.gif”
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Content-ID: \<003b01c04078$cbfa3700$faeb1e26@alf\>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------=\_NextPart\_000\_003C\_01C04057.44F03820–