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DADDY BOB'S COMPUTER Q & A
October 26,
2008
Q.
Whenever I reply or forward an email, there
is a ">" put in front of every line. Why is
it there and can I stop it from being put
there?
A.
This ">" mark is placed there to indicate
that portion of the email that existed
before you added your part. It is used to
distinguish between what was existing and
what has been added. If an email has been
forwarded more than once, then there will be
an additional > added. The section with two
>> is older than the section with only one >
and so on.
This
allows the thread of the conversation to be
followed more easily, especially if it is
being followed by more than the original two
users. The section with the most >
symbols is the oldest, and the section
without any > symbol is the newest.
This > is
only used when the email is using the "Plain
Text" format. If your email program is set
to use the 'Rich Text (HTML)" format, then
the > is replaced with a | vertical line in
front of the older section. Likewise, if it
has been forwarded more then once, an
additional | vertical line is added. Of
course, these marks are only used if you
have checked the "Include message in
reply" option. All the above are set by
default when most email programs are
installed.
Here's
how you can change these default settings.
I'll use Outlook Express in these examples,
but other email programs are similar.
With
Outlook Express open, click on Tools,
Options, and then the Send tab.
To
prevent the original message from being
included in your reply uncheck the box in
front of "Include message in reply". Note
that this only affects the Replying and not
Forwarding since it would not make any sense
to not include the message if forwarding.
To turn
off the > in your email, click the
"Plain Text Settings" button in the "Mail
Sending Format" section.
At the
bottom of this dialog, you can uncheck the
box to not indent the original text with the
> symbol or choose to use another symbol in
place of the >. Your choices here are the >
greater than,| vertical line or the : colon.
This setting will affect both the replying
and forwarding.
To change
the settings for the Rich Text (HTML)
settings, click the "HTML Settings" button.
If the
box in front of "Indent message in reply" is
checked, there will be a | vertical line
inserted in front of each line of the
original message. This vertical line in
front of each line of text becomes one
continuous line in the actual email. This
setting also affects both replying and
forwarding.
These
same settings are available for the News
Sending Format if you use news groups. Here,
however, ne most news groups, it is required
that you do use these markers to indicate
previous sections of the message. In the
news groups, the threads are followed by
many folks, and without them, following it
is near impossible.
Although
these indicators can be turned off,
for clarity, it is always desired that these
indicators be used. |
