What's happening?

Don Schmidt · Jun 12, 2007

One individual who sends me email the text looks like this; what's
happening?

<html><div style='background-color:'> 
<DIV>
 
<DIV>
 
<DIV>
 
<DIV>
 
<BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #a0c6e5
2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
Students-
 it is imperative that we get your confirmation if
you are attending the Sophomore Pinning on june 15th as we have to have the
pins available and you will need to be trained on server protocols. Please
Reply to the CC: Line. We also need to plan a dinner for all that attend so
it is critical we get an accurate

FrankV · Jun 12, 2007

What you are seeing is the actual HTML code used to generate a web page.
Your e-mail program is probably reading it as ASCII code and it then does
not generate the "pretty" picture of the words. Click on the Format button
and you will see it clicked next to "plain text", not the "rich text(html)".

Frank

Anthony Buckland · Jun 12, 2007

The answer is in the first six characters. Your friend is sending
you HTML, the source language for web pages. Try looking at
the message in a browser. If you're using Outlook Express, the
View menu will allow you to do this without leaving OE. Caution:
assure yourself that your friend is a trustworthy source first.

Unknown · Jun 12, 2007

Ask the sender when he/she creates a new email message to click on format
and then put a check mark on "send pictures with mail".

Don Schmidt · Jun 12, 2007

FrankV, Anthony & Unknown

Many thanks folks. Your suggestions have revealed what seems to be
happening.

The sender of the email may be forwarding a HTML message in Plain text.

I believe the message isn't harmful. It is from our local Columbia River
High School International Baccalaureate coordinator to parents of IB
students.

I did suggest to the sender to use the HTML setting when sending email.

Again, many thanks for your help.

--
Don
Vancouver, USA

Unknown said:
Ask the sender when he/she creates a new email message to click on format
and then put a check mark on "send pictures with mail".

Ken Blake, MVP · Jun 12, 2007

On Tue, 12 Jun 2007 13:02:32 -0700, "Don Schmidt" <Don

FrankV, Anthony & Unknown

Many thanks folks. Your suggestions have revealed what seems to be
happening.

The sender of the email may be forwarding a HTML message in Plain text.

Yes, probably something like that.

I believe the message isn't harmful. It is from our local Columbia River
High School International Baccalaureate coordinator to parents of IB
students.

I did suggest to the sender to use the HTML setting when sending email.

Your choice, of course, but my advice is to avoid html mail entirely.
I have html turned off here in my E-mail client as well as in my
newsreader, and read all messages in plain text. That's because html
*can* carry malicious code, and not reading html messages is a safer
way to read mail or news.

It's very likely true that this message wasn't malicious, and probably
true that very few messages are malicious. Nevertheless, you never
know, and I think it's prudent to avoid html. As far as I'm concerned,
I'm interested in the content of the message, not its form, anyway.

Don Schmidt · Jun 13, 2007

Ken Blake said:
On Tue, 12 Jun 2007 13:02:32 -0700, "Don Schmidt" <Don

Yes, probably something like that.

Your choice, of course, but my advice is to avoid html mail entirely.
I have html turned off here in my E-mail client as well as in my
newsreader, and read all messages in plain text. That's because html
*can* carry malicious code, and not reading html messages is a safer
way to read mail or news.

It's very likely true that this message wasn't malicious, and probably
true that very few messages are malicious. Nevertheless, you never
know, and I think it's prudent to avoid html. As far as I'm concerned,
I'm interested in the content of the message, not its form, anyway.

Thanks for the good advice Ken but it would present me with another problem.
I send out lodge meetings notices monthly; about a dozen on USPS postcards
and another 60 or so via email. The email version is a gif of the USPS
postcard which most times carries a graphic, a map to the meeting location
which for the Council changes often.

Ken Blake, MVP · Jun 13, 2007

On Tue, 12 Jun 2007 16:02:11 -0700, "Don Schmidt" <Don

Thanks for the good advice Ken but it would present me with another problem.
I send out lodge meetings notices monthly; about a dozen on USPS postcards
and another 60 or so via email. The email version is a gif of the USPS
postcard which most times carries a graphic, a map to the meeting location
which for the Council changes often.

Three points:

1. You can send html mail and still read all incoming mail as plain
text (although it doesn't seem fair to set different standards for
your correspondents and yourself.

2. You could sent the map as an attachment, not embedded within the
message as html. (But attachments have their own security risk).

3. Whatever you do, you run the risk of having correspondents like me,
who will not accept the map from you via E-mail.

Charles W Davis · Jun 13, 2007

And I send 1,200 html messages on a sporadic basis. I also send 1,000
messages with pdfs attached. No complaints.

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What's happening?

Don Schmidt

FrankV

Anthony Buckland

Unknown

Don Schmidt

Ken Blake, MVP

Don Schmidt

Ken Blake, MVP

Charles W Davis

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