Pete,

No, my post and this reply have a plain text format.  Both plain text and
rich text format can have live links for non-AOL recipients. With the most
common email programs like MS Outlook, text in plain text or rich text
messages that begins with http://  or Mailto:// is treated as a URL.   HTML
Anchor tags like  <A href="http://" > http:// </a> create live links in HTML
format email.

MS Outlook users can determine a message's format by clicking Format on the
standard toolbar.  To set your default message format, from the MS Inbox
page click Tools | Options | then click the Mail Format tab and select a
default mail format.

Here is a summary of email formats written by a friend:

"- Plain Text is perhaps the most straightforward (and safest) format to use
for messages.  If there's a downside, it's that you can't format messages
(use different fonts, colors, paragraph spacing, etc.).  Using plain text,
however, will assure you that almost anybody can read your messages, using
any email client.

 - Rich Text is the standard Exchange format (i.e., if you're using
Corporate/Workgroup Outlook as a client for Exchange) and it will allow you
to use formatting of fonts, colors, etc.  Rich Text is also necessary if you
share NetFolders, at least for the individuals you're sharing with.  Some
folks just make it their default format (Tools/Options, choose Mail Format
tab and then select Microsoft Outlook Rich Text format from the drop-down
box) while others may use Plain Text and mark specific contacts in their
Contacts folder to ensure that all messages to that particular contact are
sent in Rich Text.

 - HTML is the one that allows all the bells and whistles of *pretty* email
messages and many newsletters use this format (LockerGnome, CNET, etc.).
Yep, it's slick, but there are some issues to consider:  1) not all email
clients may be able to read the HTML message as you intended; 2) HTML
greatly increases the size of the message so downloads take longer and it
seems to take longer to open them in Outlook 2000 even after the download;
and 3) security folks are concerned that viruses can be transmitted via HTML
messages.

So, what's the best thing for you?
- Consider setting your default message format as Plain or Rich Text rather
than HTML.  If you really need (or want) the formatting capabilities of
HTML, then you can certainly use it in isolated instances but you might want
to consider the recipients (can they read it? will the download be onerous
for them?).
- When you're subscribing to various newsletters, think about whether you
want to get the Text or HTML versions  (many of them provide the option). Is
the benefit worth the download/opening time?  It may well be. . .it's just
something that I hadn't thought about when I was subscribing in the past."

Jim

-----Original Message-----
From: LISTSERV list owners' forum
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Pete Weiss
Sent: Monday, May 28, 2001 10:38 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: HTML posts make LISTSERV lists a soft target for hackers


Jim:

Does that mean that your/this message to this list would be unreadable? ;-)

/Pete

At 13:28 05/27/2001 Sunday, Jim Walker wrote:
 >It has been known for some time that email in HTML format can be used to
 >execute arbitrary programs on the recipient's computer.
 >
 >     http://www.cert.org/advisories/CA-2000-12.html>
 >

>http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/sirc/incorrect.mime.header.vulnerability.h
tml