Plain text is more secure, and faster for viewing. Here’s a pretty fool-proof way of getting your Outlook to auto-convert all incoming HTML emails into plain text.
Want to automatically convert all HTML email that is sent to you, into plain text?
First, this is secure as many of the worms and bugs rely on HTML script code. One good example could be the needless advertisements or images sent inside spam (junk) emails. When you so much as view an email inside your email software, the sender’s webserver gets a “stamp” of you having accessed the image. This of course does not happen with plain text, because there’s no image, so there is no inadvertent “access”.
Second, it is also a bit faster to download and view email that doesn’t have all the unnecessary frills of HTML email (tables, bold, italics etc).
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To strip HTML into plain text in Microsoft Outlook:
regedit incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. I cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using regedit incorrectly, use the following procedure at your own risk. It works but you have been caveated. - Start | Run | regedit
- Find this key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\
10.0\Outlook\Options\Mail - On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click
DWordValue. - With the new Dword value selected, type
ReadAsPlain. - Double-click the new value to open it. In the Value Data box, type 1, and then click OK.
- Click OK, and then quit Registry Editor.
- Just to be sure, close Outlook and restart it.
From now on, all your HTML email messages will show up as simple text. After you turn on the “Read as Plain Text” feature, users notice the following changes:
- The changes are applied to the preview pane and open messages.
- Pictures become attachments to avoid loss.
- Digitally signed messages are not affected.
To strip HTML into plain text in Microsoft Outlook EXPRESS:
- Start Outlook Express, and then on the Tools | Options.
- Click the READ tab, and then click to select the “Read all messages in plain text” check box under Reading Messages.
- Click OK.
That’s all there is to it!
12 Comments
Note: This may work only with Outlook 2002 and onwards, and only if you have SP 1 installed. (If you don’t, then you probably shouldn’t be using Outlook!)
nice article, thanks. having this functionality in outlook is very very useful!
btw i am working on a new email client these days called thunderbird, from the mozilla group. it has bayesian rules built in. you can take a look at some good reviews of it here -
http://www.nidelven-it.no/articles/introduction_to_thunderbird_5
Hi Chris,
I’ve tried Thunderbird and although it seems like a good attempt, it is far from being a serious contender for a serious email client.
It is very, very slow in comparison to Outlook, Eudora, Pocomail etc. There’s no archiving, which for me is absolutely critical because I carry a lot of email from the past 5 years or so, and cannot afford to have it in my main mbx. After just a couple of days playing around with it, you also realize that it is basically Netscape Mail with a new interface and is just not as configurable as Outlook or Eudora.
Interface-wise, I still have to see something that betters Outlook. Pocomail came close, IMHO, but I want my email software to look a lot simpler than that and they just don’t have an easy “skin” yet.
Just my 0.02. Glad you found this tip useful!
-Shanx
For other email software here’s an interesting website
http://expita.com/nomime.html
nice...
I don’t have a Mail subfolder under Options….
OS? Outlook version? What folder DO you have?
I like this tip. However, I wish there was a way to have a toggle in Outlook 2002 so that you can go back and forth between HTML and Plain text because I get some business e-mails that have some formating that makes the messages easier to understand.
Maybe someone knows of a way to have a toggle like Outlook Express does!
Thanks! This works for Office 2003 as well and works like a charm. Just replace the “Office/10″ in your code to “Office/11″ which denotes the new version, of course. Thanks!!
Hi,
I tried the suggestion above to get rid of automatically downloaded pics in HTML mails. However, for me it doesn’t work.
I’m using Windows XP, Service Pack 2, Outlook 10, IE 6.0.
I created the DWORD ReadAsPlain and assigned it the value 1 exactly as explained above.
Has anobody suggestions what else I could try?
Cheers,
Phil
It did exactly what it said on the box
it worked for me
thanks for this useful tip
Hi,
I had/have a problem with Outlook 2003. I can’t work out how to solve it.
Outlook takes about 5 minutes to open any email with html formatting. Plain text emails are fine. However the twist is that once a html formatted email is open the rest open fine. It is a fresh(ish) copy of Outlook and the machine should have no problem. I am running Win XP Pro.
if you have any clues to what could help please email.
For now I have used your trick to set all email to plain text but this is only a work around. I would prefer to be able to open html emails.
cheers
Zann