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Archiver > NCSCOTS > 2005-02 > 1107421701


From: "Deborah Kae Buie" <>
Subject: Good Tip
Date: Thu, 3 Feb 2005 02:08:21 -0700


Hi Everybody,

This is a "tip" that showed up in one of the information sites I'm subscribed to. I always knew that I could remove the >>>> with my "E-Cleaner" program when someone sends me something that has a bunch of >>>> in them .........that way I would not be sending them out to anyone else...........but this seems to be a very easy, and good way to "stop" them, without having to use the E-Cleaner.
Hope this information helps you too........it sure helped me a lot.
Hugs,
Ursula (now scroll down for the info)

This tip is in response to this question: "How do you keep the ">" symbol from appearing in a forwarded message? "
One question we get every week concerns carets. Those pesky little > symbols that make email ugly (for lack of a better word). Back in the old days of computers when email programs were primitive those carets were necessary to indent replies and to make email readable. But, today their just a nuisance no one seems to want. It seems Microsoft thinks everyone wants them, so by default, Outlook Express is set up to be a caret grower. Let's stop growing carets right now OK?

Open Outlook Express, click "Tools" "Options" "Send". Next to "Mail sending format" click "HTML Settings" and uncheck the box that says "Indent messages on reply" then click OK. Next click "Plain text settings" and uncheck "Indent the original text with > when replying and forwarding" and click OK. Now click "Apply" "OK" and close Outlook Express. The next time you open it you won't be adding your own carets to the carets that are already there.

(Note: This is not a tip for removing existing carets. It is a tip for preventing you from adding more carets every time you reply to an email. There are several programs that will remove the carets already there (not automatically) and we've covered some of them in our Information Avenue newsletters. The best way to stop the spread of carets is to stop spreading them yourself and to tell you friends how to stop sending carets. If everyone did this, eventually we'd have no carets!

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