Why, oh why is gmail using rich text?
November 13th, 2006
Pardon me for not being sold on the usefulness of rich text emails. Usually rich text means some irritating background image or ugly red fonts used for emphasis. Rich text is part of the reason Outlook enthusiasts are annoying. It was much to my chagrin last week when I noticed two friends of mine, both gmail users, starting to send me rich text emails. Even when I change my response to plain text, gmail doesn’t ‘get the picture’ and give me some plain text love. Rich text should be an option, I suppose, but not a default. I hope gmail users generally choose to disable it (if that’s possible).
Wait, was I one of them? If so I didn’t even realize that Gmail was sending things out in rich text…
Yes! Although I didn’t notice at first. I just looked at the last email you sent me, and sure enough it has some fancy font, and the quoted text of my previous email is fancily indented with a margin visual effect. Strange that they would change that without telling you… not sure when it started but it kinda chafes me.
Hmm. That’s weird and annoying. Sorry about that!
Well I am one of those people who use Gmail and have search around for a way to turn plain text on by default. Guess what??? You can’t do it.
From the help file:
*If you decide you’d like to write a message in plain text format, just click ‘
I just tested it myself. You *can* turn on plain text by default. Just click the Plain Text link when you’re composing a message. It’ll stay that way next time you email. So now I’ve set it to be plain text by default.
My work here is done. Back to saving the world.
Ali x