GEN-MEDIEVAL-L Archives

Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 2008-12 > 1228972192


From: "Diana Gale Matthiesen" <>
Subject: RE: Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, his will?
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2008 00:09:52 -0500
References: <OLEALJNIICOEJKFIMHAHIEIKEBAA.von@yvonnepurdy.free-online.co.uk><4940562A.5020300@donstonetech.com>
In-Reply-To: <4940562A.5020300@donstonetech.com>


Don is correct, that the chevrons [angle brackets] or a vertical line should
appear to the left of the backquoted text when you select a message and hit
Reply.

If the message was sent to you in Plain Text or if you have the default format
in your email software set to Plain Text, you will get angle brackets on the
left. If the message was sent to you in HTML format and you select it and hit
Reply, you will (at least in Outlook) get a vertical bar on the left alongside
the text. HTML is the language of the web, and what you are actually looking at
it a miniature web page, which is the reason it can contain more varied content
than a Plain Text message, such as a graphical vertical bar.

A long string of messages in a conversation or thread can acquire many levels of
angle brackets or vertical lines. As Don mentioned, It's usually a good idea to
delete most of the backquoting, except the part that is pertinent to your reply.


I cannot speak for the newsgroup server software, but RootsWeb mailservers can
only process messages in Plain Text. If you send a message formatted in HTML to
a RootsWeb mailing list, the server software will try to convert your HTML
message into Plain Text. If it can, your message will go on to the list; if it
can't, your message will bounce. The best way to avoid having your messages
mangled in translation or bounced when posting to a mailing list is to go into
your address book and set the default format to Plain Text for all the mailing
lists addresses in your address book.

Diana

> -----Original Message-----
> From: On Behalf Of Don Stone
> Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2008 6:52 PM
> To:
> Cc: YvonnePurdy
> Subject: Re: Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, his will?
>
> YvonnePurdy wrote:
> > Thank you indeed, Diana, for your reply. I do appreciate
> > that I can interject comments with my cursor, and
> > that I can 'cut' and 'snip', but quite how all the chevrons
> > appear to indicate various posters replies has me
> > beaten. That is my basic query. Many thanks. Yvonne Purdy
> >
> > Yvonne,
>
> The chevrons (or vertical lines for some mail software) are inserted
> automatically when you click on Reply, and the result is presented to
> you as the message you edit and then submit by clicking on Send.
> Generally this whole message (including the complete message you are
> responding to) is editable, which is a good thing, because it
> is often
> appropriate to delete large chunks from the earlier message
> if you are
> responding to only a small part of it.
>
> However, the down-side of having everything editable is that
> it is easy
> to enter your response in a place where it will look (when sent) like
> part of what the previous poster said. To avoid doing this,
> place the
> cursor at the end of the last line of what you are responding
> to and hit
> the Enter key before you start to type your response. (This
> works for
> Thunderbird and probably most other email programs.)
>
> -- Don Stone
>
>

This thread: