David Mamanakis gratiously provided the following text and graphics to explain one of the most asked for configuration questions for Outlook Express.
Click on the thumbnail images on the right side for a larger picture.

 

If you are using Microsoft’s Outlook Express 5, follow these instructions to configure Outlook Express to send plain text messages, a reqirement on many listservers.

First off, execute (start) the program…

Then using your mouse, click Tools from the menu.  Or us the ALT + T keys.Once the menu is displayed, select Options with the mouse, or use the ALT + T then O (without releasing the ALT key)

You should then see this window:

At this point, I want you to click on the Read tab, and then click on the Fonts button:

You should see this window now:

Make sure the Font Settings say Western European in the top box, and Western European (Windows) in the Encoding box.  Then click Set as Default button and then click the OK button.  This will bring you back to this window, where you should click International Settings button:

and you should see this window:

Here you need to make sure that the Default Encoding box is Western European (ISO) and check the Use default encoding for all incoming messages check box.  If it does NOT say Western European (ISO), the instructions on how to change it are further down below, but please, still check the Use default encoding for all incoming messages check box. Then click OK and when back to our tabbed window, click the Send tab:

Most people on a dialup un-check the Send messages immediately box, because they read and answer their mail, then dial in and send and receive everything all at once.

Un-check the Include message in reply box,this will prevent any of the original posts from getting included into your reply to the list. Now if you want to include some text, you must cut the small section and paste it into the new message…

Also, un-check the Reply to messages using the format in which they were sent box, this will prevent you from accidentally sending HTML or other formatted text to the listserv, or anyone else. Make sure the Plain Text is selected under Mail Sending Format, then click the Plain Text Settings button.

If the International Settings above did not say Western European (ISO), this is where you change them to say just that. Also check the When replying to messages always use English headers. This will help with some mail programs translation of the time and date stamp. For instance, my Greek machine likes to make the date and time in Greek, which comes out funny in e-mail.  I check this box, and no more weird e-mail. Then click the OK button.The next task is to click the Plain Text Settings button under Mail Sending Format area.

Make sure that MIME is selected in the Message Format area and None is showing for Encoding text using box. Then click OK.  And choose the Compose tab from the main tab window.

Make sure that NONE of the check boxes have checks in them, just as you see here.Then you need to click the Signature tab.

If you are going to add a signature, you click the New button, and it will get a name.  Then you either select Text or File.  If you select Text, you type in what ever you want into the big box. If you select File, then please only choose a simple TXT file. This way you do not have problems with attachment type signature files. When done, click the button Set as Default. Then click the button OK.

After all this, it will be necessary for you to close OE5 and re open the program. (I.E. File / Exit and then double-click on the icon again)

You should be set to go!

To download these instruction in Word 8, here's the zipped file (104k)