Free subscriptions to e-newsletters about almost any topic are ubiquitous on the Web. Believe me, I know. I subscribe to most of them. From one site alone I get as many as 24 e-newsletters written for Web site designers and developers.
Many of the communiques I receive come in HTML format (Hypertext Markup Language – the predominant Web programming language). That means I view those e-mails in the same way I do most Web site pages, not just as lackluster text.
HTML e-mail isn’t a new innovation by any means, but during the Web’s early days, e-mail could be sent and received only as ASCII text. ASCII (pronounced AS-kee) is an anagram for American Standard Code for Information Interchange. It was developed to enable computers running different operating systems (also known as different “platforms”) – Windows and Mac OS, for instance – to exchange information in a readable format.
It comprises 128 different very bland and colorless components including all of the letters of the alphabet (in both upper and lower case), the numbers 0 through 9 and basic punctuation marks.
More recently, ASCII has been on the wane as Unicode and HTML (HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language, the computer programming language that fuels the Web) have begun to replace it.
Unicode allows for the use of colors and graphics, as does HTML. But HTML-based e-mail is proliferating because it offers greater extensibility, i.e. more display options.
None of the most recent versions of popular e-mail clients (the programs used to send and receive e-mail, Outlook, Eudora, Netscape Communicator, etc.) still use ASCII as their primary standard, although they can display it.
While HTML is the sexiest of the formats, there are some disadvantages to using it. The most obvious is download times. If it takes 20 seconds to download a Web page with a 28.8 modem, there are similar and even greater problems with HTML e-mail.
Second, if you’re offline and want to go through e-mails you’ve received, and one is in HTML, you may find yourself being logged on if that e-mail starts looking for the text and graphics on the referring site.
Finally, if the programming isn’t correctly written, the e-mail will be indecipherable gobbledygook.
Many of the sites offering e-newsletters or e-mail updates will allow you to select between an all-text version and an HTML version.
If you’re not sure whether or not your e-mail client can display HTML e-mails, make sure you sign up for the text-only format. If you upgrade your e-mail program or later discover that you can view HTML e-mail, you can always go back to the site from which you’re getting the e-newsletter and change formats.
For the most part, if you don’t have a high-speed connection, cable modem, ISDN, etc., you’re better off opting for text. In many cases, you’ll find the HTML version of the e-newsletter on the sender’s Web site anyway.
Article – Copyright 2000 James H. Hyde. Syndicated by ParadigmTSA
