Jammed Together Previous Messages?
CWLee
I receive email from several friends who have either msn or
hotmail email addresses. In the past few weeks we have
noticed that when they reply to an email from me, or forward
an email to me, part of the email (the previous messages, or
the forwarded message) is all jammed together at the bottom,
with no line or paragraph breaks, and lots of > and >>
symbols thrown in.
My friends and I find this an undesireable mode of
presentation, and wonder if there is an option available to
them (or to me) to have the text presented in the former,
"normal and conventional" manner.
Any enlightenment appreciated.
(Here is a sample, copied and pasted from an email sent to
me on a hotmail account):
"Date: Thu, 27 Dec 2007 22:24:28 -0800> Subject: Your
Lawry's The Prime Rib - Beverly Hills Reservation
Confirmation> > ** Please do not reply to this email. It was
sent from an unattended mailbox, and replies are not
reviewed. See below for contact information. **> > Dear
Marj,> > Your OpenTable reservation is confirmed at Lawry's
The Prime Rib - Beverly Hills. > > Thank you for choosing
Lawry's - Beverly Hills. Should your plans change, please
let us know. We look forward to serving you> > RESERVATION
DETAILS:> Marj Lee> Lawry's The Prime Rib - Beverly Hills>
Tuesday,"
--
----------
CWLee
Former slayer of dragons; practice now limited to sacred
cows. Believing we should hire for quality, not quotas, and
promote for performance, not preferences.
Kevin
Are you using a mail client to view your mail? If yes, what one? Were any
changes made to your email settings around the time that this issue was first
noted? Also, are your friends using any sort of mail client, or just IE and
the MSN client?
Thank you,
Kevin
CWLee
"Kevin" <Ke...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> Are you using a mail client to view your mail? If yes,
what one?
I'm a low-tech guy, so I'm not sure what the term "mail
client" means. I'm using Outlook Express on a Gateway
computer which has Windows 2000/pro as its operating system.
If that doesn't answer your question please rephrase it for
me in simpler terms.
> Were any
> changes made to your email settings around the time that
this issue was first
> noted?
No.
I also need to clarify that this jamming together of
portions of MSN and Hotmail messages has been noted, in
received email, by other friends of mine - but I don't know
what systems they are using for email.
> Also, are your friends using any sort of mail client, or
just IE and
> the MSN client?
I don't know enough about their (the senders of the email
which arrives with portions jammed together) various systems
to answer that, other than that the received email with
portions jammed together comes only from MSN or Hotmail
addresses. One of the senders uses Internet Explorer to go
to a Hotmail website and read/reply/forward email from that
website.
Thanks for starting to explore this with me.
Best regards.
=========================
Kevin
view your mail) and then providing the OS is even more helpful.
As for the issue, it might be related to the Windows Live update to Hotmail
(occurred Nov - Dec), which would explain why you're noticing this issue for
hotmail and msn email accounts (assuming the same would be true for @live.com
email addresses)... Per blog here:
http://community.zdnet.co.uk/blog/0,1000000567,10006398o-2000458459b,00.htm
I might not be able to do anything to help resolve this, but I will
investigate and try to get back to you on Wednesday regarding my findings.
Thank you and have a Happy New Year.
Kevin
CWLee
Thank you.
I've been unable to find a way to call this situation to the
attention of anyone at Microsoft. Even if I could, I don't
know if anything would be done to improve the readability of
the jumbled text in question. It may be that someone there,
in what would seem to me to be a perverted sense of clarity,
thinks the new format is an improvement. Maybe someone has
made a strategic decision to discourage the forwarding of
email, and the quoting of email - as a way to save
electrons.
Thanks again, and keep me posted. If you want to reach me
directly just replace dubya with w in my email address.
Best regards, and Happy New Year to you too!
========================
"Kevin" <Ke...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:625585B2-9448-40DC...@microsoft.com...
PA Bear
was either Forwarded to quoted) was due either to someone's copy/pasting or
a proprietry email formatting (e.g., AOL).
--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-Windows (IE, OE, Security, Shell/User)
AumHa VSOP & Admin http://aumha.net
DTS-L http://dts-l.net/
CWLee
"PA Bear" <PABe...@gmail.com> wrote:
"Don't worry about it. What you were seeing in that
message (which I assume was either Forwarded to
quoted) was due either to someone's copy/pasting or
a proprietry email formatting (e.g., AOL)."
Thanks for your input. While I am not really "worried"
about this formatting change, I would like to find a way to
avoid it. I am not convinced that you have explained it
accurately - but I do respect your computer knowledge as
expressed many times in other messages on various
newsgroups. You are correct that the email was forwarded,
with a short message added, but it was not copy/pasted.
Further, this jammed together property appears only in email
sent from Hotmail or MSN email accounts. At least a dozen
different Hotmail/MSN accounts that I know of are doing
this, and it has been noted by 5-6 of my friends who use
various systems to read their email.
For me, the mystery continues and the solution is not in
sight.
Thanks again for considering my issue.
Best regards.
==========================
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.msn.discussion
Sent: Tuesday, January 01, 2008 9:43 AM
Subject: Re: Jammed Together Previous Messages?
PA Bear
> with a short message added, but it was not copy/pasted.
> Further, this jammed together property appears only in email
> sent from Hotmail or MSN email accounts.
The problem may be the formatting of the email received by the MSN/Hotmail
account holder who then edited and forwarded the message.
Kevin
I was unable to reproduce a message similar to the provided example in your
first post by doing the following:
* Send email from hotmail to gmail account
* Forward email from hotmail to gmail account
* Copy mail content and send in new email to gmail account
* Send plain text mail from Hotmail to gmail account
Explanation of different email formats provided here:
http://www2.skidmore.edu/cits/students/EmailFormats.html
* Send mail via MSN client to gmail account
NOTE: gmail account was using Outlook Express (includes all patches for this
version/OS) for Windows 2k. Hotmail was accessed via IE, and no settings
were changed for this account. View settings were also not changed in
Outlook. Also, did not run a test using Lawry's, as i did not wish to file a
fake reservation, even if it would state that it's just a test (are there any
generic newsletters you receive that display similar to Lawry's mail?)
Please make sure that you have all patches loaded for Outlook (might help,
but doubtful). Also, please clarify that you're noticing this for all
emails, so non-spam, newsletters, etc. Additionally, I'm assuming that
you're using a non-yahoo, gmail, or hotmail / msn type email domain... i.e
us...@hotmail.com
Based on my understanding at this point, the email is sent in a certain
format, which your email client (Outlook Express) then reads. If the sent
mail's format is not available or recognized by your client, then you might
see something similar to the example in your original post, but this was not
the case when i sent emails from Hotmail to the account using Outlook. Per
this, my assumption is that the mail must have already been in that format
(most likely not the case if this is for more then one user with hotmail/msn
and all mails from those persons arrive jumbled) or your email domain is
somehow interferring or modifying the content of the messages (which most
likely would not be the case and would probably affect other emails if it
were true)
At this point I'm uncertain how to investigate this issue further. However,
i will see what i can do based on additional information.
Thank you,
Kevin