formatting loss during email

sissybaby · May 20, 2009

I haven't been able to find this in the sticky threads, and I apologize if it's in there and I just haven't looked hard enough.

I copied and pasted my single-spaced query into the top of my word document. Before sending it out to the agent, I emailed myself a copy. When it arrives, everything is fine until I get to the manuscript part of the email. Then I have everything left justified, and added lines in the title business.

I tried a paste special, but I wasn't sure what to select, so I went with the default highlight, which was HTML, and it made everything worse.

I would appreciate very much if anyone can tell me what I'm doing wrong and how to fix the problem.

Thanks so much!

veinglory · May 20, 2009

It is safest to send emails as plain text IMHO. You never know how any formatting will get mangled on the way.

Matera the Mad · May 21, 2009

E-mail is not, can not be, is nothing like, word processor formatting. E-mail is either plain text or HTML (web page code) which is not remotely related to the way Word stores information about formatting. If you send a Word doc as an attachment, it preserves formatting. If you paste from it into e-mail, it does not. The underlying code is different. Use the Search, it is a constantly recurring topic.

Plain text e-mail is safe and sensible.

nehama · May 27, 2009

Does that also mean that you can't boldface or italicize or underline?
I assume that caps work? What about quotes and indenting?

formatting loss during email

sissybaby

veinglory

volitare nequeo

Matera the Mad

Bartender, gimme a Linux Mint

nehama