Make sure that the data you send is "Plain Text"

Most E-mail Clients like Outlook Express, Eudora etc.. send e-mail as rich text or HTML by default rather than "plain text". Let's face it, nothing says "I'm out of date" more than an e-mail in the archaic Courier font known as "plain text". But, when you feel the cost of every byte of data as sat-phone users do, plain text is definitely the way to go.

I sent a typical one page document in Rich Text (HTML) which is Outlook Express' default. It was 14K in size. With a mini-m or Iridium phone, this would typically take about a minute to download, costing anywhere from $1.50 to $2.15 depending on service and plan. I sure hope it was valuable information for the recipient!

Then I wised up and did my satellite phone friends a favor. I switched to plain text. I sent the same letter again, but before I did I went to the:

• "Tools" menu from the main menu of my Outlook Express program.
• Then I hit "Options"
• then clicked the "send" tab.
• On the bottom of the pop up window I checked "plain text"
• under the "mail sending format".

When I sent the document this time, it was 3K taking my sat-phone friend maybe 15 seconds to download! The difference is that Rich Text and all other types of e-mail formatting place codes in the text which are invisible except that they add visual enhancements like custom fonts, bold, italics, etc..

Different E-mail clients have different ways of setting messages to send as "Plain Text" but most give you that option. Make sure that the sat phone users in your organization find and use that setting. Also, make sure that all those sending to sat-phone users send them messages in plain text.