Xiaofan Chen wrote:

> Using RTF or HTML it is still easy to do context posting. Within the same
> company (using the same Outlook 2k across the worldwide subsidary),
> it is actually good to use RTF and to do context posting is still easy in this
> case --> just using a different font color. However we all know RTF/HTML
> may not be good for people outside (like those using PINE). With plain text,
> what should I do? Shall I add a ">" at the beginning of every line?

Yes, Outlook and Outlook Express can both do this, I think.

On my copy of Outlook here...

Tools -> Options -> E-mail Options ->
	"When replying to a message"
	[drop-menu] "Prefix each line of the original message"

And there's a place to specify the character used for the prefix.

Default is ">" and this has been a defacto standard since USENET was 
popular, I guess.

Commonly, depending on the client used, you'll see "nested" levels of 
">", ">>" (double reply), ">>>" third reply.

This can get messy after a while and might cause someone to have to trim 
them up a bit (or not bother with quoting so many people, just the 
latest person's additional comments).

Some people get fancy and use the -> "Mark my comments with" feature in 
Outlook and other clients, and use their initials.... it ends up looking 
like :

ND> This is my comment.

This is an older standard, more like the days when BBS's and Compuserve 
were popular.

I don't like these "name tags" as much, since they get messier even than 
the nested ">>>>" things.  But some people still like them to help them 
track who's "talking" in the replies to the message thread.

Nate
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