5 Days of Email Etiquette: It's a Matter of Style

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5 Days of Email Etiquette It's a Matter of Style From Heinz Tschabitscher, your Guide to Email You already know that you should prefer plain text over HTML if you're not sure the latter is welcome. But which characters can you use in your emails? How long can a signature be? How wide the text of your message? Find answers to these questions and some more today. Tomorrow: How to forward and share emails perfectly. It's a Matter of Style Wrap Lines at About 65 Characters in Emails Make your messages a joy to read, Ensure your lines are short and sweet. Writing in All Caps is Like Shouting Don't shout in your emails (and all caps is so difficult to read). Punctuation Matters; in Emails Too Comma, colon, hyphen and semicolon — all exist for a reason: they make it easier to understand the intended meaning of a sentence. Don't make life more difficult and possibly less interesting for the recipients of your emails. Pay some — though not too pedantically much — attention to punctuation. Underlining in Plain Text Email Messages How to underline plain text and emphasize it in email messages. From Keyboard to Email Characters Safe to Use in Email Type whatever character you find on your keyboard, or whatever you need to express your thoughts in your language. Email must be able to handle it. Characters Absolutely Safe to Use in Plain Text Email If you use only these characters, you can be absolutely sure your email will arrive and look as intended. The Perfect Signature Keep Your Signature to 5 Lines of Text "Signature" is a synonym for brief and unobtrusive -- or at least it should be, because overly long signatures in emails are an annoyance. Use the Standard Email Signature Delimiter Sign your signature correctly by employing the standard signature delimiter in your emails. This email is written by: Heinz Tschabitscher Email Guide Email Me | My Blog | My Forum   Missing a lesson? Click here. About U. is our collection of free online courses designed to help you learn a new skill, solve a problem, get something done, or just learn more about your world. Sign up now, and we will email you lessons on a daily or weekly basis. You are receiving this email because you subscribed to the About.com '5 Days of Email Etiquette' email. If you wish to unsubscribe, please click here. About respects your privacy: Our Privacy Policy Contact Information: 249 West 17th Street New York, NY, 10011 © 2013 About.com   Advertisement