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To ensure that the HTML E-mails you create reach AOL members, here is some information to keep in mind before distributing them.

1. The Break down: The AOL Client Mail can generate Plain, Rich Text, and HTML E-mails. But not all AOL clients are capable of generating all three texts. Following is the break down of which text is accepted with each client:

2. Appropriate Headers to use: E-mails need a MIME-type header (MIME-version: 1.0). The Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions type is used to send non-ASCII information, and will allow E-mail programs to render images instead of a garbled series of characters.

Following the MIME-type header, a Content-type header should be placed to ensure that your E-mail is rendered appropriately. The AOL Client will render the highest level of content it is capable of starting with HTML, Rich Text, and finally resorting to Plain Text. To ensure all AOL members can view your email content, you can create an E-mail that includes both Rich Text and HTML using one or a combination of the following Content-type headers:

The multipart/alternative header, this tells the AOL host to render HTML for the Clients that can render HTML E-mails and Rich Text or Plain Text for the older Clients. When using this header, make certain you specify the content-type: text/html and content-type: text/plain in the Body of the E-mail.

Content-type: text/html and Content-type: text/plain will allow the AOL hosts acknowledge that there are multiple formats to the E-mail and will render the one that is most appropriate for each client.

There is one more Content-type header you may want to use if your user base is largely on AOL.

This header is an equivalent to content-type: text/plain. On pre AOL 6 clients, this header will ensure that the E-mail renders the Plain or Rich text without passing the HTML text that usually shows up on the bottom of the E-mail when using content-type: text/plain. Unfortunately, there is no header that will do vice versa.

3. Here are the HTML objects that are not supported by the AOL Client mail:

The reason for this limitation is due to security hazards involved with HTML E-mails. HTML E-mail can expose users to viruses and intrusive programs. For example, Meta Refresh can send users to another web site automatically. It is very important to AOL that the end-users are protected from any of the potential security hazards.

4. When generating your Rich text E-mails, be sure to note that the following tags are the only ones supported by the AOL Client mail:

HTML tags that are not supported by the RTF will be displayed as plain text.