Some of the things that happen to emails when they are sent to the server computers I do not understand. There are additions to sent emails that have to have come from a program that someone has written. Why anybody would write a program to simply add "garbage" I have not figured out. But that is apparently what they have done. I am sure that you have seen the type of thing that I call garbage. When every line is preceded by by a bunch of "< < < < < < <" or every so often in the text there is "=BR" or similar types of additional characters.
There are a couple ways to clean the garbage out of emails. There are others but these two ways are the most efficient that I have seen.
The first method - PaperCut - emailSTRIPPER
This has been recommended by several members of the BGRCC.
This is a small program that can be downloaded from the Internet at
http://www.papercut.com/emailStripper.htm
In the e-mail either select the part to be cleaned or Select All with Ctrl-A. Then left click 1. Paste
The e-mail will appear something this. Note the column of >'s on the right side.
Next simply left click 2. Strip It! All the >'s will be gone.
The last thing to do is to left click 3. Copy. This will copy the clean text onto the computer clipboard so that a "Ctrl V" will paste it into a new e-mail or into a word document.
The problem with this is that there are some things that it does not recognize as what I am calling garbage, nor does it remove any e-mail address that may be carried along with the e-mail or some of the things that are sometimes inserted into the text like the "=BR's" Many e-mails come with large blocks of other people's addresses. The blocks of addresses often take up much more space than the actual e-mail. It is a good idea and a courtesy to remove those before forwarding. The recipient will receive a much cleaner e-mail that is a lot easier to read and it will also send and receive much faster.
It has been a while since I have seen the "=BR" but a few years ago they seemed to be in every e mail.
Another thing about e-mail stripper is that it will add an advertisement for the stripper every time you strip. That is a bit irritating.
Therefore---The second method (alternative) uses the word processing program on you computer.
The first step is the same as the first method. Select in the e-mail either select the part to be cleaned or Select All with Ctrl-a. It is of course better to not copy the address blocks. Hold down the control key and highlight the section to be cleaned, right click and copy it to the editor.
Copy the selection into the word processing program. In the toolbar at the top of the window is an icon that indicates the "Find and Replace" command or use Ctrl-F to open the dialog box. In Open Office the symbol looks like a pair of binoculars. Left clicking on it will display a drop down box with a "Search for" and a "Replace with" space. Into the "Search for" area type in "> " or "=BR" or other garbage words and symbols that you wish to remove. Leave the "Replace with" area blank. Then left click the words "Replace All" and the symbols and letters selected will disappear. Note that many times the ">" is followed by a space, so put the space in the box to be removed also. I have removed over 500 of these symbols in a single click. It was a DIRTY e-mail, symbol wise at least.
If there are several uniques strings of text that have to be removed, each will have to be removed separately. The sequence to be removed can be copied and pasted into the removal box if desired.
Any email addresses that remain in the text can be highlighted and removed with the delete key, if any were left when highlighting and copying the text to paste into the editing page.
A third method is to highlight the text and pictures that you want to forward and that will be just about all that is forwarded. This is a new method to me and the few e-mails that I have forwarded has add the address of the person from whom I originally received the e-mail.
The only method that I know of that will eliminate all advertisement and e-mail addresses is to create a totally new e-mail with the second method using the word processor. There are other procedures that will get you to the same clean endpoint but I am use these methods.
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