Adding a stripper for your email doesn't make for more smut. It actually cleans up those untidy >>> in those forwarded messages that people send. I wish people would not send me those, but they still do. To clean your dirty email to make them easier to read, I recommend one or all of these three Utilities.

A. emailStripper

B. Stripmail

C. eCleaner

All three can be downloaded and installed for free. All three do the job of cleaning those untidy and annoying >>> in your forwarded email messages. All three are easy to use.

How to get them:

A freeware application, eCleaner (447 Kb) is found at http://www.members.tripod.com/schin26/index.htm

EmailStripper (165 Kb) is a free program which strips ">" and other formatting characters restoring your forwarded Emails to their original format. Get it from http://www.printcharger.com/emailStripper.htm

Stripmail (265 Kb), is freeware. Download it from: http://www.dsoft.com.tr/stripmail/

You will need to download the program and install it. I think placing an icon on your desktop or task bar would be helpful to quickly have it handy to use. We don't like to use stuff we have to go look for.

A. The easiest program to use is emailStripper. It only has one option: select [Strip It]. It also will add a link to the bottom of the message so you can encourage your friends to clean up their email. If you don't like that, you can delete it before you send your stripped-clean message. Any formatting will be lost so this one is not good for verses.

B. Stripmail is very simple to use. It has two selections: [Do It All] or [Strip]. [Do it all] will get rid of the paragraph formatting so is not good for cleaning messages that are in verse.

C. eCleaner is the best for cleaning verse-style email. Last updated: January 24, 2000. A unique feature of this program is you can incorporate the eCleaner function directly into the email toolbar. There are several options to choose so it will take a while to learn what each option actually does. When using eCleaner first select [Clean] and then you have a second option to [Clean], [Remove Symbols], or [Remove Indent Marks]. The second [Clean] will change your verse format to prose which is probably not your desire. You will find these on the pull-down menu or use the icons on the taskbar. Other Options under [Clean] are [Remove HTML], [Remove Headers], [Convert to Courier], or [Remove Indent Marks].

There are other options to check ON or OFF to make them defaults.

When I pasted the stripped clean message into my Outlook Express message box I had to change the Paragraph Style to Normal get the lines to be single-spaced. I don't think AOL people will have to worry about that step.

Now you want to select or highlight ALL OF THE MESSY PART of your email. Then Copy [Control C] or use your Edit menu next to File and click Copy. Bring up your emailStripper, Stripmail or eCleaner program from the desktop. Now Paste (Control-V) or use your edit menu next to File and click Paste. eCleaner automatically copies the new clean version to the clipboard. If you make manual changes then you will need to manually select, copy, and paste.

These copy and paste options are available in all three of the email cleaning programs, too. After you have cleaned your email you will need to copy and paste the new, stripped-clean message into a new email message window.

Pretend you want to send this to a friend:

>> Living on Earth is expensive, but it does include
> > a free trip around the sun.
> >

[Strip it] with emailStripper, [Do it all] with Stripmail, or [Clean] with eCleaner This is what you will send:

Living on Earth is expensive, but it does include a free trip around the sun.

What about this mess:

> > >Hello There Nice Person
> >> > > >
> >> > > >Did Anyone Ever Tell You,
> >> > > >Just How Special You Are
> >> > > >The Light that You Emit
> >> > > >Might even Light a Star

Using emailStripper results in this:

Hello There Nice Person
Did Anyone Ever Tell You, Just How Special You Are The Light that You Emit Might even Light a Star

This email was cleaned by emailStripper, available for free from http://www.printcharger.com/emailStripper.htm

Using Stripmail, click the [Do it all] button gets the same results. eCleaner will do the same as above if you choose the "smiley face" to "clean."

After selecting the messy part, use Stripmail, select [Paste], [Strip], and [Copy], return to your email message and [Paste] and you get what you see below. Use eCleaner and [Remove Indents] and get this also:

Hello There Nice Person
Did Anyone Ever Tell You,
Just How Special You Are
The Light that You Emit
Might even Light a Star

Now I expect I will not get messy email messages any more. So what will I find to growl about now. u