Obviously most mail message are brief, both in text and duration, with no need of special formatting option so they can be indifferently edited in Plain or encoded Text format;
yet there are cases worth of some more care too: long messages or writings, "true" letters, important or formal communications; in spite of the today's electronic frenzy, before or later they could repossess the proper form even through the net.
For those the “Rich Text (HTML)”, or “Edit Source” or analogous format option has to be choosen, wich will parse and execute most HTML instructions, allowing in some cases to access the Source, as well as to check the eventual links.
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Our start point
To promote that, a special, experimental section and functionality has been developed in order to allow the user having written a mail message to directly hyphenate, view and send it with the minimum add-on. Few ingredients are needed: a mail program holding the RichEdit format; at least one personalized hyphenator-Pro Stationery, to be prepared in four HTML code lines on the base of some ready samples and templates so called "../data/mail/Heading#.tag".
At the moment some first features have been adapted to the MS Outlook Express and tested with this. Other programs haver been tried too, like “Eudora ”and “The Bat!”: the first does not yet know the hyphen character or relative symbols, both in HTML and RTF format; with the second it was possible to see hyphenated text on opening one mail message (the hyphen characters remain visible as minus signs into the application frame), but neither to save a mail with its HTML format, nor to set text margins left and right to any value.
Shall we have to definitely give up hence, jumping a few centuries back in the writing? as a technology result, this doesn't quite seem to be a footstep forward; it remains to hope that in the next time programmers meet reasons to make these features widely available then.
Once ready your message, save it as an external file; you can drag it into the filelist-view frame, check and hyphenate it clicking the mail icon aside of the |hyphenate| button of the console; or drag or load it into the view-Editor and click the |hyphen.txt| button: both will open the final syllabified message into your mail program, where you can modify or send it as well.
To select any stationery Right-click either the icon buttons and set the new default stationery file checked.
A hyphenated e-mail message layout sample
Play with the following sample: this layout has been created from a hyphenated e-mail, on the base of the 4 lines script described below. Right click over the mail frame to change fonts, font-size and style to the message; you can play with the paper textures or the beautiful watercolor background images
 and consider how easily a message can change its style, expression and meaning, according to the subject and the presentation. If the frame is too small to view the full popup menu, open it and scroll the internal window to access the lower options. You can also: open in a new window.
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Aug. 27, 2005