Posted: 2 Feb 2005

People like things that are interesting, sticking out from the daily white noise. Sometimes it's a funny comic strip. Sometimes it's a Dodge Viper screaming by. In day-to-day correspondence, people may wish to spice up their email messages a little. It's okay to inject a little variety occasionally. Let's kick around a few great ways to do this in Evolution.

First, pop open your Evolution email client. Create a new message by clicking on the NEW button in the toolbar:

The "Compose a message" window appears:

Click on the FORMAT menu, and check the HTML box:

You'll notice that the buttons on the formatting bar activate:

You are now able to use these buttons to change the size and color of your text. You can also use them to boldface, italicize , underline and indent your text:

Notice that some toolbar buttons at the top of the window have activated, as well:

These buttons allow you to insert images, links, a horizontal rule, and even a table into your email message:

Another cool feature is now available, though not readily apparent. If you like emoticons, this feature will make you smile. Go to the INSERT menu, and click on SMILEY. An entire menu of smileys appears:

You can use these to add a little more fun to your email messages.

Background images are a great way to add creativity and variety to your email, as well. Let's see how this is done.

Click on the FORMAT menu, and then PAGE:

A small window appears:

Click BROWSE. Then, find and open an image for the background of your email. The path and name of your image appears in the SOURCE box:

Click the CLOSE button. You can see that your background image appears in your email message body:

Whether you like creative correspondence with your friends, or want to create email stationery for your company, HTML email offers bunches of options. Evolution allows you to format text, insert images, links, tables, background images, and much more. This is another small glimpse into the power of Evolution. Next week, we'll pick another of its exceedingly many fine features to explore.