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Safely check potential spam in Entourage Apps
The problem with some spam is that spammers often embed little bits of HTML in their emails that, when the spam is opened, connect to the spammer's servers, alerting them that your email address is valid. The devious little buggers then sell your address to other spammers and the problem multiplies. Or maybe you just don't want to open a suspicious email to be assaulted by images that you (or people around you) don't want to see.

But what do you do about an email that may or may not be spam? It might have a familiar name and an innocuous subject or may even be from a potential customer and you certainly don't want to trash it out of hand.

If you use Microsoft Entourage, here's a tip. First, turn off the Preview Pane. Automatically opening email as you click on it is a bad idea anyway (it alerts the spammers, as I said above, and while there aren't any email viruses for the Mac that activate on opening yet, why take the chance?)

Second, when you want to check a suspicious email, just select the email and click on the Print icon in the toolbar. Up pops a print preview window that shows a representation of the email in a window. The preview window doesn't download anything from external servers so you see just the text. If it's all HTML gobbledygook or if its a blatant advertisement, you can click Cancel and trash the email, secure in the knowledge that the spammer doesn't know you're on to him.
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disable HTML bugs
Authored by: hayne on Nov 28, '03 11:26:05AM

Another way is to open the Entourage Preferences for reading mail and make sure that the item "Allow network access when displaying complex HTML" is not checked.
Of course that will mean that a lot of HTML mail will not show any images since these are usually links back to the server.

There is a similar preference item in Mail.app



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disable HTML bugs
Authored by: fletchbiz on Nov 28, '03 01:56:45PM

It should be noted that the implementation of this feature is quite a lot more convenient in Mail.app than it is in Entourage. In Entourage, if you set the preference to disallow network access for HTML, you will not be able to see any HTML that requires network access until you go back and reset the preference. Either it's on, or it's off.

In Mail.app, if you set the preference to disallow network access for HTML, it provides a Load Images button at the top of each message, which allows you to decide on a case-by-case basis which messages to view.

Thus if you accidentally open a junk mail in Mail.app, with network access disallowed, you don't have to fear that you leaked your own info to the spammer.



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disable HTML bugs
Authored by: Angus on Nov 29, '03 03:03:33AM

Yeah, I've had "Allow network access..." off for ages and it's a pain sometimes. I've been Redirecting any valid html email to my .Mac account. I'd much rather be able to toggle the network access setting on and off via a script, but I haven't found the syntax I need yet.



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Safely check potential spam in Entourage
Authored by: kirkmc on Nov 28, '03 11:28:02AM

Just turn off HTML in the preferences. That's much easier than your workaround. If you need it, for specific messages, turn it back on. I find I have to turn it on about once a month.

Kirk



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Safely check potential spam in Entourage
Authored by: mclbruce on Nov 28, '03 11:55:30AM

Turning off the preview pane is a good idea. Instead of hitting the print button, I go to the view menu and View: Source.



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Exactly, and here's a script to do it.
Authored by: brandonlgolm on Nov 29, '03 03:53:03PM

Requires 10.3, or UIScriptingBeta (http://www.apple.com/applescript/uiscripting/01.html) and requires "Universal Access" "Enable access for assistive devices" to be enabled.

Save compiled as: ViewSource\omv
in "Entourage Script Menu Items" Then you just type <Command><Option>-V


tell application "Microsoft Entourage" to activate
tell application "System Events"
tell process "Microsoft Entourage"
click menu item "Source" of menu "View" of menu bar 1
end tell
end tell



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Safely check potential spam in Entourage
Authored by: leebennett on Nov 29, '03 02:43:44PM

if you receive a lot of HTML-formatted messages and need to leave the server access on, here's another idea. highlight the message in your inbox and select Source from the View menu. this will show you the raw text that's being sent to you...headers and all...and does not access any servers since you did not "open" the message.



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