Background reading
Many email programs offer fancy backgrounds (“stationery”) which you can use to make your emails look (supposedly) more attractive.
Actually, there are lots of good reasons not to bother with them:
- Most of them are pretty naff;
- Using them makes it look as if you’ve only just discovered email and are playing around with all the pretty pictures;
- They’re a distraction from what you’ve written;
- They come as an attachment to your message, which will (or should) set your recipient’s anti-virus alarm bells ringing;
- If your reader receives email in plain text only (which quite a lot of email users do) he or she will never see the picture anyway.
If you’re using email for business rather than pleasure, then don’t touch “stationery” with a bargepole – it’s tantamount to committing professional suicide. If it’s a personal email, then it’s up to you, if you’re the sort of person who has friends who like pictures of fluffy kittens or ivy up the edge of their notepaper.
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