Question

I am having an issue testing alternate views while sending HTML E-Mails. I am creating sending the mail message as plain text, but I include an HTML alternate view. I have tried using several e-mail clients, but I have been unable to see the plain text version. My main concern is that someone who does use a plain text only client won’t see it correctly. See below for code:

MailMessage message = new MailMessage();

message.To.Add("email");
message.From = new MailAddress("fromaddress");
message.Subject = "subject"
//Plain text version of e-mail
message.Body = _formattedPlainText;
message.IsBodyHtml = false;

AlternateView htmlView = CreateHTMLView();

message.AlternateViews.Add(htmlView);
//message.AlternateViews.Add(plainTextView);

smtp.Send(message);

private AlternateView CreateHTMLView()
{
    AlternateView htmlView =  AlternateView.CreateAlternateViewFromString(_formattedHTML, null, System.Net.Mime.MediaTypeNames.Text.Html);

    //Code for adding embedded images...

    return htmlView;
}

Is there reason to believe the plain text version isn’t being received or are there any clients you know that definitely can only receive plain text e-mails?

Thanks in advance

UPDATE:

You can force plain text in GMAIL by pressing the options arrow and selecting the option “Message Text Garbled?”

Answer 1

Is there reason to believe the plain text version isn’t being received
or are there any clients you know that definitely can only receive
plain text e-mails?

No, and PINE.

You could use the mail command in any *nix OS to read email. It will only display email in text format.

UPDATE

A guy here, claims that GMAIL ONLY displays emails in plain text if given the option. I find that an awkward default choice from Google if that’s still the case.