further random questions from the newly-unemployed

[bill at horne.net (Bill Horne)]

Well, I'll jump back in, briefly.

1.    Ordered lists
        A.    It's a PITA to do ordered and/or bulleted lists in text. In
                the first place, the placement of tabs must be calculated
                so as to ensure that none  of the lines autowraps into the
gutter.
        B.    You don't know what the recipient's tab stops are set to, nor
                their line wrap.
        C.    Getting your cover letter to stand out shouldn't involve
                doing ASCII art.

2.    Readability
        A.    Many of the respondents feel that hiring managers use
                non-HTML-capable email programs, and I don't think
                that's a productive assumption.
                    1.    The cover letter almost always goes to HR before
                            the hiring manager, and HR doesn't know that
                            "plain text" exists.
                    2.    Even when hiring managers spend their time
                            managing unix projects, motivating unix
                            people, and writing emails in exmh, they
                            *STILL* have to interact with the HR department.
        B.    HTML rendering engines do make allowances for paragraph
                leading, margin matching, and justification that just can't
be
                done in plain text. I want my cover letter to stand out, but
                not be so unusual as to be offputting.
        C.    Readability is in the eye of the beholder. If someone has
                been clicking through dozens of HTML-formatted emails,
                and then comes upon mine in plain-text, it will look
                drab by comparison.

3.    Compatibility
        A.    Like it or don't, M$ products are the corporate standard -
                why else would we submit a r)B?sum? in MS Word format? -
                and Outlook Express is the standard mail reader. That
                means text gets mangled, and HTML looks better.
        B.    Whatever one might be used to in the Unix world, one must
                get past the HR process to be able to use it. Ergo, HTML.

My 0.02.

Bill Horne