GRINNING PLANET EMAIL VERSION RECOMMENDATIONS

• America Online (AOL)
• Earthlink (incl. Mindspring)
• Gmail (Google Mail (beta))
• Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Web Access, and Outlook Express
• Microsoft Hotmail and MSN
• Yahoo
• All others

America Online (AOL)

Explanation of Details/Tips

1. Please add our address to your AOL address book to ensure that our messages get to your AOL inbox. The address to add is:
   • For HTML email: list-h@grinningplanet.com
   • For text-only: list@grinningplanet.com
   
   It would also be a good idea to add the confirmation address for our mailing list provider
   "noreply-confirm@zine.ezezine.com".
   
   To add email addresses to your AOL address book, choose "Address Book" from the Mail menu (or choose Mail Options/Address Book in your Mailbox window). On the Address Book pallette, click Add. In the new window, add the following:
   
   • For First Name, use Planet
   • For Last Name, use Grinning
   • Where it says "Other E-Mail," click the radio button and then type one of addresses above in the box. (In AOL WebMail, put the address in the box that says "Email 1".)
   
   Then click Save.
2. There is poor support in general for HTML email in AOL versions 1.0 through 5.x. It's still spotty enough in AOL 6 that we think you'll do better with the text version. AOL versions 7 and up do great with HTML email, but see Tip 5 if you're using AOL 9 or up.
3. For most versions of AOL, the links in text-only emails are not clickable. Even if you click on the "Show images & enable links" option at the top of the message window, they still won't work. This is a known problem; but you can still get the day's material by copying a URL from the message and pasting it into the AOL search bar. If you use AOL 7.0 or above, we recommend the HTML-email version of Grinning Planet.
4. Starting with AOL 9, AOL blocks all graphics from being displayed in HTML emails and deactivates the links in any new messages sent to an AOL 9 inbox. You can click the link at the top of each message ("Show Images & Enable Links") to get the graphics and links to work properly, or you can add our address to your AOL address book so all messages will work properly automatically (see Tip 1).
5. If you try to open a Grinning Planet HTML email and get a message from AOL asking "Do you know who sent you this email?" -- click Yes. Once the message opens, you will probably also have to click the "Show images & enable links" option at the top of the message window to get the graphics to display. You can avoid this issue by adding our address to your AOL address book so all messages will work properly automatically. (See Tip 1).

Earthlink (incl. Mindspring)

Explanation of Details/Tips

1. Please add Grinning Planet to your address book so our messages get to your inbox (otherwise, they will end up in your "Spam" box). The address to add is:
   • For HTML email: list-h@grinningplanet.com
   • For text-only: list@grinningplanet.com
   
   It would also be a good idea to add the confirmation address for our mailing list provider
   "noreply-confirm@zine.ezezine.com".
   

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GMail (Google Mail (beta))

Explanation of Details/Tips

1. Please add our address to your Gmail Contacts list. To do this, click on "Contacts" in the left-side menu; then click the "Add Contact" link in the header on the right side. Use "Grinning Planet" as the name; for the primary email, use the address that corresponds to your Grinning Planet version::
   • For HTML email: list-h@grinningplanet.com
   • For text-only: list@grinningplanet.com
   
   Then click the Save button. It would also be a good idea to add the confirmation address for our mailing list provider "noreply-confirm@zine.ezezine.com".
   
   
2. Gmail does support HTML email, BUT ...
   • When you open an HTML email, you must click on the "Display external images" link in the message header so the graphics will show and the links will be clickable. You can do this each time you open a Grinning Planet email, or you can click on the link in the message header that says "Always display images from list-h@grinningplanet.com." We've also noticed that sometimes the "Display external images" option does not even show up, rendering any graphic-heavy HTML email (like Grinning Planet) rather useless.
   • Gmail does not support background images in HTML email (which we use in the cartoons to make them better looking).
   • Gmail sometimes mishandles spacing commands in HTML email, making a minor mess of the cartoon.
   • Also see item 3.
   • Grinning Planet's HTML version is not horrible in Gmail, but we find these problems annoying. If you don't mind clicking on the links in the text-only version to see the web pages at the Grinning Planet site, that will give you the best result.
3. If you open a Grinning Planet HTML email, your browser may give you a warning message that says "This page contains both secure and nonsecure items. Do you want to display the nonsecure items?" This is due to our use of externally linked images for the cartoon and other features. You must say "Yes" to the warning message to get the images to display. (NOTE: It is safe to say Yes for Grinning Planet HTML emails, but use your own judgment if you see the warning when opening other HTML emails.)

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Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Web Access, and Outlook Express

Explanation of Details/Tips

1. To ensure that our messages get to your inbox, please whitelist our address. The procedure for doing this will depend on your ISP or company. The address to add is:
   • For HTML email: list-h@grinningplanet.com
   • For text-only: list@grinningplanet.com
   
   It would also be a good idea to add the confirmation address for our mailing list provider
   "noreply-confirm@zine.ezezine.com".
   
   If you use Outlook 2003, do the following: In the message list, right-click on a Grinning Planet message; then, from the pop-up menu, choose Junk E-Mail and Add Sender to Safe Senders List.
   
2. MS Outlook Web Access 2003 has generally good support for HTML email, but it does not support background images (which we use in the cartoons to make them better looking). It's not a killer problem, but it detracts a little from the quality of the cartoon relative to the web-site version.
3. MS Outlook Web Access 2003 turns off graphics by default, so you will need to go to Options / Privacy and Junk E-mail Prevention and uncheck "Block external content in HTML e-mail messages". Be sure to do "Save and Close" after that. Alternately, you can unblock the graphics each time you open a Grinning Planet email. Look in the message's yellow header bar for the link that says "Click here to unblock content."
4. Version of MS Outlook Web Access prior to version 2003 have horrible support for HTML email. Stick with the text-only version of Grinning Planet if this is your primary email access.
5. If you're using Microsoft Outlook 2003 (XP) or later and you can't see the graphics in the Grinning Planet email, go to Tools/Options and tell Outlook you want it to allow you to see images in HTML emails. There are two ways to do this.
   
   APPROACH A: Here are the steps that will turn on graphics (and some other content) for HTML messages in Outlook 2003 (XP):
     - Go to the Tools menu
     - Select Options
     - Select the Security tab
     - Click the "Change automatic download settings" button
     - Uncheck the box that says "Don't download pictures or other content automatically in HTML email"
   
   APPROACH B: If you feel that Approach A might expose you to unwanted content in other (non-Grinning Planet) HTML messages, another approach is to leave the "Don't download pictures or other content automatically in HTML e-mail" option checked but to also check "Permit downloads in e-mail messages from senders and to recipients defined in the Safe Senders and Safe Recipients lists used by the Junk E-Mail filter". You would then need to add list-h@grinningplanet.com to the Safe Senders list. To do that, go to the Actions menu, select Junk E-Mail, select Junk E-Mail Options, click on the Safe Senders tab, click the Add button, enter list-h@grinningplanet.com, click OK.
   
6. If you use Outlook Express and the images aren't loading in the email window, click on the little gray bar just above the message text to turn on the graphics for that message. To turn on graphics for ALL messages in the future, go to Tools/Options, click on the Security tab, and uncheck the box that says "Block images and other external content in HTML e-mail".
7. If you open a Grinning Planet HTML email, your browser may give you a warning message that says "This page contains both secure and nonsecure items. Do you want to display the nonsecure items?" This is due to our use of externally linked images for the cartoon and other features. You must say "Yes" to the warning message to get the images to display. (NOTE: It is safe to say Yes for Grinning Planet HTML emails, but use your own judgment if you see the warning when opening other HTML emails.)

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Microsoft Hotmail and MSN

Explanation of Details/Tips

1. Please whitelist our address to ensure that Grinning Planet messages get to your inbox. In Hotmail, there are two ways to do this (but you only need to do one).
   • Go to Options / Mail / Junk E-Mail Protection / Safe List and add the domain "grinningplanet.com" to your Safe List. It would also be a good idea to add the domain for our mailing list provider "ezezine.com".
   • Or go to Options / Mail / Junk E-Mail Protection / Mailing Lists and add the appropriate address below.
     • For HTML email: list-h@grinningplanet.com
     • For text-only: list@grinningplanet.com
     
     It would also be a good idea to add the confirmation address for our mailing list provider
     "noreply-confirm@zine.ezezine.com".
     
2. There is generally good support in Hotmail for HTML email, but it does not support background images (which we use in the cartoons to make them better looking), and it messes with "margin" styles in a way that causes occasional minor formatting problems. So, if your top consideration is convenience, go for the HTML version. If you prize beauty and are willing to click to go to the web site to view the cartoon, stick with the text-only version.

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Yahoo

Explanation of Details/Tips

1. Please whitelist Grinning Planet so our messages get to your inbox (otherwise, they may end up in your "Bulk Mail" folder). To do this, log in to Yahoo mail; click Mail, then Options; click Filters; click the Add button. Then set the parameters as follows:
   • Filter Name – Type a filter name. ("Grinning Planet" seems a logical choice.)
   • If all of the following rules are true... – Where it says "From header," select "contains" from the drop-down menu and enter "grinningplanet" (without the quotes; no spaces) in the space provided.
   • Then... – From the pull-down menu, select "InBox".
   • Click the Add Filter button.
   
   It would also be a good idea to add the confirmation address for our mailing list provider
   "noreply-confirm@zine.ezezine.com".
   
2. If the images in the GP emails appear to be missing, you probably need to turn on images in your Yahoo mail. To do this, go to Mail Options / Spam Protection. In the Image Blocking section, choose a setting that allows you to see images in HTML emails. Note: If you have properly whitelisted Grinning Planet in the previous step, you should be able to choose "Block images in messages that SpamGuard thinks are spam" to protect yourself from spam AND still see images in Grinning Planet emails.

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All others

Explanation of Details/Tips

1. Please add Grinning Planet to your address book or safe list so our messages get to your inbox. The address to add is:
   • For HTML email: list-h@grinningplanet.com
   • For text-only: list@grinningplanet.com
   
   It would also be a good idea to add the confirmation address for our mailing list provider
   "noreply-confirm@zine.ezezine.com".
   

Back to signup page

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• See HTML-email sample
• See text-only sample
• Contact us