Eliminating Annoying Email Quotation Marks

Feb 7
12:25

2024

Maria Marsala

Maria Marsala

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When you receive forwarded emails, they often come with a barrage of angle brackets (>>>>) that can make the message difficult to read. These symbols, also known as "greater than" signs, indicate how many times the email has been forwarded before reaching your inbox. To maintain professionalism and readability, it's essential to remove these marks before passing the message along. Here are three effective methods to clean up your emails, along with some interesting statistics about email usage that might surprise you.

Understanding Email Forwarding Symbols

Email forwarding can often lead to a cluttered appearance in the body of the message,Eliminating Annoying Email Quotation Marks Articles primarily due to the accumulation of angle brackets. Each bracket represents a level of forwarding, and excessive forwarding can result in a confusing string of these symbols.

Methods to Remove Angle Brackets

Using Word Processing Software

  1. Copy the email content into a word processing program like Microsoft Word.
  2. Navigate to the 'Edit' menu, then select 'Replace'.
  3. In the 'Find what' field, enter a single angle bracket (>).
  4. Leave the 'Replace with' field empty.
  5. Click 'Replace All' to remove all instances of the symbol.

This method is straightforward and utilizes the common features found in word processing software to clean up your email.

Online Formatting Tools

  • Visit an online text formatting tool such as FormatIt.
  • Paste the email content into the provided form.
  • In the 'filter' section, input the angle bracket (>).
  • The tool will automatically remove all angle brackets from your text.

Online tools are convenient for quick fixes without the need for additional software.

Dedicated Email Cleaning Programs

For a more specialized approach, consider using a program designed to strip unwanted characters from emails. One such program, recommended by its creator Theresa King, can be found at StripMail.

These programs are specifically tailored to clean up email formatting, making them a reliable option for frequent email users.

Why Clean Email Formatting Matters

Maintaining clear and professional email correspondence is crucial in both personal and business communications. A survey by Adobe found that the average worker spends about 3.1 hours per day on work email alone, which equates to 15.5 hours per week and a staggering 20% of the workweek Adobe Email Usage Study. With so much time spent on emails, ensuring that messages are easy to read and free from distracting symbols is essential for effective communication.

Interestingly, despite the rise of instant messaging and collaboration platforms, email remains a dominant form of communication in the professional world. A report by Radicati Group projected that the number of worldwide email users would grow to over 4.3 billion by the end of 2023, with over 347 billion emails sent and received each day Radicati Email Statistics Report.

By removing unnecessary angle brackets and other formatting issues from your emails, you contribute to a more streamlined and efficient communication environment. Your recipients, whether friends or clients, will appreciate the clarity and professionalism of your messages.