How to Send a Message in Plain Text from Yahoo! Mail

It's easy to switch formatting modes

Keys on a typewriter
Adam Berry / Getty Images
Updated November 30, 2016

Yahoo! Mail lets you send emails that are just plain text and look good everywhere.

Being a Pleasure with Email Can Be Easy

If you know what the recipient of an email you are composing prefers, you can cater to their needs and send either a plain email or one sporting fancy fonts, colors, and images. Unfortunately, Yahoo! Mail is not quite so flexible.

You cannot switch back and forth between plain and formatted text with all formatting retained.

You can, at any time, choose the format used to send a message, though—and make it plain text, for example, as the most common denominator.

Remember that all formatting you added to the message will be lost.

Send a Message in Plain Text from Yahoo! Mail

To compose a text-only message in Yahoo! Mail:

  • Click Switch to Plain Text icon (《) in the message's formatting toolbar if available.
    • If you do not see the icon (but Switch to Rich Text, 》), your message is already in plain text.
  • Click OK.

You can switch back to rich-text formatting by using Switch to Rich Text (》).

Yahoo! Mail will remember your choice for the next email you start.

(Tested with Yahoo! Mail in a desktop browser.)