Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
5.
The Length slider lets you create longer passwords, and it's wise to slide
this a little to the right. The green Quality bar shows how secure the
password is, which is to say how theoretically easy it is to crack. However,
a password of twelve letters is normally considered extremely strong
within the wider security community, even if it means the green bar doesn't
entirely fill.
Once you're happy, you should attempt to learn the password. This can be
done by saying it out loud ten to twenty times or by typing it into a blank
document the same number of times so that you learn it by rote.
You can close Password Assistant and then click the Cancel button to close
the Keychain Access dialog box. You can then quit Keychain Access.
Tip 75
Prefer Plain-Text Emails
Once upon a time all email was sent in plain text, but nowadays HTML emails
—that feature alternative fonts, colors, and images—have become the norm.
Yet most of these emails come with a plain-text version hidden inside them.
This is included for those who might have email clients that can't display
HTML.
While the Mail app in OS X is fully compatible with HTML email, you can hit
OPTION
+
COMMAND
+
P
to switch the email currently being viewed to a plain-text
rendition, sans any kind of formatting.
This is only temporary, however. Just select another email in your email list,
and then select the original email again to view it with its formatting intact.
Setting Plain-Text View
To always view emails in plain text, you can change a secret setting that
makes it prefer the plain-text component of emails, if they're included in the
message (and they nearly always are). This will mean you should never see
another HTML email!
To activate the setting, shut down Mail, open a Terminal window (open
Finder, select the Applications list, and then in the list of applications double-
click Terminal within the
UTILITIES
folder), and type the following:
