[Review] Enable Text Formatting In iOS Emails

[Anthony Bouchard]

Rich Text for Mail allows you to format text in an iOS email.

The iOS Mail application is a great email viewer, but it really isn't that great of an email composer. It lacks a feature that many of us use in email every day - text formatting. Because of this, iOS developer Ryan Petrich found it necessary to create a jailbreak tweak known as Rich Text for Mail that allows you to change the formatting of your boring text in iOS Mail email composition. It's not a new tweak, but it's one that should be brought into the light if you've never heard of it. Since it lets you format your emails to make them more lively, you'll never have to worry about sending an email where you can't emphasize your important points with bold or italic letters ever again.

Rich Text for Mail gives you a whole lot of options. It gives you the option to:

• Make something bold
• Make something italic
• Add a strike-through
• Add an underline
• Change text fonts
• Change text colors
• Change text sizes
• Insert images
• Insert links

Looks a lot more fun than just black and white non-formatted text, doesn't it? You can see the numerous settings below:



To apply format settings to text, you have to highlight something. After you highlight it, you will see a popup menu like the one in the first image of this review that has multiple formatting options. It's actually a plugin for another of Ryan Petrich's tweaks, Action Menu. Action menu lets you add custom buttons to the popup menu that appears when you highlight text in iOS. Rich Text for Mail takes advantage of Action Menu to add the formatting buttons right into that feature of iOS to make the integration seem seamless.

Perhaps the best part about this tweak is that it lets you add more functionality to one of the greatest Mail clients in the world. I think that having the option to format text, no matter how often I might use it, is an important feature. Rich Text for Mail's email formatting will actually show the email effects on any other iDevice whether it's jailbroken or not. It will also show up on a computer the same way that you created it. So one important thing to remember here is that it's not an illusion that you'll only see for yourself, but instead it really does format the text that you're sending.

Aside from text formatting, you can also insert pictures and links. You can select the picture option to attach a photograph from your Camera Roll directly into your email - something that Apple obviously missed, big time. The link option is very handy. Have you ever wanted to put a link in your email that was actually hyperlinked text instead of an unattractive looking email? With Rich Text for Mail you can do that. It lets you choose what text you want hyperlinked and then put the URL that you want to link it to. If that's not enough, you can customize your signatures too! Pretty large improvement from the standard iOS Mail application if you ask me.

Unfortunately, Rich Text for Mail only works in the Mail application, so you won't be able to use it system-wide to use text formatting in applications like Notes. After installing it, it doesn't add any icons to your home screen, but it adds a settings cell to your Settings application that holds numerous on and off switches so that you can enable to disable the functions that will pop up in your Action Menu. If you disable one of them (they're all enabled by default) it won't show up again in the popup menu when you highlight a word until you enable it again through settings.

Here is a video demonstration of Rich Text for Mail by Ryan Petrich:



Name: Rich Text for Mail
Price: $4.99
Repo: BigBoss
Version: 1.1.2
Developer: Ryan Petrich
Editor's Rating:  5/5

What are your thoughts about Rich Text for Mail? Share in the comments.

Sources: Ryan Petrich

[ipodtouchman77]

Doesn't iOS 5 already have bold, italics, and underlining?

[JTornbom]

Doesn't iOS 5 already have bold, italics, and underlining?

Yes it does good sir. And who would possibly purchase this for $5?

[Anthony Bouchard]

Doesn't iOS 5 already have bold, italics, and underlining?

Does a lot more than three things.

[havoc0351]

I have to agree, $5 is too much. Don't get me wrong, it's a great looking app but the price isn't...

[D to the M]

Yeah I'd pay 1 in a heartbeat and mull it over for 2. I'd buy it for 2.

[iSteveO]

Yes it does good sir. And who would possibly purchase this for $5?

This is good for one thing in iOS 5, if what this says is true; it allows you to place a picture in your email. If you do this in iOS 5 it will turn it into an attachment (useful if your email signature is an image file). That's if, and only if, it actually does what this says here. Plus you get the extra strike through, color and size change options. I wouldn't pay that much for it, but I see how it could be useful for some. Me, I'll settle for bold and italic. Although It would be cool if my iOS signature matched my outlook signature... Hmmmmm..... Who knows. Maybe I'll get it. Too expensive though. We'll see.

[auscompgeek]

This is good for one thing in iOS 5, if what this says is true; it allows you to place a picture in your email. If you do this in iOS 5 it will turn it into an attachment (useful if your email signature is an image file). That's if, and only if, it actually does what this says here.

Last time I checked, you could copy an image and paste it right into your email. Though it doesn't get as seamless as this plugin.

[ipodtouchman77]

Does a lot more than three things.

I know, I'm just saying that the dev shouldn't take credit for that.
1. Who actually has a picture for their email signature?
2. What corporate business man is going to change his font or font colorist thesis?
There aren't many practical uses for this, especially considering its 5 bucks when half the features are built in to ups 5.

[PoEtikly]

I didn't know there were bold and italic abilities on iOS 5......I feel stupid! How do I access that feature?

Nm I figured it out lol! Wow I can't believe I didn't know that, but changing the font color would be cool though. 5$ is a bit salty for this though...

[Go Gators]

LOL! I cant remember the last time I actually heard someone say that $5 was too "expensive" for something. The $0.99 apps in the App Store have definitely spoiled everyone. If apps are over a measly $2 these days people think its too much. Maybe it's just me but to purchase a cool app that you'll use forever for the price of a cheeseburger sounds like a pretty good deal.

[Anthony Bouchard]

I know, I'm just saying that the dev shouldn't take credit for that.
1. Who actually has a picture for their email signature?
2. What corporate business man is going to change his font or font colorist thesis?
There aren't many practical uses for this, especially considering its 5 bucks when half the features are built in to ups 5.

The developer deserves the credit for it because this tweak has been out since iOS 4 and he bought it to us first. Plus, it's not even close to half of the features that are in iOS 5. Maybe only 25% are in iOS 5.

[godfred212]

I bought it for $1.99 not $5