I think many are missing the point here. If you have to do anything other
than open and read your e-mail, the technique won't 'fly'. I did my test,
with a document written in Word using different fonts, sizes, bold,
italics, colors, non-ascii symbols, and superscripts and subscripts. I
sent these to a colleague using the HTML option in M$ Internet Mail, and
she got the message with all the formatting intact (except for the super
and sub scripts--the subscript is usable [just a smaller font] but the
super appears the same as the sub--a problem for physics stuff). But the
main point of this exercise was that she had to do NO manipulation of the
file to read it basically as formatted.
The newer M$ e-mail software allows you to use Word as the e-mail
editor/reader, so you have full access to all the formatting capabilities.
Right now, there seems to be no one answer. If HTML or rtf {it is rtf not
rft according to Word} becomes a standard, then all e-mail readers and
server software will have to be modified to handle these.
Another consideration for current schemes is how DIGEST mode handles any
attachments or special formatting--usually they aren't handled at all. The
WARS over rtf on other lists have been about the tons of 'crap' introduced
into Digests that couldn't be filtered or easily ignored. Some folk out
there still PAY for download time and object to having to pay to download
what they consider junk.