Thunderbird Settings

If you use Thunderbird, make sure you have the following options set:

These will fix your formatting and make your e-mail client not suck. I forgot to set these when I reinstalled Windows XP earlier this year, and it's just flat-out embarrassing to know that I was sending out ISO-8859-1 messages like a jerk.

Also, make sure your MTA doesn't do quoted-printable conversion, and switch your MTA if you find that you are. Many people will not be able to change this, so it's more of a "do this to the best of your ability" thing.

But the Thunderbird config is entirely within your control.