Looking for HTML viewer

**zot** · 02-21-2011, 09:53 PM

I just got an email that came as a massive HTML-encoded message. (Even the URLs are almost uncypherable to me). So rather than try to manually decode the encrypted signup link digit-by-digit, I'm looking for easy-to-use freeware that will let me view HTML. Not something designed as a web coding tool, but just for simple viewing. It seems web browsers don't have that feature built-in anymore (like in Netscape v2) that allows HTML code to be viewed as a webpage.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a good HTML viewer?

**anon** · 02-21-2011, 10:35 PM

You can save the text as a .html file in Notepad, and then open that using your browser. That should do.

Oh, and Opera does have that feature. I think so do Firefox and Chrome, somewhere...

**tesco** · 02-22-2011, 01:12 AM

Originally Posted by zot

It seems web browsers don't have that feature built-in anymore (like in Netscape v2) that allows HTML code to be viewed as a webpage.

Not sure what browser you use but the main function of pretty much all of them is to render html as webpages.

**AdrianPhoto** · 02-22-2011, 11:50 AM

I think he's looking for something like Notepad++
http://notepad-plus-plus.org/download

**anon** · 02-22-2011, 04:07 PM

Adrian, I think he wants to simply render the HTML code as a document, which as tesco said is what every browser on Earth is meant for. Otherwise, for syntax highlighting, you don't even need to leave FST:

HTML Code:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" dir="ltr" lang="en">
<head>
	<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" />
<meta id="e_vb_meta_bburl" name="vb_meta_bburl" content="http://filesharingtalk.com" />
<base href="http://filesharingtalk.com/" /><!--[if IE]></base><![endif]-->
<meta name="generator" content="vBulletin 4.0.7" />

**zot** · 02-23-2011, 09:16 PM

Thanks everyone. I had tried 'regular' browsers but it came out looking like this:

(note: I'm holding the cursor (rendered invisible by screenshot) over the link to show the mal-formed URL address)

This is the actual text (partial section) of what arrived in my email:

Code:

<body bgcolor=3D=27=23D5E7F1=27 style=3D=27font-family: Arial, =27MS Treb=
uchet=27, sans-serif; padding: 5px 5px 5px 5px; background: =23F1F1F1=27>=
<center><div style=3D=27margin: 0; padding: 10px; background: =23F1F1F1=27=
><table width=3D=27635=27 border=3D=270=27 cellpadding=3D=270=27 cellspac=
ing=3D=270=27><tr style=3D=27margin: 0; padding: 0; height: 60px=27><td s=
tyle=3D=27margin: 0; padding: 0; height: 60px=27><img src=3D=27http://new=
sgroupdirect=2Ecom/images/layout/logo=2Egif=27 height=3D=2750=27 /></td><=
/tr><tr><td style=3D=27border-top:0px solid =23A3B8C5; border-right:0px s=
olid =23A3B8C5; border-left:0px solid =23A3B8C5; background-color:=23FEFE=
FE; padding: 10px 20px 10px 20px;=27 align=3D=27left=27><div style=3D=27m=
argin-top: 5px;=27><h1 style=3D=27font-family: Arial, =27MS Trebuchet=27,=
 sans-serif; font-size: 24px;margin: 0 0 10px;padding: 0; color: =23000; =
background-color:=23FFF;=27>NewsgroupDirect Invite</h1><p style=3D=22font=
-family: Arial, =27MS Trebuchet=27, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: =
1em 0px;=22>=0A=09=09=09=09=09=09=09=09Hi,=0A=09=09=09=09=09=09=09</p>=0A=
=09=09=09=09=09=09=09<p style=3D=22font-family: Arial, =27MS Trebuchet=27=
, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 1em 0px;=22>=0A=09=09=09=09=09=09=09=
=09You have been invited by LARRY NEWCOMB to try out our services, free, =
for 3 month(s)=2E  <br/>Just visit the address below to get your free acc=
ount=2E=0A=09=09=09=09=09=09=09</p>=09=09=09=09=09=09=09=09=09=09=0A=09=09=
=09=09=09=09</div>=0A=09=09=09=09=09</td>=0A=09=09=09=09</tr><tr><td styl=
e=3D=22border-top:1px dashed =23A3B8C5; border-bottom:1px dashed =23A3B8C=
5; border-right:0px solid =23A3B8C5; border-left:0px solid =23A3B8C5; bac=
kground-color:=23FFFFCC; padding: 10px 20px 10px 20px;=22 align=3D=22left=
=22>=0A=09=09=09=09=09=09<p style=3D=22font-family: Arial, =27MS Trebuche=
t=27, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; color: =23E50E07; margin: 1em 0px;=22>=
=0A=09=09=09=09=09=09=09<strong><a href=3D=22http://www=2Enewsgroupdirect=
=2Ecom/invite/?utm_source=3Dngd-customer-invite-email=26utm_medium=3Demai=
l=26utm_campaign=3Doutbound-customer-mail=26invite=3Dabbc17d849c31e68926e=
7f238d7c8e2f67f22a9e=21>Create Your Free Account</a></strong>=0A=09=09=09=
=09=09=09</p>=09=0A=09=09=09=09=09</td>=0A=09=09=09=09</tr><tr><td style=3D=
=27border-bottom:0px solid =23A3B8C5; border-right:0px solid =23A3B8C5; b=
order-left:0px solid =23A3B8C5; background-color:=23FEFEFE; padding: 10px=
 20px 10px 20px;=27 align=3D=27left=27><p style=3D=27font-family: Arial, =
=27MS Trebuchet=27, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 1em 0px;=27><br/=
><br/>Thank you for choosing NewsgroupDirect as your usenet provider=2E<b=
r/><br/>Sincerely,<br/><strong>The NewsgroupDirect Team</strong><br/><br/=

(Note: In case anyone is wondering, I slightly altered the encryped part of signup link so it's not valid)

It was not hard to figure out, just simple substitution gave me a correctly formed hyperlink. I was just curious if other HTML views would display this properly. Maybe not -I downloaded and tried out a webpage creation tool, and it was no better.

Maybe I need to "get with the times" and start using a HTML/PHP//Ajax/Java/DirectX/Flash-enabled email reader.

But I long for the simple days when people sent plain old fashioned text in email

**tesco** · 02-23-2011, 11:45 PM

It's corrupted or encoded in some way I've never seen before. All the special characters like ; # " ' = etc. are all converted to "=xx" where XX is a number.
Whatever it is, you likely won't see that again. The way you were trying to view it in the browser was correct and will work for properly formed html.

**anon** · 02-24-2011, 02:18 AM

tesco, the "XX" part of those looks like the hex representation of a byte. And as far as I know, 09 is tabulation and 0A a line break, so it makes sense to me. Maybe it's some sort of corrupted Base64/URL-encoding?

By removing the = and converting the rest from ASCII hex to hexadecimal, I think it'd be possible to have a usable document.

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