LISTSERV(R) produces e-mail list "digests" in MHTML format. Neither Outlook
2000 nor Outlook Express appear to support MHTML in the way LISTSERV uses it.


Granted that the most common use for MHTML is to package images in an email,
for example:

     <IMG SRC="cid:foo4@foo1@bar.net" ALT="IETF logo">

(example lifted directly from RFC2557)
and that this use _is_ supported in Outlook, there is nothing in RFC2557
that _limits_ MHTML to only images, and such limitation has never been in the
spirit of the Internet Standards.

LISTSERV's use of MHTML should also work, per my reading of the RFC. Example:

Link in the main part of the message:
<a href="cid:29996@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM">Single list posting</a>

MIME headers of part representing the individual list posting:
Content-ID: <29996@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM>
Content-Type: message/rfc822

Nor do I see any security issues with allowing a "package" of mail messages
to be read in Outlook in this way (any more than reading the individual mail
postings).

So my questions are:

- Does Outlook really not support this use of MHTML, or is there something
additional that Outlook requires that is not obvious from the RFCs?

- If Outlook does not support this, is there a preferred method of
representing message digests in Outlook or are Outlook users out of luck?
(LISTSERV's HTML Indexes work quite nicely in Outlook, but then you have to
stay online to see the individual messages and some people would rather be
able to download their emails and not have to stay online to read them)

- Alternatively, is there any hope that Outlook will ever support MIME
Digests in a user-friendly way? (i.e. Content-Type: multipart/digest per RFC
2046) In Outlook Express it's very hard to read MIME digests, in Outlook 2000
it's a little bit better, but still represented as a blank message with a
bunch of attachments -- hard to navigate and decide which messages to look at
(which is one of the points in receiving a list in digest form instead of as
individual messages).

- I have not tested either MIME or MHTML digests in Outlook 2003 or OWA.  Do
these behave any better? Is it worth upgrading to Outlook 2003 to get these?

Enlightenment on any of the above questions would be welcome. Thanks.