Mail font is too small while I'm typing...

then the recipient will be getting an email with a larger-than-usual font.

No he/she wouldn't.

Just as you can set the font size in preferences for emails you either send or receive, so can they.

I tried increasing the size of the font in a Mail email and sending it to my Yahoo account, and when I opened that email the font was very large, so I'm afraid I was right

No, you are wrong. Your mail preferences settings affect what you see, whether it is incoming or outgoing, but not what someone else on a different machine sees. They see whatever they have set in their preferences.

There are some exceptions to these rules when rich text/html mail is involved, which I can explain if you want.

Please explain as I have the same issue - I never know what the receiver gets. I do know that sometimes I get a replied/forwarded email with my message embedded in it and it is huge - I have set my fonts at 14pt for typing. but how an i be sure my clients don't see this huge font?

it is so easy to enlarge a rec'd email or a safari webpage, but why can't this be done easily? is there no other work around??

Please explain as I have the same issue - I never know what the receiver gets. I do know that sometimes I get a replied/forwarded email with my message embedded in it and it is huge - I have set my fonts at 14pt for typing. but how an i be sure my clients don't see this huge font?

If you have used Mail > Preferences to set your font at 14pt, that will normally leave the size of the font which your recipient sees up to his own software and settings. Your outgoing email body will not contain any info about font and size unless you have deliberately set them for that particular message in the New Message pane.

In the end, it is not always possible to dictate what your clients see. Their software usually gives them the capability, if they want to use it, to read emails in the font and font size they find most comfortable.

it is so easy to enlarge a rec'd email or a safari webpage, but why can't this be done easily?

What is it that you want done exactly? Sometimes Mail just does not have the features people need. So they use Entourage or Thunderbird instead.

Tom - thanks for the prompt reply. do you use mobile me? as I do like Entourage a lot better but it can't sync like Mail can with mobile me.

do you use mobile me?

Yes, I use Mail with MobileMe.

as I do like Entourage a lot better but it can't sync like Mail can with mobile me.

I don't have any experience myself with Entourage. There is a forum devoted to it here if you want to ask about syncing options:

http://www.officeformac.com/ProductForums/Entourage/