Good place to start.

http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_tables.asp

>>>Hi All:
>>>
>>>I'm preparing text for emailing.
>>>
>>>I can't get the columns to align properly. Right now I'm using tabs, but there is no guarantee as to how the recipient has his tabs set up. Also, I'm sending the email as plain text, but the recipient has his default font set to Arial, which is proportional.
>>
>>So, how do you think you can do the impossible? Tabs just don't work, because anyone and any piece of software may interpret them any way they like.
>>
>>Your pretty much only choice, if you want columns, is html.
>
>Thanks. I really have no idea how to do this with HTML. Can you direct me to a resource or if it is simple, show me how to do it? Bear in mind that it would be easier from a data standpoint (I'm generating each line as I read a record from a file) to generate each full line in sequence, rather than create Microsoft Word-style columns.
>
>Also, is it a safe assumption that everyone in the business world can read html emails with their software?