Changing between plain text and HTML-formatted e-mail in Outlook 2003

MS

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Mar 13, 2004, 5:43:49 PM3/13/04

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I am using Outlook 2003 as my main e-mail program. (I formerly used Outlook
Express.)

I have "plain text" selected as the default e-mail format. However,
sometimes I wish to send a formatted e-mail. This was very easy to do in OE,
from the "Format" menu, to change the format type of a message. However, in
Outlook 2003, I see no way to do that. When I click "New" to start a new
message, it of course starts as a plain text message, as I have that set as
default. But then I see no way to change it to an HTML (Rich Text)
formatted message, if I wish to do so. Everything in the "Format" menu is
grayed out, and I see no choice to change it to an HTML-formatted message.

There has to be a way!! (If not, a serious bug in the program, IMO.) How?

Diane Poremsky

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Mar 13, 2004, 7:13:22 PM3/13/04

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are you using outlook's editor or word? is the cursor in the message body
when you check the format menu?

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)

Outlook Tips: http://www.outlook-tips.net/
Outlook & Exchange Solutions Center: http://www.slipstick.com

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MS

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Mar 13, 2004, 11:01:15 PM3/13/04

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Word 2003.

Result is as described whether or not the cursor is in the message body.

Does that cause this problem? If so, why?

"Diane Poremsky" <in...@cdolive.com> wrote in message
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Diane Poremsky

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Mar 13, 2004, 11:19:08 PM3/13/04

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when word is your editor there is a dropdown on the toolbar you use to
change the format, as seen in the screen shot here:
http://www.outlook-tips.net/images/toolbar.jpg

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)

Outlook Tips: http://www.outlook-tips.net/
Outlook & Exchange Solutions Center: http://www.slipstick.com

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MS

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Mar 13, 2004, 11:09:28 PM3/13/04

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"Diane Poremsky" <in...@cdolive.com> wrote in message
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> are you using outlook's editor or word? is the cursor in the message body
> when you check the format menu?

Out of curiosity, I just deselected the "use Word as e-mail editor" box. And
lo and behold, when I click "New", there is the default plain text message,
but if I click on the Format menu, now I have a choice to change that to
"Rich Text" or "HTML". (I'm not sure what the difference is.)

But---I find some advantages in using Word as the e-mail editor. The
auto-spell check as you type, changing "teh" to "the", etc., etc. I'd prefer
to keep it that way?

Why if Word is the e-mail editor, can one not choose in an individual
message whether it should be plain text or formatted? Any way to change my
settings so I can?

Aardvark

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Apr 27, 2004, 3:24:38 PM4/27/04

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Stick to html or plain text. Plain text can be read by anybody, whatever
their email service, however funky formatting? Forget it. HTML can also be
read by most everybody these days, but if someone is using old software or
has set security settings to block html mail then they won't get the
message. RTF (rich text format) is a MS Office format which allows some
formatting of your text. The down side (as I discovered )is that if you
attach documents whilst sending mails in an RTF format, then the recipient
may not be able to read them if they are not using Outlook, the attachments
become embedded files. Stick to plain text or html :-)

Danny

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