Outlook Email Users - Watch Out for HMTL Formatting Glitch!

By Hervey Allen (hervey@oregon.uoregon.edu)

Microsoft makes its Outlook email client available to users of both Microsoft Office and Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.x. While the email client included with Outlook has some very nice features, it also includes one that may cause problems when sending email to non-Outlook users.

By default, Outlook formats your email text with Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), the same language that's used to format web pages. While many email clients can read HTML-formatted messages, there are some notable exceptions.

For example, if you send email to anyone using Pine, your message will appear as an attachment and will be difficult to read. Even if your Pine readers save your message to a file and try to open it, they'll still have difficulty reading it. This is a significant drawback because Pine users are numerous -- they comprise a significant percentage of the thousands of people who read their email on DARKWING, GLADSTONE, or OREGON daily.

At this time, Outlook comes in two common versions, Outlook Express and Outlook 98. Below are some simple instructions for turning off Outlook's HTML formatting under Windows 95/98, and resetting it so that your email is sent as plain text -- which is what almost every email client expects.

Outlook Express

1. Start the program.
2. Go to the Tools menu.
3. Click on the Send tab.
4. In the "Mail sending format" box, check the "Plain Text" radio button instead of the HTML button. (The default settings under the "Settings. . ." button are fine.)
5. Click on "OK" or "Apply" and you should be able to send email without having it formatted as HTML.

Outlook 98

1. Start the program.
2. Go to the Tools menu and choose "Options. . ."
3. Click on the Mail Format tab.
4. There is a pull-down menu labeled "Send in this message format." Set this to "Plain Text."
5. The additional buttons labeled "Settings. . ." and "International Options. . ." should be fine as they are.
6. Now click "OK" or "Apply" and you should be able to send email without having it formatted as HTML.

Formatting Messages Individually: While it's possible to turn off HTML formatting on a per-message basis by choosing the Plain Text option in the Format menu whenever you start a message, we generally recommend that you send all email as plain text unless you're sure the person receiving your message can read any formatting you may wish to include.