html showing in emails

[little on cape]

ever since i added a signature to one of my email accounts, the html (i may
not be using the proper term, see example below) is showing for all web
addresses and email addresses that appear in any emails i compose or receive.
i have tried erasing all signatures and redoing them; did not work. this is
unsettling because it distracts from the actual look of the email. i am
always worried that that is how it will appear on the recipients email.
i have html selected in the drop down box in a new message and i have Word
selected to be my email editor.

this starting happening recently and had not been the case with Outlook when
i started using it in 2004. i did not change any settings. below is an
example.
{HYPERLINK "http://www.nytimes.com"} or for email {HYPERLINK
"mailto:[email protected]"}

i hope all the bracketing shows up because when i tried to copy and paste
the example from an email into this area, the formating disappeared, so i
hand typed it.
iam using Outlook 2003 ver 11.8010.6568 sp2
i am using word 2003 ver11.6568.6568 SP2

thank you in advance.