Outlook 2002 SP3 - Replying in HTML to a plain-text message

[Gataje]

A lot of times, for whatever reason, people will send me messages in
plain-text, even though they know that I can receive message formatted
messages. That's fine. What drives me nuts is that when I hit "Reply," the
response message is in plain text by default as well, no matter what I do.

I wouldn't mind so much except that, to reply in-line, I have to either add
the ">" symbol or switch to HTML (I don't know whether or not all of my
contacts can receive Outlook Rich Text, but I can reasonably assume that they
can all read HTML) and indent the paragraphs manually.

I tried double-clicking their e-mail addresses in their "Contacts" entry,
but the only options there are Plain Text or Outlook Rich Text. Besides,
even if I switch it to "Outlook Rich Text," a reply message to a message sent
in Plain Text still gets formatted in Plain Text by default.

Any help would be much appreciated!

 

[marimouse]

I have exactly the same question. I can't find anything anyplace to help.
I've been using Outlook Express for years, and it's easy there. But I have a
PC phone now, and it requires Outlook.\

 

[SgtRich]

A lot of times, for whatever reason, people will send me messages in
plain-text, even though they know that I can receive message formatted
messages. That's fine. What drives me nuts is that when I hit "Reply," the
response message is in plain text by default as well, no matter what I do.

By default, Outlook ALWAYS uses the original message's format in your reply.
When someone sends you a message in plain text, chances are that they are
doing so to avoid having to deal with HTML. This default behavior cannot be
changed.

You can manually change your reply to HTML but it is considered rude.

 

[Brian Tillman]

A lot of times, for whatever reason, people will send me messages in
plain-text, even though they know that I can receive message formatted
messages. That's fine. What drives me nuts is that when I hit
"Reply," the response message is in plain text by default as well, no
matter what I do.

WHen someone sends you Plain Text, that's a reasonable sign they don't want
you to reply with anything else. Why would you mistreat your senders by
replying to the ones wanting Plain Text with the horror known as HTML? It
adds volume to a message but rarely information and isn't the exchange of
information what mail is all about?

I wouldn't mind so much except that, to reply in-line, I have to
either add the ">" symbol or switch to HTML (I don't know whether or
not all of my contacts can receive Outlook Rich Text, but I can
reasonably assume that they can all read HTML) and indent the
paragraphs manually.

Get yourself a copy of Outlook-Quotefix:
http://home.in.tum.de/~jain/software/outlook-quotefix/