Outlook 2003 e-mail question

[Joe McGuire]

I am using OL 2003 with Word 2003 as the editor. Can anybody direct me to
an explanation how Word uses a template for e-mail? I am confident there is
a template of some sort because I noticed a few styles showing up that are
only in my Word templates. I am guessing they got into the OL template or
whatever it is called by accident. I posted a similar but more detailed
question in the Word forum late last week but so far I have not gotten a
response. I am not sure which forum wokuld address a question that seems to
involve both programs.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

For Outlook 2003 and previous when using Word as the email editor, the same
normal.dot file is used and thus you'll see some of the same templates and
settings as well when composing an email. Outlook 2007 uses its own file
called normalemail.dotm

 

[Joe McGuire]

Thanks! That explains some of my problems. Why Microsoft sees fit to wrap
this stuff in a cocoon of mystery (or just make any explanation hard to
find) is, well, a mystery. I compared the styles in Normal.dot with those
that show up if I open a blank e-mail message. They match up perfectly
except that the e-mail has two additional styles. One is "E-mail Signature"
which I expect is added with my signature. But the other is "Followed
Hyperlink." A style "Hyperlink" shows up in both Normal.dot and any blank
e-mail. But the origins of Followed Hyperlink remain a mystery. in fact, I
am not quite sure what a followed hyperlink is. A hyperlink that I clicked
on and thus "followed?" And I am not sure why I might want that as a style.
Well. . . . whatever . . .

I am thinking of going to OL 2007 for a variety of functional improvements.
A separate e-mail template would be one more. But will OL 2007 work well
with Word 2003? I understand there are a lot of differences between Word
2003 and 2007. Lots of bells and whistles, of course. But not much mention
of honest-to-god practical improvements in the day-to-day slog of creating
and editing documents. So I'd rather not have to scale yet another
Microsoft learning curve without a compelling reason. Yes, I know, one would
think this question is better asked in the particularly excellent Word
forum. But those MVPs are obsessed with Word. This is great when you have
a vexing question--and they have answered a lot of them for me-- but for a
question like this I sometimes wonder if they have a forest-vs-trees
problem. And consider that none of those outstanding MVPs were able (or
willing) to address the question which you answered!