Outlook 2003 problems switching back to HTML email from plain text

[Geoff Hall]

A while back I selected “Read all standard mail in plain textâ€, then
discovered there were some sites/senders that used HTML email that became
unreadable because of the pictures/links they sent.
I want to read these emails, so I took off that option, but those domains
that sent me such email have not been allowed to revert to their full HTML
glory by Outlook.
I’ve tried “Detect & repair…restore default settings†and even
re-installing the whole office product (after deleting registry and
files/folders of any Outlook reference) to no avail.
I haven’t (yet) tried to blow away normal.dot to see if there are some
unexpected settings there.
I know the emails are being sent from the originating site in the
correct format because I can view them through a webmail connection. This
implies the conversion must be happening here at my end with Outlook. I’ve
searched the Microsoft knowledge base and all I can find are “beginner-typeâ€
references to “Read all standard mail in plain text†which are not
appropriate.
If there’s a registry setting that is not obvious, or a “hidden†file
(no files are really hidden with the right explorer settings) that saves this
information and won’t reset it, then I’d appreciate some advice. TIA

 

[Roady [MVP]]

"...not been allowed to revert to their full HTML..."

What do you see? Is there any formatting in it like color?

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
www.howto-outlook.com

Tips of the month:
-FREE tool; QuickMail. Create new Outlook items anywhere from within Windows
-Properly back-up and restore your Outlook data

 

[Geoff Hall]

Sorry, should have said that they are still treated as "read as plain text".
The weird part is that domains that have sent me email in HTML when the plain
text conversion was turned on continue to be converted to plain text. HTML
messages from new domains are not converted - they get through as complete
HTML.

"...not been allowed to revert to their full HTML..."

What do you see? Is there any formatting in it like color?

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
www.howto-outlook.com

Tips of the month:
-FREE tool; QuickMail. Create new Outlook items anywhere from within Windows
-Properly back-up and restore your Outlook data

-----

A while back I selected "Read all standard mail in plain text", then
discovered there were some sites/senders that used HTML email that became
unreadable because of the pictures/links they sent.
I want to read these emails, so I took off that option, but those domains
that sent me such email have not been allowed to revert to their full HTML
glory by Outlook.
I've tried "Detect & repair.restore default settings" and even
re-installing the whole office product (after deleting registry and
files/folders of any Outlook reference) to no avail.
I haven't (yet) tried to blow away normal.dot to see if there are some
unexpected settings there.
I know the emails are being sent from the originating site in the
correct format because I can view them through a webmail connection. This
implies the conversion must be happening here at my end with Outlook. I've
searched the Microsoft knowledge base and all I can find are
"beginner-type"
references to "Read all standard mail in plain text" which are not
appropriate.
If there's a registry setting that is not obvious, or a "hidden" file
(no files are really hidden with the right explorer settings) that saves
this
information and won't reset it, then I'd appreciate some advice. TIA

 

[I_hate_SPs_that_break_things]

Since installing SP2 for Office 2003, Outlook forces all html messages to be
viewed as plain text. A bar appears infroming me of this, with a option to
view the message as HTML. It wasn't that way before installing SP2, and I've
NEVER set the "read everything in plain text" box.

Does anyone know of a "fix" to that which SP2 broke?

 

[Vince Averello [MVP-Outlook]]

Are you referring to items in the Junk Mail folder or all folders?

The Junk Mail folder thing is a security feature. If it's for other folders,
check the option here: Tools menu > Options > Email. There's a setting to
read all standard mail as Plain Text.

"I_hate_SPs_that_break_things"