Read all standard mail in plain text option grayed out

[ngiven]

I want to read all of my mail in plain text format, but the checkbox
that determines this in Tools > Options > Preferences Tab > Email
Options is grayed out (and it currently is empty).

Is there anyway to override this setting in the registry somewhere? I
tried following http://support.microsoft.com/?id=307594 , slightly
changing the instructions for Outlook 2003, but it still didn't work.

-----------

Long Story:

I ask because I REALLY like Bottom Posting and prefixing lines with
">". However, I cannot figure out how to get Outlook 2003 to Prefix
each line of the original message with a ">" symbol UNLESS I use plain
text. Furthermore, if someone sends me an HTML email and I hit reply,
my email defaults to HTML and it doesn't prefix each line with ">",
instead it indents it. This is very frustrating because I have to
manually add in the ">" symbols OR I have to convert the message to
plain text, and then remove all the tabs.

Anyhow, my nirvana would be the following: I would like to send HTML
email AND have outlook prefix each line with ">", no matter what
format the original message is in.

If I can't have that, the second best thing would be able to easily
prefix each line with ">" and I wouldn't care what format the message
is in. (I would probably be able to do this, except that checkbox is
grayed out... hence my original question).

Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[ngiven]

Is there anyway to override this setting in the registry somewhere? I

tried followinghttp://support.microsoft.com/?id=307594, slightly
changing the instructions for Outlook 2003, but it still didn't work.

After some more sleuthing, I find the registry entry by searching for
ReadAsPlain. It turns out it was sitting in HKEY_USERS\..\Software
\Policies\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Options\Mail\

Anyhow, everything is in plain text, and when I hit "reply", it
properly prefixes my mail messages... so I'm happier now. If anyone
knows how to do this but have everything in HTML, that would be great.

Thanks!