Problem with signature formatting - Outlook 2003 & Exchange 2K

[Thundersmash]

Hello,

I'm running Outlook 2003 on my machine and am having an extremely irritating
problem with the signature formatting. I compose my messages in text and my
signature is text - no html. In the signature setup and in the compose
window of my messages my signature looks fine:

My Name
Position, Unit
Region
Company
Phone: 333.333.3333
Fax: 333.333.3333
Web: http://web.address.com

However, when I print or print preview, it looks like this:

My Name
Position, Unit Region Company
Phone: 333.333.3333
Fax: 333.333.3333
Web: http://web.address.com

So the second, third, and fourth lines get smashed together. I have
re-created the signature from scratch, and even tried importing the
signature from a text file. The same strange behavior happens. When I get
replies back from those I've sent messages to, I notice that they received
my signature with the screwed up formatting as well.

This looks like a bug to me .. I've taken a screenshot of the compose
message screen with the signature looking fine, saved out an Adobe Acrobat
of the print preview, and saved out a reply message from someone that shows
my signature with the screwed up formatting. I called MS Technical Support
to try and find someone I could send these documents to, but I was asked to
charge a $200+ fee as I'm connected to an Exchange2K server.

Any ideas? Is this a known issue? I searched Google for a few phrases I
thought may pick this up and haven't seen anything relevant yet.

Thanks!

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Add three spaces to the beginning of each line. This should prevent
Outlook's automatic plain text line reformatting from touching those lines
on recipients' machines. (I'm guessing that the reformatting also kicks in
during print preview.)

 

[Thundersmash]

Hi Sue,

You're right .. after adding three spaces, the print preview looks like it
should.

I'm confused why there is any Microsoft plain text reformatting occurring.
Is there another way to get around this without indenting my signature three
spaces on each line? It may look strange considering my coworkers don't
indent theirs. If I shorten the length of my second line (Position, Unit)
it looks like the print preview works, without indenting. My (Position,
Unit) is 48 characters including spaces. Is that length somehow triggering
Microsoft plain text reformatting? Why the fourth line gets pulled into
this reformatting is also confusing to me ..

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Plain text reformatting occurs on the Outlook 2002/3 client whenever there
are two adjacent lines of plain text without any indicator that they should
be kept as separate paragraphs. Such indicators include tabular content,
three or more spaces at the beginning, or a blank line between text lines.

The line length might have some bearing on this feature's functionality, but
I've never done any testing in that area.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Thundersmash]

Hi Sue,

I added three spaces to the end of my second line that had 48 characters,
and print preview looks fine now. It looks like the spaces work at the
beginning or end of a line, at least in my case.

Thanks for the advice!