Extra line breaks in outlook 2007

[Grandmasterfuzz]

I have outlook 2007.

When I type an email in plain text it looks fine, but sometimes when
received by others extra linebreaks have been added after each "enter". This
does not happen with all recipients, just some.

For instance, I manager a yahoo group. When I compose an email to the group
it looks fine, but when I receive the email it is double spaced. I spoke with
yahoo about this and they told me it is a Microsoft problem. Is there
something I can do to have emails arrive looking the same way that I composed
them?

I read somewhere that if I shift+enter instead of enter that will solve the
problem. It seems ridiculous that users should all have to do this every
time. Is there an easier way to correct this problem permanently?

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

"Enter" in HTML = <p> with is 'double spacing' in rendered in HTML. There
isn't an extra space, its just how html rendered the paragraph you'll need
to use shift+enter if you want to use the <br> tag. Or just use 1 Enter, not
2 (most people use two for the extra white space in their client).

This should not a problem with plain text - unless the client (i.e., yahoo
or the webmail client) converts the line breaks to the <p> tag, not the <br>
tag.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]





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[Grandmasterfuzz]

Thanks for responding to my inquiry Diane. But I'm afriad I don't understand
what you're trying to tell me. I'm not using HTML, just Rich Text. And what
do you mean by <p> and <br> tag ?

Since I don't know what program the person I am sending an email to, I can't
very well determine for each email whether I should be putting one or two
enters at the end of each paragraph. So I don't think that works as a
solution.

Does this happen to everyone who uses outlook 2007? Is Microsoft planning to
fix this?

"Enter" in HTML = <p> with is 'double spacing' in rendered in HTML. There
isn't an extra space, its just how html rendered the paragraph you'll need
to use shift+enter if you want to use the <br> tag. Or just use 1 Enter, not
2 (most people use two for the extra white space in their client).

This should not a problem with plain text - unless the client (i.e., yahoo
or the webmail client) converts the line breaks to the <p> tag, not the <br>
tag.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]





EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
(e-mail address removed)

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.

I have outlook 2007.

When I type an email in plain text it looks fine, but sometimes when
received by others extra linebreaks have been added after each "enter".
This
does not happen with all recipients, just some.

For instance, I manager a yahoo group. When I compose an email to the
group
it looks fine, but when I receive the email it is double spaced. I spoke
with
yahoo about this and they told me it is a Microsoft problem. Is there
something I can do to have emails arrive looking the same way that I
composed
them?

I read somewhere that if I shift+enter instead of enter that will solve
the
problem. It seems ridiculous that users should all have to do this every
time. Is there an easier way to correct this problem permanently?

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

Don't use rich text - use either HTML or plain text. Rich text can only be
used by other outlook users and usually gets converted to html when you send
it.

When you view the source code for a web page, you'll notice paragraphs are
marked by the <p> tag and line breaks by the <br> tag. The <p> tag adds
more white space between paragraphs, <br> doesn't. It's the same with
email. some clients use <br> tags instead of <p> for paragraph breaks while
outlook uses <p> unless you use shift+enter.

AFAIK, Microsoft is not planning on fixing it since nothing is broken - they
are sending proper HTML. Yes, it happens to everyone, but since the problem
is only with webmail users (like gmail or yahoo) it's not a big deal as long
as the message is readable.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]





EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
(e-mail address removed)

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.

Thanks for responding to my inquiry Diane. But I'm afriad I don't
understand
what you're trying to tell me. I'm not using HTML, just Rich Text. And
what
do you mean by <p> and <br> tag ?

Since I don't know what program the person I am sending an email to, I
can't
very well determine for each email whether I should be putting one or two
enters at the end of each paragraph. So I don't think that works as a
solution.

Does this happen to everyone who uses outlook 2007? Is Microsoft planning
to
fix this?

"Enter" in HTML = <p> with is 'double spacing' in rendered in HTML.
There
isn't an extra space, its just how html rendered the paragraph you'll
need
to use shift+enter if you want to use the <br> tag. Or just use 1 Enter,
not
2 (most people use two for the extra white space in their client).

This should not a problem with plain text - unless the client (i.e.,
yahoo
or the webmail client) converts the line breaks to the <p> tag, not the
<br>
tag.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]





EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
(e-mail address removed)

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point
your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.

I have outlook 2007.

When I type an email in plain text it looks fine, but sometimes when
received by others extra linebreaks have been added after each "enter".
This
does not happen with all recipients, just some.

For instance, I manager a yahoo group. When I compose an email to the
group
it looks fine, but when I receive the email it is double spaced. I
spoke
with
yahoo about this and they told me it is a Microsoft problem. Is there
something I can do to have emails arrive looking the same way that I
composed
them?

I read somewhere that if I shift+enter instead of enter that will solve
the
problem. It seems ridiculous that users should all have to do this
every
time. Is there an easier way to correct this problem permanently?

 

[AaronD]

It would help you a bit to understand the basics of HTML and the difference
between <br> and <p> tags. The <br> simply breaks the line to the next. The
<p> tag will break a group (or block) of (usually) multiple lines of text and
leave a blank line afterwards.
When you are using the internet (HTML) to read an HTML email from Outlook it
will do its job and respond accordingly (extra line / <p> tag).
The source of the problem, in my opinion, is Outlook. Pressing enter while
creating an email should only go to the next line <br>. Pressing enter twice
should be <br><br>.

You would think that if while composing an email in Outlook and it is
encoding each enter key as a <p> then a black space should be between each
line.

Since Outlook is going to use HTML tags then they should be compliant to
Internet Standards.
......JUST MY HUMBLE OPINION

 

[AaronD]

P.S.
The br tag is self closing. You only need one: <br />
But the p tag is NOT. The p tag always has a beginning tag <p> and text
between then close it with </p>.
So when Outlook just uses the <p> tag only, they are not using the HTML
language properly.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

Outlook uses the closing P tag.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]





EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
(e-mail address removed)

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

The br tag is self closing. You only need one: <br />
But the p tag is NOT. The p tag always has a beginning tag <p> and text
between then close it with </p>.
So when Outlook just uses the <p> tag only, they are not using the HTML
language properly.

I looked at the HTML standards on line. </p> is not required if the
paragraph is enclosed in another block element like <div>...</div> or when
followed by another element. By definition, an element closes all
preceeding unclosed start tags up to the matching start tag. This is from
the HTML V4.0 specification.

 

[AaronD]

Yes, closing the p tag in HTML4 is only optional. I should have said XHTML...
which has been a recommeded standard for almost 9 years. The issue is the
choice to use <p> instead of <br>.

In Outlooks defense...
Compare the industry standard web design program Adobe Dreamweaver in design
view. When pressing enter in design view a paragraph tag <p>...</p> is
created (blank link between paragraphs). When pressing shift-enter a break
tag <br /> is created ('carriage' return).

So Outlook is essentially acting the same way.

Although, I found a contradiction in how Microsoft handles this. When you
save a Word document as a web page it adds the <p> tags but gives them a
margin of 0. Which removes the blank line.

So, is Microsoft aware that there shouldn't be a blank line after each enter
keystroke???

Can Outlook fix this inconsistency by using <br> instead?

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

So, is Microsoft aware that there shouldn't be a blank line after each
enter
keystroke???

Can Outlook fix this inconsistency by using <br> instead?

Who knows? I have no way to contact anyone within Microsoft responsible for
the generation or rendering of HTML within Outlook.

 

[regan.m.ross]

On Dec 2, 7:26 am, "Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]"

This spacing problem is driving me CRAZY! I'm about ready to switch
email programs because of it. Any tips/suggestions would be awesome!

Regan.

 

[AaronD]

I have no control over my company using Outlook. In fact this small annoyance
does not nearly outweigh the advantages of Outlook.
But using Outlook for my personal email does not seem to make sense anymore.
Since I have many different email addresses I am making an attempt at using
Windows Live http://get.live.com/.
It seems to work well so far. I have 3 different emails enabled to
receive/send within Windows Live.
Maybe this is an option if you are wanting to move away from Outlook. I
wonder if the double-spacing issue will still exist?

 

[kmehta]

Who decides whats broken?

Is there any solution to this problem apart from using Plain text / using shift+enter?

I understand where this problem arises from... and it may partly have to with other editors / webmail... but it just sucks that outlook doesn't give me an option such as "change from <p> to <br>" or "dont god damn add two Enters when I only pressed it once".

If anyone else has a solution apart from shift+enters please let us know.