Some font and span tags close prematurely in HTML Outlook messages

[Handsome Prints]

For the longest time I've wondered why replies to my e-mails often contain
sporadic font changes between my font and the recipient's default font. I
finally figured out the reason by saving one of my sent message as an html
file and looking at the source. I noticed that in several lines of the
message, the font and span tags in the HTML were closed prematurely. For
example, what SHOULD have been:

<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Michael Clayton (2007)(IMDB: 7.6)</SPAN></FONT></P>

was for some reason being formatted as:
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Michael</SPAN></FONT> Clayton (2007)(IMDB: 7.6)</P>

About 3 lines out of 10 were affected. Naturally on my end, when I type the
e-mail, everything looks perfectly fine. Could it be that in the affected
lines, that I am backspacing over some formatting tag? Or is this a some kind
of bug?

Any ideas as to why this is happening and how to solve it?

HP

 

[Brian Tillman]

For the longest time I've wondered why replies to my e-mails often
contain sporadic font changes between my font and the recipient's
default font. I finally figured out the reason by saving one of my
sent message as an html file and looking at the source. I noticed
that in several lines of the message, the font and span tags in the
HTML were closed prematurely.

What mail editor and Outlook version are you using?

 

[Handsome Prints]

I am using Outlook 2002 and Word 2002. Any ideas (aside from upgrading)?

 

[Brian Tillman]

I am using Outlook 2002 and Word 2002. Any ideas (aside from
upgrading)?

Sounds to me like a Word problem. Have you tried doing the same thing using
Outlook's editor?

 

[Handsome Prints]

You are right, it does seem to be a Word problem. I just did a test, and the
problem (font and class tags closing prematurely) no longer occurs occur when
I use Outlook's editor.

Not sure if this is relevant, but in MS Word, under
[Tools->Options->General->E-mail options] there are three checkboxes on the
screen under the heading HTML options. The first one (Filter HTML before
sending) is checked. The second (Rely on CSS for font formatting) is
unchecked. The third (Save smart tags in e-mail) is checked.

Perhaps checking the second box might be a workaround? Although it says that
the message will display differently in email programs that do not support
Cascading Style Sheets. Do most email programs support CSS nowadays?

Thanks for your help thus far!

PS: Should I repost this question in the Word newsgroup?

 

[Brian Tillman]

Perhaps checking the second box might be a workaround? Although it
says that the message will display differently in email programs that
do not support Cascading Style Sheets. Do most email programs support
CSS nowadays?

Frankly, I'd never use HTML in my messages, so I don't know.

PS: Should I repost this question in the Word newsgroup?

For now, it's fine here, but if you want to pursue the issue in a Word
group, please do. I suspect that Word by itself, not used as the Outlook
editor will still evince the problem.

 

[Handsome Prints]

I have in fact mulled over the possibility of going plain text... Can you
briefly tell me what the biggest drawbacks are of using HTML messages? Are
they really that troublesome even for today's modern e-mail clients? And
shouldn't the worst case scenario be that the messages are displayed in plain
text in e-mail clients that do not support HTML?

HP

 

[Brian Tillman]

I have in fact mulled over the possibility of going plain text... Can
you briefly tell me what the biggest drawbacks are of using HTML
messages? Are they really that troublesome even for today's modern
e-mail clients? And shouldn't the worst case scenario be that the
messages are displayed in plain text in e-mail clients that do not
support HTML?

The biggest drawback, in my opinion, is that HTML takes the focus off
conveying information and places it on presentation style, glitz, and
glitter. It also increases the size of outgoing messages unnecessarily.
Most times, HTML adds nothing to the message, to the message winds up twice
or more larger than it needs to be. Even with the availablility of
hight-speed Internet, a TON of people still use dial-up. I just see the
need _in most cases_ to use HTML. Naturally, there are times when the FORM
of the message does convey information and HTML is valuable in those cases,
but I don't believe that's true the majority of the time.

 

[Brian Tillman]

I just see the need _in most cases_ to use HTML.

The phrase "do not" is missing in this sentence. I just do not see the
need...

 

[Handsome Prints]

Thank you. BTW, here is the simplest way to bring about the problem.

1. Open a text file with two or three paragraphs of text.
2. Select the text and copy it.
3. Open a new document in MS Word and paste the text.
4. Run the Microsoft Script Editor and observe the broken font and span tags.

The only thing I can thing of is that there is a component in Word that has
become corrupt. I can't think of anything else. If it's not too much trouble,
can you let me know which microsoft.public.word newsgroup to post on? Some of
them seem infreqently visited. And if I don't receive a reply, are there any
other avenues aside from calling Microsoft?

Thanks again for your all your help.

 

[Handsome Prints]

OK, thankfully the situation is resolved. I'm not sure what it was that did
the trick, but I played around with:
1. in Word (Tools->Options->General->Web Options)
2. in Word (Tools->Options->General->E-mail Options)
3. possibly an option in the Microsoft Script Editor

One thing I HAVE changed was the option "Save smart tags in e-mail". It is
now unchecked. Although I seem to recall trying this a while back and it
didn't seem to help. Anyway, I'm pretty sure that it's one of the three
things above.

If anyone else has this same problem, I found it helpful to troubleshoot by
viewing a Word document in Microsoft Script Editor. Each time you play around
with an option, you can copy/paste text into a new Word document, then view
the HTML code that Word is generating in the Microsoft Script Editor. Note
that this component may not be installed by default with Office.

 

[Brian Tillman]

OK, thankfully the situation is resolved. I'm not sure what it was
that did the trick, but I played around with:
1. in Word (Tools->Options->General->Web Options)
2. in Word (Tools->Options->General->E-mail Options)
3. possibly an option in the Microsoft Script Editor

That's great. Too bad you didn't notice which change fixed the problem.

 

[Handsome Prints]

One thing that might shed some light on which option I changed is that now
when I look at the HTML code of the messages composed using Word as the
editor, there are NO font tags in the message. Before each line of text
started and ended (sometimes prematurely) with a font tag.