want all outgoing messages to use html format

[calvinburnes]

hello,

running outlook 2003 with sp3 under windows xp. outlook is setup to
send new email messages using html format which i like. the issue i
have is that when i reply to a message that uses text format (rather
than html), the reply message also defaults to text. is there any way
to change this default so that all my messages (both new as well as
replies, including replies to text email messages) go out using html
format? i understand why outlook is setup this way, but i still want
to change it so all my outgoing email uses html format.

thanks.

 

[Gordon]

hello,

running outlook 2003 with sp3 under windows xp. outlook is setup to
send new email messages using html format which i like. the issue i
have is that when i reply to a message that uses text format (rather
than html), the reply message also defaults to text. is there any way
to change this default so that all my messages (both new as well as
replies, including replies to text email messages) go out using html
format? i understand why outlook is setup this way, but i still want
to change it so all my outgoing email uses html format.

thanks.

There is, manually. But consider this - do you not think that people use
Plain Text for their emails for a reason? Might it be that they don't WANT
HTML replies? Not only is it impolite to change the format of the reply, but
it's actually arrogant as well.

 

[glen.bramlitt]

There is, manually. But consider this - do you not think that people use
Plain Text for their emails for a reason? Might it be that they don't WANT
HTML replies? Not only is it impolite to change the format of the reply, but
it's actually arrogant as well.

--
Asking a question?
Please tell us the version of the application you are asking about,
your OS, Service Pack level
and the FULL contents of any error message(s)

Is there something so offensive about HTML that would cause a person
to be taken aback? Yes, html messages are more in byte size, yes they
support graphics which some people don't care for...but don't compare
html messaging to being arrogant as if to say, "haha...i'm going to
change your email format all around just because I can!" Don't akin
changing formatting to plagiarism. Just my two cents

 

[calvinburnes]

There is, manually. But consider this - do you not think that people use
Plain Text for their emails for a reason? Might it be that they don't WANT
HTML replies? Not only is it impolite to change the format of the reply, but
it's actually arrogant as well.

--
Asking a question?
Please tell us the version of the application you are asking about,
your OS, Service Pack level
and the FULL contents of any error message(s)

i do understand that it might be impolite to reply to a text message
in html, but i still would like know if i can setup outlook to
rautomatically reply to all email messages in html. this is not for
me, i am a computer consultant and it is for one of my clients. i
have explained to her that this might be impolite, but she still wants
to setup outlook this way. does anyone know if there is a way to
setup outlook to do this automatically? i know how to do it manually
for each reply. thanks.

 

[Gordon]

There is, manually. But consider this - do you not think that people use
Plain Text for their emails for a reason? Might it be that they don't WANT
HTML replies? Not only is it impolite to change the format of the reply,
but
it's actually arrogant as well.

--
Asking a question?
Please tell us the version of the application you are asking about,
your OS, Service Pack level
and the FULL contents of any error message(s)

Is there something so offensive about HTML that would cause a person
to be taken aback? Yes, html messages are more in byte size, yes they
support graphics which some people don't care for...but don't compare
html messaging to being arrogant as if to say, "haha...i'm going to
change your email format all around just because I can!" Don't akin
changing formatting to plagiarism. Just my two cents

You just don't get it, do you? Nothing to do with HTML being "offensive" at
all.

 

[Gordon]

There is, manually. But consider this - do you not think that people use
Plain Text for their emails for a reason? Might it be that they don't WANT
HTML replies? Not only is it impolite to change the format of the reply,
but
it's actually arrogant as well.

--
Asking a question?
Please tell us the version of the application you are asking about,
your OS, Service Pack level
and the FULL contents of any error message(s)

i do understand that it might be impolite to reply to a text message
in html, but i still would like know if i can setup outlook to
rautomatically reply to all email messages in html. this is not for
me, i am a computer consultant and it is for one of my clients. i
have explained to her that this might be impolite, but she still wants
to setup outlook this way. does anyone know if there is a way to
setup outlook to do this automatically? i know how to do it manually
for each reply. thanks.

You might like to tell your client that if she is replying to BUSINESS
emails in plain text using HTML then I personally would not do business with
her. The customer is always right....besides, the recipients may well just
see all the raw HTML code if their email client is set to not use HTML at
all...
And in any case I just can't see what the problem is. Why the obsession with
using HTML? Email is a TEXT communication medium..

 

[glen.bramlitt]

You just don't get it, do you? Nothing to do with HTML being "offensive" at
all.

--
Asking a question?
Please tell us the version of the application you are asking about,
your OS, Service Pack level
and the FULL contents of any error message(s)

You seem bitter. The guy just had a simple question and you went all
"How Dare You!?" on him. Why couldn't you have just said, "here's how
to do [whatever]...btw, consider using text instead of html as most
people prefer text over html."

Also, your comment about "Why the obsession with using HTML..." makes
me wonder if you still use a TracFone and you complain about all the
bells and whistles on the iPhone. People use HTML because it's there
and they like it. I have no problem with people telling me their
opinions about one format over the other, but you don't have to ream
him out just because he asked a question.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

does anyone know if there is a way to setup outlook to do this
automatically?

Outlook does not have the ability to always reply in HTML. Perhaps you
could write VBA code to do it.

 

[VanguardLH]

hello,

running outlook 2003 with sp3 under windows xp. outlook is setup to
send new email messages using html format which i like. the issue i
have is that when i reply to a message that uses text format (rather
than html), the reply message also defaults to text. is there any way
to change this default so that all my messages (both new as well as
replies, including replies to text email messages) go out using html
format? i understand why outlook is setup this way, but i still want
to change it so all my outgoing email uses html format.

thanks.

Oh, so you want to be rude to a sender by sending them an e-mail in a
format that they obviously chose not to use and may not be able to read?
If you don't want to write in plain-text mode for your reply to someone
that obviously wants to read in plain-text mode then simply don't reply.

Yes, you can configure Outlook to force a particular encoding for your
outbound e-mails. However, you will then seen as being rude by those
who want to send and receive (your replies) in plain text mode. Well,
by being rude, expect some of your plain-text-sending recipients to add
your to their Blocked Senders list.

So, when someone sends you an e-mail in English, but because your native
language is, say, Spanish, do you compose your reply in Spanish, too,
knowing the recipient won't be able to read your reply?

 

[VanguardLH]

Is there something so offensive about HTML that would cause a person
to be taken aback? Yes, html messages are more in byte size, yes they
support graphics which some people don't care for...but don't compare
html messaging to being arrogant as if to say, "haha...i'm going to
change your email format all around just because I can!" Don't akin
changing formatting to plagiarism. Just my two cents

And if I chose to format my replies in some proprietary but globally
usable document format (albeit perhaps by adding software installs)
then, gee, everyone should accept my e-mails because of my choice
despite the sender's own choice of format. Well, that means everyone
replying to your e-mails should also change the format just to piss you
off, too.

Not every has access to their own e-mail client at all times. You may
get stuck having to read your e-mails using a client that doesn't
support HTML. For example, you may not be able to poll the mail servers
and the webmail interface doesn't work right now in your web browser but
you might have a shell account to use a command console to use 'mail' or
another e-mail client to look at your e-mails but that doesn't render
HTML-formatted e-mails and simply shows it all as text.

HTML will always DOUBLE the size of your e-mails: there's one plain-text
MIME part and another HTML MIME part for HTML-formatted e-mails. That
means longer download times for double-sized e-mails. Not everyone has
high-speed Internet access as do you so a 15KB message that bloats to
over 30KB is no big deal for you. There are still LOTS of users on
dial-up. They don't appreciate you bloating your e-mails will fluff
that they can't read or cause them to consume more of their quota
minutes for their dial-up access. Your one e-mail that is rude in
bloating the size of your reply is still probably no biggie for the
dial-up user for just ONE reply from you but will quickly become a
nuisance as the size of your e-mails go up, as you send them more
wrong-formatted replies, or if others are just as rude as are you and
they get lots of e-mails which results in them doubling the consumption
of the dial-up connection time quota.

Responding in a different format than used by the original sender is
rude! It is also deliberately choosing to be ignorant and wanting to
see your pretty e-mails as you like to see them without regard to what
the recipient wants or what they can handle.

The OP says they "understand" the choice in Outlook to use the same
format as the sender when returning a reply. Their "understanding" is
"I don't give a damn about what you like or can use so you will get what
what I like". As a recipient to such a sender, I'd probably give them 2
warnings and thereafter upon further abuse would simply block this rude
user and send them an e-mail telling them that no further e-mails will
be accepted from them.

If you refuse to use the same format in a reply as was used by the
sender then just don't bother replying.

 

[glen.bramlitt]

Oh, so you want to be rude to a sender by sending them an e-mail in a
format that they obviously chose not to use and may not be able to read?
If you don't want to write in plain-text mode for your reply to someone
that obviously wants to read in plain-text mode then simply don't reply.

Yes, you can configure Outlook to force a particular encoding for your
outbound e-mails.  However, you will then seen as being rude by those
who want to send and receive (your replies) in plain text mode.  Well,
by being rude, expect some of your plain-text-sending recipients to add
your to their Blocked Senders list.  

So, when someone sends you an e-mail in English, but because your native
language is, say, Spanish, do you compose your reply in Spanish, too,
knowing the recipient won't be able to read your reply?

This is crazy! I never realized the amount of people that get
offensive when you change their formatting. This is actually
interesting. I seriously never thought twice about it.

So if people get offended and view repliers as rude when their emails
are returned in HTML instead of the original text format...does that
mean I can call you rude for changing my HTML format to text when you
reply back to me? Now I know those of you HTML bashers will
immediately respond with "I just wouldn't reply back to you in the
first place.", however, what would you do if the IRS sent you an HTML
email with some important information about your taxes? Would you
choose not to open it because it was HTML? Would you respond back by
changing the format to text because that is what you prefer? If so,
wouldn't you then be a hypocrite because you are doing to their emails
what you don't want them to do to yours? Might the original IRS
sender be insulted because you changed his HTML format to text? He
gets upset. He throws your paperwork to the bottom of the pile and
you don't see your refund for 10 months. All because you offended him
by changing the format of his email which *he* religiously uses HTML
for. In the grand scheme, does it matter? I'm just curious as to the
real reason why people get offended when you change the format. Okay,
maybe not offended, but annoyed? Irritated? Is it a hassle? My
email servers have never dealt me a situation where HTML has caused a
problem. In fact, whenever I've sent HTML emails and gotten replies
in text, nothing was wrong. I never got hate mails or requests
saying, "hey, next time, can you *please* send a text email? It makes
life so much better." They've never *not* replied back to me for
changing the format. I'm just curious.

 

[VanguardLH]

i do understand that it might be impolite to reply to a text message
in html, but i still would like know if i can setup outlook to
rautomatically reply to all email messages in html. this is not for
me, i am a computer consultant and it is for one of my clients. i
have explained to her that this might be impolite, but she still wants
to setup outlook this way. does anyone know if there is a way to
setup outlook to do this automatically? i know how to do it manually
for each reply. thanks.

Oh yeah, one of t-h-o-s-e wannabe "consultants".

Have your client ask for herself in these newsgroups. She'll get the
responses for free. No middleman and no fee.

Meanwhile, start boning up on Outlook by reading Dummies books, lurking
in newsgroups, Googling, and studying for the MSAP or MSAS certs
(http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/msbc/requirements/default.mspx).
In Googling "+outlook +write +html +text +addon", one matched site that
contains a useful article for you is at http://www.outlook-how-to.com/.
Which article is related to your query is obvious and a link to it is
right on their home page (for now). You could then show that article to
your client to assuage their disgust that what they want to do in
Outlook is not an innate feature of Outlook and that the client will
have to acquire a free or paid add-on to provide that extended
functionality.

So do you do VBA programming, too? There's another avenue of charging a
fee to your client to provide functionality to extend the base features
provided by Outlook. There might be something available over at
http://www.outlook-code.com/ that you could, um, "borrow" and pretend is
your own effort. If you don't know VBA, that site has a library page
that lists various books on teaching you. They also have forums there
so someone might be willing to invest the time to give you something
(but, please, don't charge the client for someone else's work).

 

[glen.bramlitt]

And if I chose to format my replies in some proprietary but globally
usable document format (albeit perhaps by adding software installs)
then, gee, everyone should accept my e-mails because of my choice
despite the sender's own choice of format.  Well, that means everyone
replying to your e-mails should also change the format just to piss you
off, too.

Not every has access to their own e-mail client at all times.  You may
get stuck having to read your e-mails using a client that doesn't
support HTML.  For example, you may not be able to poll the mail servers
and the webmail interface doesn't work right now in your web browser but
you might have a shell account to use a command console to use 'mail' or
another e-mail client to look at your e-mails but that doesn't render
HTML-formatted e-mails and simply shows it all as text.  

HTML will always DOUBLE the size of your e-mails: there's one plain-text
MIME part and another HTML MIME part for HTML-formatted e-mails.  That
means longer download times for double-sized e-mails.  Not everyone has
high-speed Internet access as do you so a 15KB message that bloats to
over 30KB is no big deal for you.  There are still LOTS of users on
dial-up.  They don't appreciate you bloating your e-mails will fluff
that they can't read or cause them to consume more of their quota
minutes for their dial-up access.  Your one e-mail that is rude in
bloating the size of your reply is still probably no biggie for the
dial-up user for just ONE reply from you but will quickly become a
nuisance as the size of your e-mails go up, as you send them more
wrong-formatted replies, or if others are just as rude as are you and
they get lots of e-mails which results in them doubling the consumption
of the dial-up connection time quota.

Responding in a different format than used by the original sender is
rude!  It is also deliberately choosing to be ignorant and wanting to
see your pretty e-mails as you like to see them without regard to what
the recipient wants or what they can handle.

The OP says they "understand" the choice in Outlook to use the same
format as the sender when returning a reply.  Their "understanding" is
"I don't give a damn about what you like or can use so you will get what
what I like".  As a recipient to such a sender, I'd probably give them 2
warnings and thereafter upon further abuse would simply block this rude
user and send them an e-mail telling them that no further e-mails will
be accepted from them.

If you refuse to use the same format in a reply as was used by the
sender then just don't bother replying.

But that's biased. How am I supposed to know that you completely
LOATHE HTML messages - unless you tell me? Do you automatically sign
all of your emails, "Sincerely, [so and so] PS - out of kindness,
please do not reformat this message" ?? No college class involving MS
Office, email, or computers in general has EVER said that one of the
sins of emailing is Thou shalt not change thy senders email format.
If HTML formatting is such a burden...am I to assume that some teenage
hacker sat in his bedroom and developed HTML format email messages
(just to be rude); then somehow convinced Bill Gates to include this
in his MS Office packaging through some sort of hypnotic HTML coding;
and now we are forced to live with such memory sucking rubbish that
people use just because it "looks pretty"? When you talk about the
offensiveness of using HTML messages, you make it sound like you made
a bowl of punch and then I ruined it by spiking it with rum.

The point is, people don't know you think HTML formatting is
offensive. Maybe I think text formatting is offensive. It's bland.
The screen prints don't show up in the message when my team member
wants to share something. Instead, now I have to download the
attachment. A link someone sent me isn't sent as a hyperlink. Now I
have to highlight, copy, and paste. It goes both ways - but I don't
bash people for using text formatting.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

The point is, people don't know you think HTML formatting is

offensive. Maybe I think text formatting is offensive. It's bland.
The screen prints don't show up in the message when my team member
wants to share something. Instead, now I have to download the
attachment. A link someone sent me isn't sent as a hyperlink. Now I
have to highlight, copy, and paste. It goes both ways - but I don't
bash people for using text formatting.

It's not about bashing any format - but generally speaking, when someone
chooses to use a specific format there was a reason for it and the recipient
should honor it when they reply. For example, if I send you a message from
my blackberry it will be plain text. Your replying in HTML format is a
pointless waste of effort as I won't see the fancy formatting on my BB.
Fortunately, I have an unlimited data plan so the extra size of the message
won't affect my cost - it will help to fill up my device storage.

There are times when it makes sense to change the format - such as to send a
bulleted list. Or to highlight and comment on sections of the message - its
easier to do in html. But these are fairly rare and don't justify changing
the format for *every* message.

FWIW, on your hyperlink example, hyperlinks work just fine in plain text -
actually a pasted link should always work in plain text - if you paste into
html and don't press space or enter it will not be clickable.

--
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.

And if I chose to format my replies in some proprietary but globally
usable document format (albeit perhaps by adding software installs)
then, gee, everyone should accept my e-mails because of my choice
despite the sender's own choice of format. Well, that means everyone
replying to your e-mails should also change the format just to piss you
off, too.

Not every has access to their own e-mail client at all times. You may
get stuck having to read your e-mails using a client that doesn't
support HTML. For example, you may not be able to poll the mail servers
and the webmail interface doesn't work right now in your web browser but
you might have a shell account to use a command console to use 'mail' or
another e-mail client to look at your e-mails but that doesn't render
HTML-formatted e-mails and simply shows it all as text.

HTML will always DOUBLE the size of your e-mails: there's one plain-text
MIME part and another HTML MIME part for HTML-formatted e-mails. That
means longer download times for double-sized e-mails. Not everyone has
high-speed Internet access as do you so a 15KB message that bloats to
over 30KB is no big deal for you. There are still LOTS of users on
dial-up. They don't appreciate you bloating your e-mails will fluff
that they can't read or cause them to consume more of their quota
minutes for their dial-up access. Your one e-mail that is rude in
bloating the size of your reply is still probably no biggie for the
dial-up user for just ONE reply from you but will quickly become a
nuisance as the size of your e-mails go up, as you send them more
wrong-formatted replies, or if others are just as rude as are you and
they get lots of e-mails which results in them doubling the consumption
of the dial-up connection time quota.

Responding in a different format than used by the original sender is
rude! It is also deliberately choosing to be ignorant and wanting to
see your pretty e-mails as you like to see them without regard to what
the recipient wants or what they can handle.

The OP says they "understand" the choice in Outlook to use the same
format as the sender when returning a reply. Their "understanding" is
"I don't give a damn about what you like or can use so you will get what
what I like". As a recipient to such a sender, I'd probably give them 2
warnings and thereafter upon further abuse would simply block this rude
user and send them an e-mail telling them that no further e-mails will
be accepted from them.

If you refuse to use the same format in a reply as was used by the
sender then just don't bother replying.

But that's biased. How am I supposed to know that you completely
LOATHE HTML messages - unless you tell me? Do you automatically sign
all of your emails, "Sincerely, [so and so] PS - out of kindness,
please do not reformat this message" ?? No college class involving MS
Office, email, or computers in general has EVER said that one of the
sins of emailing is Thou shalt not change thy senders email format.
If HTML formatting is such a burden...am I to assume that some teenage
hacker sat in his bedroom and developed HTML format email messages
(just to be rude); then somehow convinced Bill Gates to include this
in his MS Office packaging through some sort of hypnotic HTML coding;
and now we are forced to live with such memory sucking rubbish that
people use just because it "looks pretty"? When you talk about the
offensiveness of using HTML messages, you make it sound like you made
a bowl of punch and then I ruined it by spiking it with rum.

The point is, people don't know you think HTML formatting is
offensive. Maybe I think text formatting is offensive. It's bland.
The screen prints don't show up in the message when my team member
wants to share something. Instead, now I have to download the
attachment. A link someone sent me isn't sent as a hyperlink. Now I
have to highlight, copy, and paste. It goes both ways - but I don't
bash people for using text formatting.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

Outlook doesn't offer any native way to do it - you could tell her *she*
needs to write a macro to change all plain text mail to HTML.

--
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.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

As an FYI - the site you found with your google is plagiarizing my site -
http://www.outlook-tips.net/beginner/replyformat.htm

--
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.

 

[VanguardLH]

As an FYI - the site you found with your google is plagiarizing my site -
http://www.outlook-tips.net/beginner/replyformat.htm

I see that all their articles have "fengyq" listed as the author which
is the site's owner. Yep, another Chinese ripoff site. Lots of spam
from there, and lots of theft. Internet is a place of rampant theft by
everyone.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

Yep. And at least one other article there was taken from my sites. Sad,
considering he only has a few articles. (but lots of advertising)

--
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.