outlook font changes

[rosa]

I use Outlook 2003. At work I receive a lot of messages in plain text. I want to reply in HTML format to enable more features. As soon as I change the reply message to HTML, I get the default font I want for my part of the message, but everthing I received in plain text (i.e. the received message) changes automatically to a hideous Times New Roman 10 which is very un-asthetic and unreadable when i go to print it out, let alone read on the screen.

Aside from getting others to not use plain text, how can I control the change in the text of the received message when I convert to HTML format??
Please help.

[Rob Pomeroy]

Before I answer your question, just a few caveats: the email system is not really designed with "pretty email" in mind.  Yes, it can be done, but there is no widespread agreement on standards, and therefore you cannot guarantee that the email you compose will look anything like the email the recipient reads.  From Outlook to Outlook, yes, things will remain much the same.  But Outlook (like all blasted Microsoft products) does things in a proprietary way.

I use Mozilla Thunderbird as my main email client, because it has some features (security and better multiple-account handling) that Outlook has traditionally lacked.  I regularly receive emails from people using Outlook that I know don't look the way the sender intended.  And vice versa.  (Handling of quoting is a prime example of differences between email clients.)

This is why plain text is good.  You can't really go wrong with it.  It's clean, efficient, and using plain text email is a good discipline because it helps you focus on the message rather than the fluff.

*dismount soapbox*

Check out the follow option in Outlook: Tools-->Options-->Mail format-->Fonts.  If that doesn't do the trick, you can investigate using custom stationery.

I have not explored any of this stuff much, personally, but if you use Outlook's online help you'll find a few useful pointers.

[rosa]

Thanks for the advice.
I really am not looking for pretty email (hence I don't use word as the editor) but just trying to avoid hideous email. I have tried all the standard options as you suggest. it just doesn't help.
Do you think the fact that I am on a multi-lingual compter could have anything to do with it? Hebrew and English (Hebrew being different characters, right to left, etc). I really doubt it, but I wish I could control better what is happening to the original message when I reply.
Thanks

[soybean]

I also have Outlook 2003.  I did some testing after reading your message and find that I can reply to a message with the format for the original message being retained in the reply.  So, unless there's something peculiar about your multi-lingual computer that affects this, I think the cause probably lies somewhere in your settings or the procedure you use to reply to a message.  

By the way, your default font setting replying and forwarding must be set to Times New Roman, which is why you see that font when you initially start a reply.  You can change that by going to Tools, Options, Mail Format, click on Fonts, and then click on Choose Font (under "When replying and forwarding").  

Since you say you change to HTML format when replying, you must have Plain Text set as your default format.  I suggest you change your default format to HTML and see whether that eliminates the problem.  To change the defualt setting for this, go to Tools, Options, Mail Format, and set HTML in the "Compose in the message format" box.  

Exactly what procedure do you use when replying to a message?  Do you click on the message and then click on the Reply button on the main toolbar, or do you double click on the message, thereby opening it in a separate panel, and then click on the Reply button on the toolbar in that panel?

If you double click on the message to open it in a separate panel, do you see a gray bar at the top of the panel that says, "This message was converted to plain text"?

[rosa]

Thanks for all the feedback. Here is exactly what happens.
All of my default settings are as I want them (compose in HTML, composing new message in Century Gothic 10, Replying and Forwarding in Century Gothic 10, composing plain text in Arial 10).
I receive a message in plain text from those who write in plain text.
I click on it to reply or open and reply, in both cases, a new window is open.
The margin at the top says plain text
I click on HTML (to get the font I want in my reply) and lo and behold all of the text in the original message changes to times new roman 10.
I find this so annoying, but more so that I don't know how to control it.
Thanks for any more advise you can offer.
Rosa