Setting your Mail Format

Outlook's default installation enables MS Word as your mail editor. Using Word as a mail editor may cause harmless, random characters to appear in some mail clients; it also drastically changes the way your menus appear (making it difficult to follow this documentation). Follow these steps to disable this feature:

1. Select Tools > Options.
2. Select the Mail Format tab.
3. Under Message format, select Plain Text from the pull down menu.
   
   

Using plain text messages assures that your mail text won't display oddly to your recipients. Follow these steps to use plain text as often as possible as opposed to HTML or rich text format:

1. Select Internet Format.
2. Under the Outlook Rich Text options, select Convert to Plain Text format from the drop-down list.
   
3. Click OK.
   

Setting Your Reply Options

Through Outlook preferences you can choose from several different reply options. These options dictate if the original message will be included when you reply or forward the message. Follow these steps:

1. Select Tools > Options. The Options dialog box appears.
2. Select the Preferences tab, and then select Email Options.
3. In the On replies and forwards section, select the option you want to use when replying to or forwarding a message.
4. Click OK twice to close open dialog boxes.