Search in book...
Toggle Font Controls
Create new playlist

Name your new playlist

Playlist description (optional)
Sign In

Email address

Password

Forgot Password?

or

Continue with Facebook

Continue with Google
Sign Up

Full Name

Email address

Confirm Email Address

Password

or

Continue with Facebook

Continue with Google

Choosing Message Formats

When you create new e-mail messages, you can specify the format in which the message should be created. The format you choose must be supported by the recipient of the message. Outlook also allows you to set up your environment so that all your messages use the same format. You can choose from Plain Text, Rich Text, or HTML as the default.

Select a Format for the Open Message

Create a new message.
Click the Options tab on the ribbon.
Choose a format from the Format group:
- Choose Plain Text to create a message without formatting.
- Choose HTML to create a message with HTML support, such as embedded tables, inserted pictures, and live hyperlinks.
- Choose Rich Text to create a message with rich text formatting support, such as embedded objects, font specifications, and colored text.
Tip
You can change the formatting of a message you have received by using the Format menu’s Plain, Rich Text, and HTML commands.
See Also
For information on using Rich Text or HTML message formats, see "Formatting Message Text".
Tip
If you are not sure of the format that your recipient can read, use the Plain Text option. This ensures nothing is lost in the translation if your recipient’s e-mail program does not support Rich Text or HTML messages.

Select a Default Message Format

Choose Options from the Tools menu.
Click the Mail Format tab.
Click the Compose In This Message Format drop-down list and choose the format you want to use for all your messages.
Click OK.
See Also
For more on formatting information in your messages, see "Add Formatting to a Message".
Tip
When you use HTML formatting, your messages can include pictures that are located on the Internet. If you want to embed a picture instead of creating a hyperlink to it (which would require the recipients to have an Internet connection to view the picture), click Picture in the Illustrations group of the ribbon’s Insert tab. In the Insert Picture dialog box, click in the file name field and type the URL to the picture, such as www.boyce.us/images/jim.jpg, and then click Insert. Outlook retrieves a copy of the image and embeds it in the message.
Try This!
If your default format is HTML but you know that a recipient’s e-mail program does not support HTML-formatted messages, create a new message and choose Plain Text on the Options tab.