Dear Computer Lady,
I have Outlook Express and Windows 2000. Why is it when others write me and I click
REPLY, sometimes I have choices of fonts, sizes, colors, sometimes I do NOT?
Thank you, Glena
Dear Glena,
E-mail can be sent in two different formats. Plain Text, and HTML.
Plain text e-mails are just that; plain old text that you cannot add color or special
fonts to. I tend to prefer plain text e-mails, but that is because e-mail has become
my main form of work and I find it faster and simpler to work with.
HTML e-mails allow you to dress them up and change the color of the font, change
the size and other things.
The reason you sometimes can't make those changes when you reply to an e-mail, is
that you have Outlook Express set up to reply in the same format as the e-mail you
are replying to. So, if you reply to a plain text e-mail, you will not be able to
use html formatting. If you reply to an HTML e-mail, you will.
There is a way to change this.
When you reply to an e-mail, the new e-mail will have a menu bar of its own. Click
on "Format" in the menu bar and then click on either "Plain Text" or "Rich Text (HTML)"
depending on what type of formatting you want to use.
You can also change your e-mail options to always use the format you prefer. Just
click on "Tools" and "Options" and then click on the "Send" tab.
Click to remove the check mark from the line that says "Reply to messages using the
format in which the were sent. Then in the "Mail Sending Format" section chose either
"HTML" or "Plain Text". Click "OK", and you will always have your outgoing e-mails
in the format you chose.
Elizabeth
