About customizing messages

With Microsoft Outlook Express, you can send and receive messages in two formats: Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and plain text.

HTML This is the standard for formatting text on the World Wide Web. With HTML, you can add special emphasis or structure to message text by applying a variety of formatting, including text formatting, numbering, bullets, alignment, and background colors. However, e-mail programs that cannot read HTML may display an HTML message either as unformatted text or as a file attachment. In either case, the recipient can still read the text of your message.
Plain text If you do not send a message in HTML format, Outlook Express automatically sends the message in plain text format. Plain text messages contain no formatting, so when you send a plain text message, you can be sure that the message looks the same to a recipient as it does to you.

You can choose a default format for your messages, and you can easily switch to a different format for an individual message.


	Messages in HTML format can be large and may take longer to send and receive. So you might want to avoid posting them to newsgroups as some people may have relatively slow computers or Internet connections.

Choosing a default message format

Formatting text

Formatting a paragraph

Adding a background color to a message

Adding a horizontal line to a message

About quoting

About signatures

Choose a default message format

On the Edit menu, click Preferences.
Click the Compose tab.
Under Messages, click the Mail format and News format options you want.


	To always reply to a message in the same format (plain text or HTML) in which it was sent, select the Reply to messages in the format in which they were sent check box. This ensures that when you receive a message from someone using an e-mail program that cannot read HTML, you reply in plain text format.
	You can turn HTML formatting on or off for individual messages. With a message open, click HTML on the Format menu.

Format text

If a message is in plain text format, you cannot apply formatting to it.

Select the text you want to format.

On the toolbar, do any of the following:

To	Do this
Change the font	In the Font box , click the font you want.

Change the font size	In the Font Size box , click the size you want.

Make the text bold	Click .

Italicize the text	Click .

Underline the text	Click .

Use a uniform character width	Click .

Change the color of the text	Click , and then click the color you want.

Formatting a paragraph

Choosing a default message format

Format a paragraph

If a message is in plain text format, you cannot apply paragraph formatting to it.

Select the paragraph you want to format.

On the toolbar, do any of the following:

To	Do this
Left align the paragraph	Click .

Center the paragraph	Click .

Right align the paragraph	Click .

Create a numbered list	Click .

Create a bulleted list	Click .

Decrease the indent of the paragraph	Click .

Increase the indent of the paragraph	Click .

Apply an HTML heading style to the paragraph	On the Format menu, point to Heading, and then click the style you want. Heading 1 produces the largest text, and Heading 6 the smallest.

Formatting text

Adding a background color to a message

Adding a horizontal line to a message

Choosing a default message format

Add a background color to a message

If a message is in plain text format, you cannot add a background color to it.

Place the insertion point in the text area of the message.
Click , and then click a color.

Formatting text

Adding a horizontal line to a message

Choosing a default message format

Add a horizontal line to a message

If a message is in plain text format, you cannot add a horizontal line to it.

Place the insertion point where you want to add a horizontal line, and then click .

Formatting a paragraph

Choosing a default message format

About quoting

When you type message text, you can use quoting to distinguish between text you are composing and text you have copied from other messages. When you paste quoted text, each line is preceded by an angled bracket (>), indicating that the text is a quotation. If you quote text that someone else has quoted, an additional angled bracket precedes the quoted text � and so on for each level of quoting.

You can also change the color of quoted text in messages that use plain text format. On the Edit menu, click Preferences, and then click the Display tab. Under Color Quoting, click a quoting level, and then click a color.

Quoting a previous message

Quote a previous message

Open the message that contains the text you want to quote.
Select the text you want to quote.
On the Edit menu, click Copy.
Open the message you want to add the quoted text to.
Place the insertion point where you want to add the quoted text.
On the Edit menu, click Paste As Quotation.

About quoting