# Outlook 2003's strange formatting problems



## bauhsoj (Apr 20, 2005)

I am currently using Outlook 2003 SP1.

I have all emails set to default to plain text when initially created. When adding a signature to these, there is no problem. However, when one of my signatures is added to an HTML formatted email then there is often several lines distance between the text above and below the signature and the last line often has a problem with the line-height in relation to the line above it.

I have tried clearing out the signatures and recreating them by pasting them from a plain text editor so that no formatting is brought along, but this failed to fix the problem.

Outlook will also color some signatures inserted in light blue and some in black, seemingly at random, irregardless of what color the rest of the email text is. All of the signatures have been created in plain text as stated above.

Further more, _sometimes_ when I insert signatures I have to hit enter three or more times just to get the cursor to move to the next line...which it does, but jumps about three lines down the page suddenly. I then have to backspace to eliminate those extra lines.

Signatures also show up in different fonts from the rest of the text I was typing in the email depsite no font being sent when the signature was created. Again, this happens at random and doesn't seem to depend on what other fonts are in use. It seems to alternate between Arial and Times New Roman.

My Outlook text problems run deeper still and frequently when I paste text into an email all successive lines I type after it are double spaced even if the source it was copied from did not have double spacing. Outlook itself does not even have a feature that allows the line spacing to be changed so I have to hit "shift" + "enter" to move down only one line. This solution is really an illusion though as responses to those emails show the lines double spaced vertically anyway.

Below is an example of the source created by Outlook when I was responding to someone's email:

```
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=187482223-29122005><FONT face=Arial 
color=#0000ff size=2>some initial test text</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=187482223-29122005><!-- Converted from text/plain format -->
<P><FONT size=2>Sincerely,<BR>Myself<BR>Closing Signature</FONT> 
</P></SPAN></DIV><BR>
```
Does anyone know a way I can get these issues to go away? :sad:


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## Shanos (Jan 17, 2008)

Press SHIFT+ENTER after each line instead of just 'ENTER' to keep the lines together. The rest I can't be of any assistance.


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## Old Rich (May 31, 2007)

Update to SP3 and see if the problem is still there.


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