Exchange Online - Convert email to Plain-Text

Question

Hi Everyone,

I hope someone can help me.

I have an email address - let say "@my-business.com" - and I'm redirecting all messages to "@external.com" to manage all the orders. "******@external.com" is located on a platform where for security HTML in emails is blocked. Therefore some redirected emails containing links embedded in pictures/logos/buttons/etc after redirection are not shown on the external platform and the links are cut out/missing.

I was asked to check out if there is possibility to configure an Exchange Online rule that will target all emails sent to "@my-business.com" address, then converted to Plain-Text and then redirected to "@external.com".

Does Exchange Online offer something like that. Or maybe Remote Domains in Exchange.

If yes, can someone please provide configuration steps?

Answer 1

Hi @PT Maliborski ,

Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A platform!

Yes, you can configure Exchange Online to convert emails to plain text before forwarding them. However, this requires a combination of mail flow rules and possibly PowerAutomate (Flow) to achieve the desired result, as Exchange Online does not natively support converting emails to plain text via transport rules alone.

Here are the steps to set it up:

Step 1: Create a mail flow rule to redirect emails

1. Sign in to the Exchange Admin Center (EAC).
2. Navigate to: Mail flow > Rules.
3. Create a new rule:

• Click the + icon and select Create a new rule.
• Name the rule (e.g., "Redirect orders to external").
• Under "If this rule applies," select "The recipient is" and specify "******@my-business.com."
• Under "Do the following," select "Redirect the message to" and specify "******@external.com."
• Save the rule.

Step 2: Convert emails to plain text using PowerAutomate

1. Sign in to PowerAutomate.
2. Create a new flow:

• Select "Automate Flow."
• Select the trigger: "When a new email arrives in a shared mailbox (V2)".
• Set the mailbox to "******@my-business.com".

3. Add an action:

• Search for "Convert HTML to text".
• Use the output of the trigger as the input for this action.

4. Add another action:

• Search for "Send email (V2)".
• Set the recipient to "******@external.com".
• Use the plain text output from the previous step as the email body.

5. Save and activate the flow.

Step 3: Configure remote domains (optional)

1. Sign in to the Exchange admin center (EAC).
2. Navigate to: Mail flow > Remote domains.
3. Add a new remote domain:

• Click the "+" icon.
• Enter the domain name (e.g. "external.com").
• Configure the settings to allow automatic forwarding and plain text emails.
• Save the settings.

By following these steps, you should be able to ensure that all emails sent to "@my-business.com" are converted to plain text and then redirected to "@external.com".

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Please feel free to contact me for any updates. And if this helps, don't forget to mark it as an answer.

Best,

Jake Zhang

Answer 2

In Exchange Online, you can convert an email to plain text either manually or by changing settings.

For a single email, open it in Microsoft Outlook (desktop or web), go to formatting options, and switch the message format from HTML to Plain Text before sending.

To make all emails plain text by default, go to Outlook settings → Mail → Compose and reply, and set the message format to Plain Text.

For admins using Exchange Online (via Microsoft 365), you can also configure mail flow rules to enforce plain-text formatting for specific users or domains.

This helps improve compatibility, reduce formatting issues, and enhance security by avoiding embedded scripts or styling. For more practical workflow tips like this, you can also explore resources on univik.

Answer 3

Yes, you should be able to achieve that in Exchange Online. If you only want this behavior for a single recipient, create a mail contact for it, then toggle the setting

New-MailContact -Name orders -ExternalEmailAddress ******@external.com
Set-MailContact ******@external.com -MessageBodyFormat Text

Alternatively, you can do this on the domain level, via the New-RemoteDomain cmdlet. Details can be found for example here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/mail-flow-best-practices/message-format-and-transmission