Email formatting question

Question

Recently, the look of the body copy in my emails changed. Affects both outgoing and incoming emails. How can I change it back?

Answer 1

Dear @Kim Bell, 

It's wonderful news that your issue has been resolved. Thank you for providing updates on the status of your case. It was truly a pleasure for me to work with you on this matter. 

If it is convenient for you, I would appreciate it if you could share the steps or guidance provided by your IT department that helped resolve the issue. Your experience and insights may be very helpful to other community members who encounter a similar situation.

Thank you once again and I wish you all the best ahead.

Answer 2

Dear @Kim Bell, 

Thank you for reaching out and for sharing the screenshot. 

From the screenshot, the email text appears to have unusually wide letter spacing. This is usually caused by formatting settings saved in Outlook’s editor. Since Classic Outlook uses Word to compose emails, these font and spacing settings can affect both new messages and how some incoming emails display, especially plain text messages. 

Please try the options below to help restore the text appearance: 

Option 1: Clear formatting in the affected message 

Open a new email or open a message where the spacing looks incorrect. 

Click inside the email body, then press "Ctrl + A" to select all text. 

On the Message tab, locate the Basic Text section and select Clear All Formatting. 

This will reset the message body back to the default formatting for that email. 

Option 2: Reset character spacing to normal 

If the text still looks spaced out after clearing formatting, the character spacing may be set to Expanded. 

Select the affected text in the message body. Pressing "Ctrl + A" is fine. 

In the Basic Text section, click the small dialog launcher icon in the Font group. 

Open the Advanced tab. 

Make sure Spacing is set to Normal and Scale is set to 100%. 

Select OK to apply the changes. 

This step directly addresses the wide letter spacing visible in the screenshot. 

Option 3: Set a permanent default font for new emails and replies 

This option helps prevent the altered formatting from appearing in future emails. 

In Classic Outlook, go to File > Options > Mail. 

Under Compose messages, select Stationery and Fonts. 

In the Personal Stationery tab, select Font under New mail messages and choose your preferred font, size, and color. 

Select Font under Replying or forwarding messages and confirm the same settings. 

Select OK and close all open windows. 

This ensures Outlook always starts new messages with clean, consistent formatting. 

Option 4: Check how incoming emails are displayed 

If incoming emails also look unusual, especially if they appear as plain text, Outlook settings may be affecting their display. 

Go to File > Options > Trust Center. 

Select Trust Center Settings, then choose Email Security. 

Under Read as Plain Text, make sure Read all standard mail in plain text is unchecked unless plain text is intentionally preferred. 

Select OK to save the changes. 

Option 5: Pasting content from other sources 

If the spacing issue mainly occurs after pasting text from another program such as Word or a website, hidden formatting may be carried over. 

When pasting text into an email, right-click and choose Keep Text Only. 

This removes hidden formatting and helps maintain a normal text appearance. 

As community moderators, we kindly ask for your understanding that our access to internal development details is limited. Our primary role is to guide users toward the appropriate resources and support channels. While we may not have visibility into performing deeper backend analysis, we’ll continue doing our best to support you within the scope of our responsibilities.  

I hope this information is helpful. If the issue continues after trying the steps above, please let me know which option you tried and whether the spacing changes in both new and existing emails. 

Thank you for your patience and understanding. 

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Answer 3

In classic Outlook for Windows, changes to how message text looks are usually due to font or message format settings. To restore the previous look of the body text for both outgoing and incoming messages, reset the default font and ensure HTML formatting is used.

1. Reset default font for new, reply, and forwarded messages
   1. Select File > Options > Mail.
   2. Under Compose messages, select Stationery and Fonts.
   3. On the Personal Stationery tab:
      • Under New mail messages, select Font.
      • Under Replying or forwarding messages, select Font.
   4. In each Font dialog, set these values to restore the standard Outlook defaults:
      • Font: +Body
      • Font style: Regular
      • Size: 11
      • Font color: Automatic
   5. Select OK in each dialog to return to Outlook.
   These settings control how the body text appears in messages composed and read in Outlook’s editor. If a different font, size, or color was selected previously, this will revert it.
2. Ensure messages are composed in HTML format
   1. In File > Options > Mail, under Compose messages, check the Compose messages in this format setting.
   2. Select HTML if a different format (such as Plain Text) was chosen.
   HTML format supports fonts, colors, and other formatting. If the format was changed to Plain Text, the body copy would appear simpler and different for both outgoing and incoming messages.

After these changes, new messages, replies, and forwards should use the standard Outlook body font and formatting. Note that if senders use their own formatting or plain text, their messages may still look different when received.

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References:

• Change the default font or text color for email messages in Outlook
• Set the font or text color for messages you send
• Change the message format to HTML, Rich Text Format, or plain text in Outlook