Can't change to plain text for specific contact Outlook 2002

[MottoK]

Hi,

We use Outlook 2002 on our network and I'm trying to setup so whenever I email a specific email address (contact) that the format is plain text.

I have followed the instructions for this i.e. going to the properties of the email address within contacts then changing the 'Internet Format' to "Send plain text only" however every time I compose a new email to this person it defaults to rich text, any ideas?

Many thanks.

 

[tlcscousin]

When you create the new email are you doing a reply or a new email?
I assume you are doing a new email which would use outlooks default template because until you specify which email address the email is being sent to outlook would not know that it needs to use a specific encoding. I will qote from an article found here

http://www.expita.com/nomime.html

(start of quote)Outlook 2002
Outlook 2002 eliminates the distinction between Corporate/Workgroup and Internet Mail Only modes that made supporting Outlook 98 and Outlook 2000 so difficult. You can now change the format of a message you already received or created to make the message either easier for you to view or to send to someone else.

With the message open, on the menu bar: select "Format"
On the "Format" menu Select the format you want to change the message to: The menu list offers three choices: Plain Text, Microsoft Rich Text, and HTML. Select Plain Text.
If Microsoft Word is your e-mail editor, these options may not be available.

NOTE: Outlook Help states that you can switch message formats after starting an e-mail message, but this doesn't work if you use Word as your e-mail editor, only if you use the internal Outlook mail editor (and then only switch between plain text and HTML formats). (end of quote)

The note part points to a possible solution but would change some features on the rest of your messages.

 

[MottoK]

Many thanks for your reply.

You are right this is a new email, however I have tried sending it two ways, once by clicking on the contact and choosing "send email to this contact" and secondly by starting a new email and FIRST choosing the email address before writting the email.

Shouldn't both attempts (well certainly the first) should inform Outlook that I am sending to the specific email address which requires plain text?

The above quote talks about changing the format of the message after it has already been opened but I don't understand why there is an option to "Send plain text only" when going in to a contacts email properties if you can only change the format AFTER the email has been created?

Thanks again and any other help much appreciated!

 

[MottoK]

Any other suggestions or are ya beat?! Thanks.

 

[tlcscousin]

When you send the message have you asked the recipient if they received it in plain text?
From what i have been able to find Outlook changes the format after you send the message.

Outlook lets you configure the default format for new e-mail messages and gives you three options: HTML, rich text, or plain text. If you've configured Outlook to use HTML as the default, each new message will start with HTML as the format, enabling you to add graphics, formatting, and other rich media. However, some users prefer to receive text-only e-mail messages. You can configure the default mail format to be different from Outlook's overall default format for specific users.

This means that new messages you send to these users will be created using the format specified for the recipient, not those you set as the default for Outlook.

Follow these steps to set the default message format for a contact in Outlook 2002:
1. Open Outlook's Contacts folder and double-click the contact to open it.
2. In the E-mail field, double-click the recipient's address to open the E-mail Properties dialog box.
3. From the Internet Format drop-down list, choose the format option you want to use for this contact. For example, choose Send Plain Text Only if you want Outlook to use only plain text for this recipient.

You can repeat this process for any other contacts for which you want to set a specific message format. But keep in mind that the setting is address-specific, not recipient-specific. You can send messages to a particular contact using different mail formats, depending on which e-mail address you use.

If the contact has more than one e-mail address, open the contact form and click the down arrow beside the e-mail address field. Select a different address, then double-click the address to set its default format.