OL2003: Replies in plaintext only

[Gabriel]

Hi all,

I've got Outlook 2003 running here. I have it set to use
Word as the editor and to compose in HTML mode. This is
working fine.

However, when I reply to messages, the format drops back
to plain text. This has the added effect of inserting a
blank line between the lines in my signature. If I switch
the format to HTML, Word does not pick up my color or font
preferences from Outlook, nor does it remove the
extraneous lines in my sig.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Gabriel