The thin blue line (final cry for help) AGAIN

[Vieira]

I hope Peter Robertson forgives me for using his subject line in my
post. The fact is, he has described this problem twice in the past
and no useful solutions (or a fix) appeared yet. I guess I'll help
keep the pressure on until Microsoft realizes it is a problem that
deserves to be fixed...

The problem: when replying to an HTML message, Outlook (all versions)
will add a blue line to the left of the text being replied. If I want
to reply point-by-point (add text in the middle of the original
message), I press enter to open a new paragraph but the blue line does
not go away--so my text becomes indistinguishable from the text I'm
replying to. In the other email clients I've used (Eudora, Calypso),
pressing return would open a new paragraph WITHOUT the blue line so I
could enter my own text replying to that particular point. BESIDES,
Eudora would format my text according to my preferences so my replies
would always be in Arial, Blue, 10pt for example.

As others already pointed out, switching from HTML to plain text
doesn't help because at this point Outlook does not follow the reply
settings (it does not add a ">" at the beginning of each line, for
example, even though I configured it to do so).

In a previous response
(http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=#[email protected])
Patrick Reed (MVP) wrote:

1) "I don't think this is possible. If you want the original body to
have the prefix and stay in HTML format, I don't think you can exclude
your comments. From viewing the HTML source while I was testing this,
the added text is included within the original body tags, and the
prefix is set for the entire original body."

--> Well, that's a problem begging to be fixed. Customers like me
want to insert text in the middle of the email message, and other
email programs already do that anyway--so IT IS possible. It just has
not made the priority list yet.

2) "I noticed if you insert a hard page break with CTRL+Enter, the
prefix line is excluded."

---> I tried this several times, and every time the window closed
inexplicably. Just a minute later I realized that Outlook was SENDING
the emails when I pressed CTRL+Enter--I had to apologize to the people
who got blank replies from me while I was testing that "theory".

So, is there any other workaround for this problem? I'm now using MS
Outlook 2003 and--of all other little annoyances in the program--this
is by far the one that I'd like fixed. The other things I tried
include reading emails as text (I like to use colors to convey
information, though) and adding two lines at the point I want to
insert my reply, then going back one line and using the "Decrease
Indent" button (too cumbersome, keeps the last used font).

Any suggestions appreciated. Thanks,

Vieira.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

You can open the message and Edit, Edit message, convert to plain text and
save, then reply. (In ol2002/2003 you can force all mail to plain text
automatically).

Otherwise, unless you disable using a prefix, HTML always uses a blue line.
(tools, options, preferences, email options)

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide)



Join OneNote Tips mailing list: http://www.onenote-tips.net/

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[H Gohel]

The problem: when replying to an HTML message, Outlook (all versions)
will add a blue line to the left of the text being replied. If I want
to reply point-by-point (add text in the middle of the original
message), I press enter to open a new paragraph but the blue line does
not go away--so my text becomes indistinguishable from the text I'm
replying to.

So, is there any other workaround for this problem? I'm now using MS
Outlook 2003 and--of all other little annoyances in the program--this
is by far the one that I'd like fixed.

Agreed. However, there's a simple procedure I follow - make sure you
have the formatting Styles available on your compose toolbar. Hit
reply to an HTML message, & you see the blue attribution line on the
left. Hit return wherever you want. Now change the style to "Normal"
and that will revert to your font face & size.

Unfortunately you need to do this over and over again for each place you
want to insert your text.

And to top it all off, sometimes the indentation is not
reversible/undoable, and then your reply gets indented. Wierd.

Please post if you find a better solution.

 

[Vieira]

You can open the message and Edit, Edit message, convert to plain text and
save, then reply. (In ol2002/2003 you can force all mail to plain text
automatically).

Otherwise, unless you disable using a prefix, HTML always uses a blue line.
(tools, options, preferences, email options)

Thanks Diane. But I think this is too cumbersome and
counter-productive. As I mentioned before, when a message is
converted to text it will not add a ">" or something to allow me to
differentiate my text from the original text. Besides, I want to use
color in my replies.

The problem is, I think, that Microsoft worries too much about the
number of features in their programs, and not about how well the
features work. For example, there is the stupid 32k limit for rules
in Exchange--which I reached long ago when I still used Outlook 2000
and it still hasn't been fixed. Also, I found another annoying
problem with the now infamous blue line: if you write something in the
original text and then change the color of your text, it will go back
to the original text's color when you hit enter anywhere in that
paragraph. I don't know if it happens all the time, but I catch it
sometimes. It seems to apply one set of properties for the entire
paragraph and probably involves HTML paragraph styles.

I feel that it should be easy for a user to do the basic stuff without
too many clicks, edits, workarounds, etc. in any program. In Outlook,
the "basic stuff" is reading and writing emails, calendar and contact
items. After all, the sales pitch from Microsoft's web site says "Let
Outlook 2003 Do Work for You" I'm pretty sure there are many
other ways to go around this one problem--for example: hit reply, then
copy the entire message to WordPerfect, edit it the way you want, go
back to Outlook, clear the old message, paste your WordPerfect-edited
message as HTML, and voilà. See? This is really about the absurd of
going through this pain every time someone writes you an email.
Remember an old joke about how cars would work if GM operated like
Microsoft? It was something like "your car would crash every day and
you would not complain about it because it would be useless to
complain" and the joke went on and on (now Windows doesn’t crash
as much but the damage is already done). Following that line, the
workarounds described by several Outlook experts in this newsgroup
over the years about the blue line/reply problem would amount to the
following comparison:

The GM way: insert the key and turn.
The Microsoft Outlook way: before you insert the key, jump three times
and look up and down, then insert the key but don't turn it yet, wait
until Saturn and Venus are aligned with the Sun, now turn it slowly
when you see a rainbow.

OK, so I'll admit I'm not a good joke writer, but that's still how I
feel every time I have to answer an email with Outlook. I want the GM
way.

 

[Vieira]

Make sure you
have the formatting Styles available on your compose toolbar. Hit
reply to an HTML message, & you see the blue attribution line on the
left. Hit return wherever you want. Now change the style to "Normal"
and that will revert to your font face & size.

Hmm... that's an interesting one. Still not a fix, but then I don't
think I'll see one in my lifetime... I added it to my list of Outlook
workarounds.

And to top it all off, sometimes the indentation is not
reversible/undoable, and then your reply gets indented. Wierd.
Typical.


Please post if you find a better solution.

Eudora? But you are the winner of the "Blue Line Workaround"
prize so far. I'll keep posting the problem every year until it gets
addressed by the giant.