Question

quoted replying blue line in Outlook 2007

Asked by: HappyEngineer

I have been forced to switch to Outlook 2007 at work. In doing so I've discovered that the inability to write replies to html messages is still there even after all these years.

I will try to keep my disgust at this nonsense under control and just ask if anyone has a fix for this. I'm sure that this question has been asked a million times here, but for somer eason I can't find answers.

I already found out how to enable quoted replies to text messages:
http://slipstick.com/mail1/quote.htm

That was a relief, but I still haven't found a way to properly reply to html messages. That blue line won't go away. The unindent button just moves the cursor on top fo the blue line and does not actually get rid of it like it apparently did in Outlook 2k3 (according to some forum messages I've found).

The best hope I've found is this quotefix macro:
http://quotefix.flupp.de/
But I can't tell how I'm supposed to actually use it.  I first went to tools|macro|Macros then created a macro and pasted it into there. That gave me three macros FixedForward, FixedReply, and FixedReplyAll. When editing FixedReply there is an error on the top line, so I commented that out. But, now what? How do I use it to reply to messages in such a way that I can use internet style quoting?

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Asked On
2008-08-01 at 10:48:02ID23614897
Topic

Outlook Groupware Software

Participating Experts
4
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Answers

 

by: ghoffertPosted on 2008-08-01 at 10:52:21ID: 22140463

When you say blue line, are you referring to the one that separates your message from the previous messages? Why do you need to remove this?

 

by: HappyEngineerPosted on 2008-08-01 at 11:28:41ID: 22140759

I'm talking about getting standard internet style quoting. The blue line indents the reply text, but if I put my cursor in that text and hit enter it won't break the blue line.

I found a cumbersome solution to sort of get around it, but it makes the reply much uglier.
http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-3418070.php

I also found a plugin called Outlook Advanced Quoting which looks great, but it is only supposed to work in Outlook 2003. I tried installing it in Outlook 2007 and the result was that Outlook crashed every time I tried replying to a message.
http://www.download.com/Outlook-Advanced-Quoting/3000-9694_4-10375317.html?tag=lst-9&cdlPid=10410870

I found that if I use the method described here
http://slipstick.com/mail1/quote.htm
but instead select "Include and indent original message text" then that works for both text and html messages, but I really don't like how it looks.

I just want the indent style provided by every other email client in the world. If I could I'd stop using Outlook and go back to Thunderbird, but I can't, so I'm stuck trying to minimize the nonsense of this application.

 

by: BlueDevilFanPosted on 2008-08-01 at 14:29:42ID: 22142111

Hi, HappyEngineer.

So we don't get off on the wrong foot, I understand that you don't like Outlook.  I'm not trying to change your opinion.  It's difficult to help out without a clear picture of the issue.

As ghoffert asked, are you talking about the thin blue line that separates your reply from the original message?  If yes, why is it imperative to have it gone?  If no, what line are you talking about?  I also don't understand what you mean when you say, "... inability to write replies to html messages ..."  What criteria are you applying to define the ability to reply?  I use Outlook to reply to html messages dozens of times every day.  

 

by: HappyEngineerPosted on 2008-08-10 at 21:26:28ID: 22201814

I don't think there is any other solution besides the ones I mentioned.

The problem is that there is a blue line like this where the pipe characters are:



| old message text line 1
| old message text line 2
| old message text line 3
| old message text line 4
| old message text line 5


If I hit enter after any of those lines, it keeps the blue line like this:

| old message text line 1
| old message text line 2
|
| old message text line 3
| old message text line 4
| old message text line 5


I want it to let me write text without the blue line.

The solution I went with was to set it to indent the reply with whitespace. It's not great, but it at least allows me to reply inline.

 

by: HappyEngineerPosted on 2008-08-10 at 21:43:24ID: 22201864

I don't think there is any other solution besides the ones I mentioned.

First off, by default outlook doesn't indent replies at all. You need to turn on reply quoting first. The problem is that there is a blue line like this where the pipe characters are:



| old message text line 1
| old message text line 2
| old message text line 3
| old message text line 4
| old message text line 5


If I hit enter after any of those lines, it keeps the blue line like this:

| old message text line 1
| old message text line 2
|
| old message text line 3
| old message text line 4
| old message text line 5


I want it to let me write text without the blue line.

The solution I went with was to set it to indent the reply with whitespace. It's not great, but it at least allows me to reply inline.

 

by: ccfcfcPosted on 2009-01-27 at 08:30:51ID: 23478142

HappyEngineer:

I've just discovered EXACTLY the problem you're describing.  In Outlook 2003 it worked fine, and for inexplicable reasons it seems Microsoft decided to screw things up in Outlook 2007.

In 2003, it used to be that you just uinindented and the blue 'quote' line was removed.  Then, you could reply to an e-mail like so:

| I think the meeting went well
Yes, but xyz could be improved...

| This product is selling badly
We can launch an ad campaign blah blah...


In 2007, you'll just get
| I think the meeting went well
| Yes, but xyz could be improved...
|
| This product is selling badly
| We can launch an ad campaign blah blah...

It's extremely annoying and I have no idea why MS did it.  Screw you, MS, is about all I have to say about it.

No longer does that happen in 2007, the line seems unremovable in an HTML e-mail.  Now here's the bad news - I have no idea how to fix it, or whether it's fixable.  Shame that people keep using Microsoft stuff even when they make it worse, isn't it?  :-(

 

by: DavidChesterPosted on 2009-10-19 at 00:40:45ID: 25603153

OK HappyEngineer, I have been frustrated by this since upgrading to Office 2007.

Now I have found the fix, And here it is.

Hit Reply on your HTML message and go to the bottom of the page.

Make a new line if necessary.

press Control/Q which clears paragraph formatting and gives you a nice blank line just like the good old days!

Best wishes to you

David

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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