Outlook 2013 NormalEmail.dotm heading styles

[diana]

Our company is currently piloting an upgrade from Office 2007 to Office 2013.

in Outlook 2013 our in-house add-in exists. on Create New Email code runs to apply the Companys heading styles. And works on Forward email and Reply to email

Pilot users feedback is Outlook 2013 is slow theres a noticeable lag in performance.

A possible solution Im working on is remove all code to set heading styles. And in the template NormalEmail.dotm set the Companys heading styles and deploy to the machines. I’ve updated the heading styles and ‘Hidden’ the default Microsoft heading styles. Ive placed the updated NormalEmail.dotm in the templates default path location.

The results:
Create a new email, displays the Companys heading styles only and are available. Passed. See screen capture

On Forward an email, or Reply to email, the Companys heading styles are available, however now also displays the default Microsoft heading styles and the heading styles order has changed. ie default Microsoft heading styles are now at the top of the list and Company heading styles towards the bottom of the list. See screen capture.

I was wondering why this is happening. And if this could be resolved possibly without code automation to the heading styles.

We have set Company heading styles ie Arial Regular 10pt in
In Outlook 2013 File, Options, Mail, Stationery and Fonts…
New mail messages, Font…
Replying or forwarding messages, Font…
Composing and reading plain text messages, Font…

Ive also noticed in the template default startup path theres two normalEmail.dotm ie
NormalEmail.dotm and NormalEmail15Pre.dotm
Which I assume is the normalemail template from Office 2007. I still have to investigate.

I also noticed on Reply/Forward email depending on the original email format, the Company heading styles adopt the original emails default style ie Times New Roman 12pt

any ideas

TIA

--dd

[Rudi]

Hi Diane,

Outlook is not my strong point, but I've been scanning around to see if I can identify the issue you are experiencing and I may have found the root cause:

"By default, when composing a reply/forward, Outlook will use the email format and styles of the original email."

I assume this is why you are seeing the default MS Styles above your custom styles in the reply/forward screenshot.

I cannot say I have a solution for this, but see if you can learn anything more from info in these articles/threads to help with a solution.

• How do I choose what format Outlook uses to reply/forward a message?
• Themes or Stationery for replies and forwards
• Change the Look of Outlook Replies

How about also experimenting with excluding the original message in replies/forwards...maybe this will prevent the styles from copying from the source?

Image 15.png

Hopefully you will get additional pointers or solutions from other loungers too.

[HansV]

NormalEmail15Pre.dotm is indeed a copy of the previous template; if you don't need it anymore you can remove it.

I'm not aware of a way to hide or move the Microsoft styles without automation, but hopefully someone else will have a suggestion for you.

[diana]

Thanks Rudi, just looking at the links now :)

[diana]

Ive implemented the recommended suggestions.

The results are still the same ie

However using out-of-the-box Outlook heading styles a new format issue discovered with Reply to email or Forward email
• on an internal company email, the company heading styles remain. Although in the Styles Pane Microsofts default heading styles display
• on an outside email or email template eg Helpdesk emails, the email adopts the heading styles format of the original email format. In the heading Styles Pane company and Microsofts heading styles display.

It appears using out-of-the-box Outlook this may not be possible. Ive a feeling its likely a Microsoft limitation or ‘working as designed’ which is the reason the company code workaround was implemented in the first place.

[Rudi]

I've moved this thread to the Outlook forum as it's more applicable in here than in the Other MS Office Applications forum.