OL2002: E-Mail Messages That You Compose in Outlook Rich Text (RTF) Format and Send Over the Internet Are Converted to Plain Text Format (827882)

SYMPTOMS

When you use Outlook 2002 in a Microsoft Exchange Server environment, and you configure Outlook 2002 to use Outlook Rich Text (RTF) format for outgoing e-mail messages, you may find that the RTF format of the e-mail messages is not retained when you compose and send e-mail messages to recipients over the Internet. When the recipient opens the e-mail message, the e-mail message is converted to use plain text format.

CAUSE

This problem occurs if all the following conditions are true:

You use Outlook 2002 with an Exchange Server e-mail account.
You configure Outlook 2002 to use the Send using Outlook Rich Text format option for Internet recipients.
You compose and send a e-mail message to a recipient over the Internet.

When you use Outlook 2002 with an Exchange Server e-mail account, your Exchange server determines the format of the e-mail messages that are sent to recipients over Internet. You can configure the Internet format of e-mail messages that you compose and send to use RTF format. However, the resulting MIME format of the e-mail message that is received by the recipient is determined by Exchange and is based on the e-mail settings of the recipient. This behavior is by design.

MORE INFORMATION

For more information about e-mail message formats in Microsoft Outlook, see Outlook Help. To do so, click Microsoft Outlook Help on the Help menu, type message formats in the Answer Wizard, and then press ENTER to view the topics returned.