Why are OE paragraphs double spaced?

To: Windows BBS
From: Roger
Date: 10/27/2007
Subject: Formatting of received Outlook Express messages

I send and receive email with Outlook Express version 6. Usually, I create a message (like this one) in MS Word and then copy/paste it to the Outlook Express Create Mail text box. The message looks fine in Outlook Express before I send it.

However, some persons who receive my emails complain that paragraph breaks are double spaced. Indeed, this happens when I send this message to myself. For example, the four lines at the top of this message are double spaced when received by Outlook Express, but not when I send the message.

What is causing received message paragraphs to be double spaced and is there anything that I can do to prevent this? Thanks for any response.

 

Thanks Pete, for your response.

The answer is No, I do not see the double spacing if I compose the message directly in the OE Create Mail window. I just tried it and it was fine. Each line of the four line header was single spaced just like I created it.

What would MS Word put in the file that would cause OE to double space?

 

Sure enough, when I email directly from MS Word, then the message comes through properly formatted and NOT double spaced. So the problem only occurs when I copy/paste text from MS Word to OE. I'm not sure what that means - I guess emailing directly from MS Word is a possibility to avoid the problem, but I still don't know what it's doing.

 

HI, Pete,

I do not usually send email directly from MS Word. I don't have a strong reason for that I guess.

I usually create messages in Word and then copy/paste to OE because I find Word easier to use for composition then OE Express. Also, when I exchange messages with the same person several times, I often keep a history of the conversation in a Word file so I can more easily search all the old messages.

 

Hi,
I am posting a reply in hopes of learning something here as I follow the bouncing ball (even though I have not experienced this particular problem). Anyways, would word wrap cause this ??? I remember reading some place that it would cause a similiar problem but did not know if it would apply in this case...I personally do not have Microsoft Word, just word pad and the steps that I followed were to open word pad, click on view, click on options and make sure "wrap to window" was checked...

 

Thanks, Steve, for your reply. It was received in plain text. I never do anything with HTML until I am sure of the sender.

But I also discovered something else. I thought I had checked this before, but here is what happens: when I look at my message in the "Create Mail" text box, it appears to be correct. But when I look at my message in the "Sent Mail" folder after I send it, then it has already been double spaced. This means that OE is inserting the double spaces sometime between when I create the message and when I send it out. That's why everybody (including myself) receive it double spaced.

I suspect that this might have something to do with the way that Word and OE use line ending characters like CR or LF. Does anybody know anything about that?

Thanks for any further comments.

 

Sorry, Steve - you owe me $5. Same problem whether displayed as text or HTML.

However, here's a new wrinkle: I copied the message as it appears in the Sent Mail folder back to Word and then selected Tools-Options-View-All to display hidden characters. The original end of line character was a paragraph mark. The message in the Sent Mail folder had TWO paragraph marks. So clearly, OE is doing something to my message. Here is what I copied, assuming that the characters don't get changed again somehow:
===========================================
Text copied from Word into OE Text box and sent:

To: myself
From: myself
Date: today
Subject; whatever


============================================
Text as shown in Sent Mail folder:

To: myself

From: myself

Date: today

Subject; whatever

 

Roger, I have exactly the same problem you describe. I don't have a solution, but I do have a workaround.

In OE, set your new emails to open in HTML format (Options, send, mail sending formats). Copy and paste in from Word. Then (and only then) change the format of the email from Rich Text to Plain Text. This should eliminate the problem of OE inserting an extra paragraph break at the end of each paragraph. Unless your OE is set to send emails immediately, you'll also be able to see how they look before they are sent in the Outbox folder.

I still have no idea why this doesn't work if your default email setting is Plain Text, however, nor why OE is inserting these extra paragraph breaks. In Word, there is a section (options, compatibility) where you can tick or un-tick "Don't use HTML paragraph autospacing ", which gave me hope, but it doesn't seem to make any difference in practice. Nor does 'Wrap to window'.

Colin

 

Thanks so much, Colin, your procedure worked for me too. I finally got around to checking it out this morning. Some people who have been receiving my emails have complained about this for a long time, so now I can make that change. Thanks again !!

Roger

 

Of course, this is a workaround and doesn't solve the original problem. Did anyone else have any other thoughts on how to actually solve the problem?

Sending in Rich Text has its uses: I like to make full use of the italics, bolds etc. People who receive emails in Rich Text are able to read them without a problem. The problem lies with those who receive all incoming mails in Plain Text: in this case, it's their machines which convert from Rich Text to Plain Text, thus producing the double spacing.