First column of plain text msgs in Outlook 2000 not visible

A friend of mine tells me that the first column of plain text messages received in Outlook 2000 is not visible in the window, and there is no horizontal scroll bar.

I'm using Outlook 2002 (XP) so I can't try to replicate the symptom, nor have I been able to locate any mention of this through MSKB and Google searches. Has anyone had an experience with this problem and fixed it? If you have, we'd sure like to hear about it.

I'm sure there are hundreds of possible scenarios. I've listed a page-full of suggestions which she has tried already, to no avail.

Font changes, video driver updates, Windows security updates, screen resolution changes, display font-size changes. Arggg, nothing worked. This is a new Dell running Windows XP Pro, Office 2000. Her current workaround is to edit the received message and change it from plain-text to HTML format, which causes a left margin to appear. But this is a klunky solution.

Any takers? (Thanks!)

 

the first column of plain text messages

I gotta be missing something here somewhere. I don't recall getting Outlook email with columns unless they were specialized things like grids/tables/whatever and I don't think those work in plain text.

Could you describe this a little more? Or if you don't have an answer by Monday, email me an example to newt.vail@pmusa.com where I'm running Outlook.

Does the same thing happen in a preview pane if she is set to use them?

Has she tried a repair of Office?

Dell should support all parts of a system they sell so if Office was a preloaded part of her package, they gotta make it work. I know that tech support can be iffy at times but has she tried running the problem past them?

 

Thanks for your response, Newt. In plain-text, most displays default to a fixed font, therefore I stated "first column." The symptom is kind of like a "negative left column," which hides the first letter of every line.

Those letters are actually hidden, and not dropped in transmission. We know this because the workaround she's using, e.g., editing the message and changing the format from plain-text to HTML, causes all the text to move over to the right and makes the message fully readable.

As far as I know from what she has stated before, Windows XP was pre-loaded on her Dell machine, but Office 2000 was purchased and installed on a previous machine, and this is a re-installation on the new system. Yes, she has run a Repair Office procedure.

I'm actually more intrigued by this than she is. She's satisfied to have discovered a workaround on her own. But she's not a novice user either, but fairly experienced with Windows and Office. So I trust her description. You may be right about contacting Dell Support. This may be a hardware specific bug.

 

Ah. Got it. Thanks.

Has Office been patched up to SP-3? If not, it certainly should be and as the article mentions, she will need to apply the SR-1a update first if she has an older version. SR-1a is pretty much a completely new copy of the app suite.

Now that you mention it, I have a very vague memory of a problem like this one and also sorta hazy but I could swear it was fixed by one of the updates.

 

Hey Newt,

Thanks! I did suggest to "L" that she check the Office Updates site, as well as the Windows Update (esp. video drivers,) but she hasn't mentioned running the Office updates.

I'll pass the word on to remind her, with your tentative recollection. Thanks again!

Roger

 

Great. Please post back after she runs the updates with the results.

Hopefully it will be "problem solved ".