outlook express 6 fonts not available and spell checker no suggestions

I am assisting a friend who is using XP, I.E.6 and Outlook Express 6. When creating a new mail the font button is greyed out plus when typing a new mail it does not under line a misspelled word. Then when doing spell checker it always comes up with no suggestion. I am not a user of Express but was wondering if uninstalling I.E.6 or reinstalling on top of app. would work.

Any suggestions or ideas would be appreciated.

 

Go to Tools - Options - Send and check "HTML" as the "Mail Sending Format ". It should now be possible to switch fonts.

Are any Office applications installed?

 

It was a bundled package from Dell which means they got Word 2002 and MSWorks. I thought the dictionary would use the dictionary from Word. When you go into word and type an incorrect word it does highlight that word and the dic. does make proper suggestions. Just not Outlook.

 

OE doesn't check spelling until the Send button is clicked - in other words, incorrect spellings aren't pointed out to you until immediately prior to sending. You'll find various options under Tools - Options - Spelling.