Occasionally, Outlook users may experience formatting issues with their emails, like changes in fonts, spacing and bulleting. If you receive a version of your email that looks different from what you sent out, it's likely that Outlook couldn't process the formatting as intended.

To avoid this, we've compiled a list of configuration settings and best practices for you to follow.

• Regularly Check Your Outlook For Any Updates

• Draft Your Emails Directly In Outlook

• Setting Your Default To HTML And UTF 8
• Clear The Outlook Email Address Autocomplete Cache
• What To Do If You're Still Having Problems?

Regularly Check Your Outlook For Updates

1. Open the Microsoft Outlook application.
2. Click the "File" tab in the upper-left corner
3. Click "Account "on the File menu. 
   • On some versions, this option may be named Office Account.
4. Click the "Update Options" button under Product Information. 
5. Click "Update Now" on the dropdown menu. This option will check online for available updates, and install the latest software update on your computer.
   • If you don't see this option, click Enable Updates first. The Update Now button should now show up on the menu.

Draft Your Emails Directly In Outlook

It is strongly advised to draft your email directly in Outlook instead of copying/pasting your content from another source.

Outlook uses Microsoft Word as the default editor for all emails. When Outlook can't pick up the format of external content it will send the email in Rich Text by default - which will strip the format of your emails. This is a known Outlook issue that will happen with or without using Street Context.

If you are copy+pasting any content, you should clear all external formatting before sending your email and build out any desired formatting fresh from within Outlook.

Highlight the text you need, and click Message > Clear all Formatting (or Clear Formatting).

Setting Your Default To HTML And UTF 8

Ensure that HTML and UTF-8 are the default format for your outgoing messages in your Outlook. These are the recommended settings for anyone using Outlook to help with consistently formatted emails. To ensure that your default format is HTML:

1. Click on File > Options
2. Under Options, select Mail
3. Under Compose Messages, verify that HTML is selected in the drop-down where it says "Compose messages in this format"

To ensure that your encoding is set to UTF-8: 

1. Click on File > Options
2. Navigate to the Advanced heading on the left, then scroll to International Options near the bottom.
3. Check the box for Automatically select encoding for outgoing messages and choose Unicode (UTF-8) from the drop-down menu.
4. Check the box for Automatically select encoding for outgoing vCards and choose Unicode (UTF-8) from the drop-down menu.
5. Check the box for Allow UTF-8 support for the mailto: protocol.
6. Click OK.

Clear The Outlook Email Address Autocomplete Cache

If you have confirmed that your default is already set to HTML and UTF-8, sometimes Outlook will cache the formatting for specific contacts. To clear out your auto-cache, follow the steps below:

1. Open a new email in Outlook.
2. Start typing the email address you want to clear until Outlook shows it in the suggestions.
3. Hover over the entry until it's highlighted, then click the "X" icon the delete the cache.

Still Having Issues?

Reach out to our support team! We're here to help you every step of the way! Our top tip? Keep your emails simple. Remember, people are drawn to your emails for the great content, not the fancy formatting.