Outlook email verbosity…

I write HTML in Thunderbird because I like some rich formatting (an area I am sad to admit Thunderbird is weak on). In particular I do a lot of indented stuff, which Thunderbird translates to simple “<blockquote>” tags. However, when I moved to Outlook 2007 (which I don’t use for mail, but was just checking) and looked at my mail, I saw the “<blockquotes>” were ignored, instead Outlook, which uses “Word” for its HTML formatting, expects to see these done through CSS “<div>” tags (yikes!).

So, I got to looking and sent myself a simple one line, “Hello world” email from Outlook. Here’s what Outlook rendered it as:

<span style=”font-family: Courier New,Courier,monospace;”>–_000_E67AF5DC51DDCF4A9C6A9867888AACF95052483E39EXMAIL02winco_ Content-Type: text/plain; charset=”us-ascii” Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Hello world. –_000_E67AF5DC51DDCF4A9C6A9867888AACF95052483E39EXMAIL02winco_ Content-Type: text/html; charset=”us-ascii” Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable &lt;html xmlns:v=3D”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml” xmlns:o=3D”urn:schemas-micr= osoft-com:office:office” xmlns:w=3D”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word” = xmlns:m=3D”http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml” xmlns=3D”http:= //www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40″&gt; &lt;head&gt; &lt;META HTTP-EQUIV=3D”Content-Type” CONTENT=3D”text/html; charset=3Dus-ascii”= &gt; &lt;meta name=3DGenerator content=3D”Microsoft Word 12 (filtered medium)”&gt; &lt;style&gt; &lt;!– /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:”Cambria Math”; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;} @font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:”Calibri”,”sans-serif”;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {mso-style-priority:99; color:blue; text-decoration:underline;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {mso-style-priority:99; color:purple; text-decoration:underline;} span.EmailStyle17 {mso-style-type:personal-compose; font-family:”Calibri”,”sans-serif”; color:windowtext;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} –&gt; &lt;/style&gt; &lt;!–[if gte mso 9]&gt;&lt;xml&gt; &lt;o:shapedefaults v:ext=3D”edit” spidmax=3D”1026″ /&gt; &lt;/xml&gt;&lt;![endif]–&gt;&lt;!–[if gte mso 9]&gt;&lt;xml&gt; &lt;o:shapelayout v:ext=3D”edit”&gt; &lt;o:idmap v:ext=3D”edit” data=3D”1″ /&gt; &lt;/o:shapelayout&gt;&lt;/xml&gt;&lt;![endif]–&gt; </span>

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62

<span style=“font-family: Courier New,Courier,monospace;”>—_000_E67AF5DC51DDCF4A9C6A9867888AACF95052483E39EXMAIL02winco_ Content–Type: text/plain; charset=“us-ascii” Content–Transfer–Encoding: quoted–printable   Hello world.   —_000_E67AF5DC51DDCF4A9C6A9867888AACF95052483E39EXMAIL02winco_ Content–Type: text/html; charset=“us-ascii” Content–Transfer–Encoding: quoted–printable   &lt;html xmlns:v=3D“urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml” xmlns:o=3D“urn:schemas-micr= osoft-com:office:office” xmlns:w=3D“urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word” = xmlns:m=3D“http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml” xmlns=3D“http:= //www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40″&gt;   &lt;head&gt; &lt;META HTTP–EQUIV=3D“Content-Type” CONTENT=3D“text/html; charset=3Dus-ascii”= &gt; &lt;meta name=3DGenerator content=3D“Microsoft Word 12 (filtered medium)”&gt; &lt;style&gt; &lt;!— /* Font Definitions */ @font–face {font–family:“Cambria Math”; panose–1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;} @font–face {font–family:Calibri; panose–1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {margin:0in; margin–bottom:.0001pt; font–size:11.0pt; font–family:“Calibri”,“sans-serif”;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {mso–style–priority:99; color:blue; text–decoration:underline;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {mso–style–priority:99; color:purple; text–decoration:underline;} span.EmailStyle17 {mso–style–type:personal–compose; font–family:“Calibri”,“sans-serif”; color:windowtext;} .MsoChpDefault {mso–style–type:export–only;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} —&gt; &lt;/style&gt; &lt;!—[if gte mso 9]&gt;&lt;xml&gt; &lt;o:shapedefaults v:ext=3D“edit” spidmax=3D“1026” /&gt; &lt;/xml&gt;&lt;![endif]—&gt;&lt;!—[if gte mso 9]&gt;&lt;xml&gt; &lt;o:shapelayout v:ext=3D“edit”&gt;   &lt;o:idmap v:ext=3D“edit” data=3D“1” /&gt; &lt;/o:shapelayout&gt;&lt;/xml&gt;&lt;![endif]—&gt; </span>

<span style=”font-family: Courier New,Courier,monospace;”>&lt;/head&gt; &lt;body lang=3DEN-US link=3Dblue vlink=3Dpurple&gt; &lt;div class=3DSection1&gt; &lt;p class=3DMsoNormal&gt;Hello world.&lt;span style=3D’font-size:12.0pt;font-famil= y:”Times New Roman”,”serif”‘&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class=3DMsoNormal&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;/body&gt; </span>&lt;/html&gt;

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

<span style=“font-family: Courier New,Courier,monospace;”>&lt;/head&gt;   &lt;body lang=3DEN–US link=3Dblue vlink=3Dpurple&gt;   &lt;div class=3DSection1&gt;   &lt;p class=3DMsoNormal&gt;Hello world.&lt;span style=3D‘font-size:12.0pt;font-famil= y:”Times New Roman”,”serif”‘&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;   &lt;p class=3DMsoNormal&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;   &lt;/div&gt;   &lt;/body&gt;   </span>&lt;/html&gt;

Yikes again!

I’ll grant you Word offers a lot more in terms of formatting, but that’s out of control. I guess these guys may have a point!:

http://fixoutlook.org/
http://www.email-standards.org/

Hilarious!