Outlook email verbosity…

By Matt Fahrner, on August 3rd, 2009

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 <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"> <head> <META HTTP-EQUIV=3D"Content-Type" CONTENT=3D"text/html; charset=3Dus-ascii"= > <meta name=3DGenerator content=3D"Microsoft Word 12 (filtered medium)"> <style>  </style>  </span>

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<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

<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">

<head>
<META HTTP-EQUIV=3D"Content-Type" CONTENT=3D"text/html; charset=3Dus-ascii"=
>
<meta name=3DGenerator content=3D"Microsoft Word 12 (filtered medium)">
<style>

</style>

</span>

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

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<span style="font-family: Courier New,Courier,monospace;"></head>

<body lang=3DEN-US link=3Dblue vlink=3Dpurple>

<div class=3DSection1>

<p class=3DMsoNormal>Hello world.<span style=3D'font-size:12.0pt;font-famil=
y:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

</div>

</body>

</span></html>