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Original KB number:
287816
Symptoms
In Microsoft Outlook, you create a new plain text formatted post containing line breaks. Outlook removes the line breaks and displays the message. However, the posts do not display any indication that this has occurred, other than the change in formatting. The information bar message about extra line breaks does not appear, either in the Preview pane or when you read the post. This processing appears to happen when the message is initially posted.
E-mail message items display the information bar as expected when the line breaks are removed.
Cause
By default, the Auto Remove Line Breaks feature in Outlook is enabled. This causes the line breaks to be removed. Any two or more successive line breaks are not removed.
Workaround
Use one of the following methods to work around this behavior.
If you edit the existing post and you save the changes before you use one of the following methods, the line breaks are lost and can only be replaced manually.
This method disables the feature for all plain text items. To do this, follow these steps:
For Outlook 2010 and later versions:
Open Outlook.
On the
File
tab, select
Options
.
In the
Options
dialog, select
Mail
.
In the
Message format
section, clear the
Remove extra line breaks in plain text messages
check box.
Select
OK
.
For Outlook 2007 or earlier versions:
Open Outlook.
On the
Tools
menu, select
Options
.
On the
Preferences
tab, select the
E-mail Options
button.
Clear the
Remove extra line breaks in plain text messages
check box.
Select
OK
two times.
Method 2 - Use HTML or Rich Text format
You can use HTML or Rich Text formats when you create new items. Or you can change existing posts to these formats.
New posts
You can change the format for individual messages, or for all messages. To change the format for all messages, follow these steps:
For Outlook 2010 and later versions:
Open Outlook.
On the
File
tab, select
Options
.
In the
Options
dialog, select
Mail
.
In the
Compose messages
section, select either
HTML
or
Rich Text
in the
Compose messages in this format
drop-down list.
Select
OK
.
For Outlook 2007 or earlier versions:
Open Outlook.
On the
Tools
menu, select
Options
.
Select the
Mail Format
tab.
Select either
HTML
or
Rich Text
in the
Message Format
section.
Select
OK
.
When you create a post item, you can change the format for an individual message. To do this, follow these steps:
For Outlook 2010 and later versions:
Open Outlook.
On the
Home
tab, select
New Items
, and under
More Items
select
Post in This Folder
.
On the
Format Text
tab, select
As HTML
or select
As Rich Text
in the
Format
section.
For Outlook 2007 or earlier versions:
Open Outlook.
On the
File
menu, select
New
, and then select
Post in This Folder
.
In Outlook 2007, select
HTML
or select
Rich Text
on the
Options
tab in the
Format
group.
In Outlook 2003, or Outlook 2002, select
Plain Text
, and then select
HTML
or
Rich Text
.
Existing posts
In Outlook 2007, select
Other Actions
after you open the post item on the
Discussion
tab in the
Actions
group. Then, select
Revise Contents
before you change the format.
In Outlook 2003, or Outlook 2002, open the post item, select
Edit
, and then select
Revise Contents
before you change the format.
Method 3. Restore the line breaks in Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2002
This method allows you to restore the line breaks that were removed. To do this, follow these steps:
Open Outlook.
Open the post item.
Select
Format
.
Clear the Unwrap Text check mark.
This option is not available in Outlook 2010 or Outlook 2007.
