Annoying Outlook 2003 issue using Stationary templates

[johnny_2]

Hello,

I'm having some issues with the stationary templates in outlook 2003. Every time I enable any of the stationary templates in outlook, when I compose an email, my signature becomes double spaced along with the email body where I type. I checked the paragraph settings and it's not set to doublespaced.
My signature is fine and it doesen't display as doublespaced in the preview.

When I disable stationary background and image, the signature is perfectly fine and I can type an email without any double spacing issues.

Something is up with the stationary. I tried the same on another machine and it does the exact same thing so I don't think something is wrong with the application.

I have Microsoft Word enabled as the email editor. When I disable this setting, the formation is fine except for the fact that some weird box appears above my signature which is annoying.

The normal.dot file is just a blank page with no formations. I created a new template normal.dot file and I was still having the same issues.

Anyone have any ideas bc this is driving me up the walls.

Thanks

[jdc2000]

Unfortunately, this is normal behavior.

Link:

http://www.slipstick.com/problems/dblspace_html.htm

[SpywareDr]

Here's the trick to making your signature work the same in HTML messages as in plaintext and Rich Text Format (RTF) messages: Press Shift+Enter, not Enter, at the end of each line when you use Tools, Options, General, E-mail Options to set up your signature in Word. This option inserts a line break between the lines, and HTML messages will use a <br> tag to end one line and begin the next line immediately below, without any blank space in between. If you press Enter to end a signature line, HTML messages will use <p> and </p> paragraph tags to set off the individual lines. The default behavior in HTML is to put a blank space between paragraphs.

You can extend this technique to your everyday HTML messages, whether you compose them with WordMail or the built-in editor in Outlook 2000 and Outlook 98. When you want a new line without a space above it, use Shift+Enter. When you want a new line with a space between it and the previous line, use Enter.

[johnny_2]

thanks guys

spyware, that method indeed worked for my signature but when I attempt to compose an email, the body still double spaces when I hit enter. I have to hit shift+enter to single space. Is there anything that can be done to automate the single spacing?

Thanks

[johnny_2]

Im getting closer to resolving this.

I noticed the issue on how to temporarily fix the double spacing. In "Paragraph" Spacing before and after are set to "Auto". When I change it to 0pt, this resolved the double spacing issue.

The only issue is that I have to change that setting every time I send an email.

Microsoft Word by default is set to 0pt. The normal.dot file is set to 0pt by default as well. I opened the stationary template file in word and it was set to "auto" so I changed it to 0pt and saved it. After the changes, I launched the file and it indeed saved the settings. I thought this would have solved the issue but it didn't. I rebooted the machine and created a different template file with 0pt set on the spacing and attempted to use that file but it changes to "auto" when I compose an email.

Now im really stumped. This has nothing to do with the html editing b/c when I disable the stationary template, everything is fine. For some reason, Outlook is formatting the stationary file to "auto" spacing!

Any ideas

Thanks

[jdc2000]

From link:

http://www.slipstick.com/problems/dblspace_html.htm

Cause When you press Enter while creating HTML email, Outlook inserts a paragraph tag (<p>), so two Enters (for white space between the paragraphs) inserts two <p> tags, which is double spaced when rendered in a browser. If you use Shift+Enter twice, which creates the line break tag (<br>), the message will not look double spaced in a browser.
Solution You have 4 options:

Use plain text for messages. Plain text will render correctly in any and every email client available.
Press Enter once, not twice, when composing HTML formatted email.
Press Shift+Enter twice at the end of a paragraph, rather than pressing Enter twice.
Just ignore it as an inconstancy in the way various applications handle HTML.

[johnny_2]

I read that but when I create and edit html email, I never have the double spacing issue. Regular html mail is set to 0pt spacing so I never run in to that issue. It's only when I use the stationary template, outlook changes the paragraph setting to auto. Very odd and freaken annoying!

[johnny_2]

We'll, I actually fixed all of this mess by disabling the option which states to use word to edit emails.

[GeorgeMike]

Dude, create a new template... take use of the stationary background again... Things are resolved
Regard,

[Suhanti]

Hello
This is how I did it,
I fixed up the spacing issue on my Word document

1_ copy paste from outlook signature in to Word 2003
2_Fix up spacing requirements in Word
3_Copy paste back into Outlook.
4_ My issue was that the lines were overlapping in the Outlook signature column, but I left it...

5_ Good News, when clicked on "new" mail, from outlook, the signature had corrected itself, with the spacing edited from Word 2003.

Must be a bug in Outlook which I will endeavour to figure it out. Thank you and have a nice day.
Su