Outlook Prints Emails As A Column of Single Characters

May 12, 2015 11:32 AM

Outlook automatically formats some nested messages as very narrow columns a single character wide. I need to print out several such messages and I'm unable to format these properly.

At their narrowest they become a column of single characters

l
i
k
e

t
h
i
s

these are difficult to read and print out a couple paragraphs of content over dozens of pages.

How do I print msg files with nested replies in a way that doesn't waste space and preserves legibility?

posted by I Foody to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

So far the only solution I have found is to do a horrible tedious job of copypasting normally-formatted text from the original sent messages onto the final edition to be printed, assuming I am one of the recipients in the exchange.
posted by poffin boffin at 11:35 AM on May 12, 2015

If you open one like you're going to reply, and then switch from HTML to Plain Text in the Format section, what happens?
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 1:02 PM on May 12, 2015 [1 favorite]

Are you wedded to Outlook? If so, it's probably easiest to copy and paste to a text editor before running some scripts.

Opening the IMAP account with Thunderbird would allow you to use extensions such as this.
posted by turkeyphant at 2:02 PM on May 12, 2015

Best answer: Edit the message then ctrl-a (select all) , ctrl-q (which left aligns everything)
posted by platypus of the universe at 2:05 PM on May 12, 2015 [2 favorites]