Missing text in replies (Outlook 2007)

[Lisa V]

I am apparently having trouble with formatting for Outlook 2007. When
replying to a message, I often see the punctuation marks, which can be very
distracting. I know how to hide the punctuation marks (CTRL-Shift-8 or the
paragraph symbol on the format ribbon), but then the text I typed disappears
(for me and the recipients of the email). And, there are times when I have
left the punctuation marks in place and the recipient still cannot see/read
what I've written.

Help!

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

I am apparently having trouble with formatting for Outlook 2007. When
replying to a message, I often see the punctuation marks, which can be very
distracting. I know how to hide the punctuation marks (CTRL-Shift-8 or the
paragraph symbol on the format ribbon), but then the text I typed disappears
(for me and the recipients of the email).

Disappears when? As soon as you press Ctrl-Shift-8? In your Sent Items
folder after you send the message? In your and your recipient's Inbox because
you sent a copy to yourself? Please be specific. State also what type of
mail account? If you have your antivirus program configured to scan mail,
uninstall the AV program and reinstall it without any mail scanning. Does
that make a difference?

 

[Lisa V]

1. Disappears as soon as I press CTRL-Shift-8; on occassion, it will
reappear when I repeat that action, but not always.

2. If I look at the message in my Sent items folder, the text I have typed
is missing. Yet, if I do a Reply or Forward on this same message, the
previous text will appear.

3. When the message is received in the recipient's Inbox, they do not see
the text I typed. That's how I found out about the problem -- they send a
response which asks if I meant to send a blank message. Yet, when they hit
reply, they see what I originally typed. And, if they have desk top alerts
turned on, they can see what I typed in the alert, but not in the actual mail
message.

4. What type of mail account? I'm not sure I fully understand the
question, but I'm running Outlook 2007 on a company-wide LAN and my mail is
processed through one of the corporate Microsoft Exchange servers.

5. Many of us have the same set up (OS, version of Outlook, AV software)
and I am the only one who appears to be experiencing this problem out of my
group of 30.

Any insight you can provide on how to prevent this from happening, and how
to permanently get rid of the formatting marks, would be greatly appreciated.
It's getting old having my third level manager question if I meant to send
him a blank email message.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

1. Disappears as soon as I press CTRL-Shift-8; on occassion, it will
reappear when I repeat that action, but not always.

Are you choosing any stationery? Have you tried changing formats from Rich
Text or HTML to Plain Text?

2. If I look at the message in my Sent items folder, the text I have typed
is missing. Yet, if I do a Reply or Forward on this same message, the
previous text will appear.

Do you scan incoming or outgoing messages with an antivirus or -spam scanner?
What happens if you disable that scanning? Have you tried starting Outlook in
safe mode to see if it still happens then?

3. When the message is received in the recipient's Inbox, they do not see
the text I typed. That's how I found out about the problem -- they send a
response which asks if I meant to send a blank message. Yet, when they hit
reply, they see what I originally typed. And, if they have desk top alerts
turned on, they can see what I typed in the alert, but not in the actual
mail
message.

Does your recipient scan incoming mail with an AV program? If so, what
happens if they disable that scanning?

4. What type of mail account? I'm not sure I fully understand the
question, but I'm running Outlook 2007 on a company-wide LAN and my mail is
processed through one of the corporate Microsoft Exchange servers.

So you have an Exchange account. That's what I was asking.

 

[Lisa V]

Brian-

I appreciate your trying to help me. My latest answers (too bad we can't
change font colors here so it would be easier to read) follow your latest
questions.

Are you choosing any stationery? Have you tried changing formats from Rich
Text or HTML to Plain Text?

No, I am not using any stationery, and Yes, I have tried changing formats.
I still have the same situation. Again, it's an occassional thing, not an
all the time thing. Once it starts, though, I can't seem to stop it unless I
shut down and restart Outlook.

Do you scan incoming or outgoing messages with an antivirus or -spam scanner?
What happens if you disable that scanning? Have you tried starting Outlook in
safe mode to see if it still happens then?

I'm sure the corporation as the virus scan set up to scan incoming messages.
I have not tried starting Outlook in Safe Mode. What do I lose if I do that?

Does your recipient scan incoming mail with an AV program? If so, what
happens if they disable that scanning?

We can't disable any Virus/Spam scanning programs. It's the way they are set
up when the pc's are received -- lots of stuff locked down.

So you have an Exchange account. That's what I was asking.

Can you think of any formatting changes I might make? I turn off the
formatting, yet it reappears.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

I'm sure the corporation as the virus scan set up to scan incoming messages.
I have not tried starting Outlook in Safe Mode. What do I lose if I do
that?

Search for Help "command line", expand "command line switches", and read all
about it. Essentially, safe mode means that Outlook loads with no add-ins and
customizations.

We can't disable any Virus/Spam scanning programs. It's the way they are set
up when the pc's are received -- lots of stuff locked down.

So your recipients are internal, correct? I can understand the "locked down"
part. That's what happens where I work as well, but I can certainly stop the
services temporarily. Can you? Since this appears to be in a corporate
environment, have you engaged your IT personnel to see what they think of the
problem?