How to stop Outlook from changing the justification of text from left aligned to fully justified.

Anonymous

Almost all email newsletters that come to Outlook are shown with fully justified text with words auto-hyphenated at line breaks when the email is NOT sent that way from the sender. I've seen this from at least three different external senders.

How do we stop Outlook from changing the line justification of incoming emails so they are shown as they are intended by the sender?

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Anonymous

Hi all,

The new Typography features are now available in production. The next step is that the feature is now being enabled by default starting with Current Channel Version 2403 (Build 17410.20000).

Since the initial release the team added controls to manage this feature in the client, Typography improvements in Word and Outlook for Windows (microsoft365.com).

Note:

Since this thread is old it may get locked again. If you need further help, please post a new thread.
There will be a new Typography article for Production shortly on https://support.microsoft.com/

In Outlook:

The new typography features are enabled in the Reading Pane. Default values are “on” for Beta Chanel and “on” for Production starting with Channel Version 2403 (Build 17410.20000).
To show the Reading Pane, click View > Reading Pane > Right or Bottom.
To turn off these features in Outlook Desktop, click File > Options > Mail > Editor Options > Advanced > Reading mode, and then clear the Advanced Typography in Reading Mode checkbox.
To turn off only Use Smart Justification or Use Hyphenationindividually, clear the corresponding check box.
The sender can disable the features for the emails they create, and those settings will not be overwritten by settings on recipient's computer.

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Anonymous

... Outlook now fully justifies and over-hyphenates for all email, including HTML email (sent from Mailchimp or other mass email services). The Outlook client does this at the recipient display level, and there doesn't seem to be any easy way to turn it off. Those settings might work for Outlook to Outlook, in which case, there might be an email level override that somebody can work out.

Hmm ... I haven't seen that.

It might depend very much on one's computer environment and Outlook type and version.

I'm using the MS 365 desktop (not the 'New') Outlook on Windows 11, currently at Version 2408 (Build 17928.20156). What are you using?

My advanced typography settings in File > Options > Mail > Editor Options > Advanced are "Use Advanced Typography" is OFF, and "Disable Advanced Typography for outgoing mail" is also OFF.

None of my email correspondents sees any of my messages in Advanced Typography format, regardless of the email client either of us is using. Example client apps used by my correspondents include Thunderbird, Mac Mail, Outlook for Mac and Windows, various Android and iOS mail apps, and probably some webmail apps. Some have MS 365 (personal or business) mailboxes, and others use gmail or various other types of mail service.

When I send messages from my MS 365 outlook.com account via an Android app (Aqua Mail), those messages aren't being reformatted, either.

I don't see any received messages in Advanced Typography format, either in Outlook or in other clients such as that Android client app.

So ... with "Use Advanced Typography" turned off in desktop Outlook, my messages aren't being reformatted on sending, whether or not I also turn on "Disable Advanced Typography for outgoing mail".

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Anonymous

2023-07-25T19:34:28+00:00

Completely agree with Kevin above.

The biggest issue we see with this update (which is causing huge problems with our clients' email newsletters) is the alignment of tables. We need tables to be able to "float" to the right or left and the text to wrap. With the justification forced on us, the table HTML is trying to fit within the sentence and so causes large gaps or breaks in text. This is unacceptable as we often have clients floating images or text (using tables) to the left or right.

Secondly, there are hyphens everywhere. We've had several clients complain already about all their newsletter titles breaking with a hyphen and there is literally no way to turn this off, or to give them an alternative solution.

This auto justification should be, at the very least, a setting on the reader's end.
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Anonymous

2023-07-25T21:21:20+00:00

Yet another example of when it makes no sense to justify or hyphenate:

Here, not only is the email address hyphenated, but the person's name also breaks across 2 lines. Both not best practices.
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Anonymous

2023-07-25T22:34:48+00:00

Thank you for the detailed explanation, Gabriel.

My feedback: this feature might well be useful at times, but - please, Microsoft! - it must be optional.

That would be consistent with the approach taken so far with other 'helpful' features in Microsoft Office - how and when they're applied is configurable. For example, the grammar assistance and spell-checking functions can be useful, but I for one do not want them forced upon me. I would never want the grammar-checker automatically reconstructing my sentences for me, nor would I allow the spell-checker to 'fix' my spelling automatically.

So, in my opinion, Microsoft shouldn't change that approach and force a reading-mode layout change on its users "because it's better" than whatever the user would choose if given the option.

As others who've replied have also pointed out, the belief that full justification is more readable and better-looking is misguided. More readable and better-looking to whom? Tastes and abilities differ. Different people have different vision, different ways of reading, different tastes about what 'looks' good, etc.

Other respondents have provided examples of real-life cases where forced justification clearly does not improve legibility, and can seriously interfere with a carefully-constructed layout, thus its readability and/or impact, as in the table-positioning example.

Having carefully laid out an important document or newsletter in a particular way, the author wants it to appear that way to their readers. Of course, some readers might prefer the fully-justified version - but please let them choose.

Regards,

LMA99.
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