When I copy and paste onto an email outlook does not keep source formatting. I have been through so many options screens. How do I keep the source formatting intact?

Anonymous
2023-05-01T15:00:25+00:00

When I copy and paste onto an email outlook does not keep source formatting. I have been through so many options screens. How do I keep the source formatting intact? For instance I'll copy an excel file and paste it and it only come out as plain text . This wasn't an issue until I came into work today.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For business | Other

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Anonymous
2024-05-03T20:05:00+00:00

Hey everyone,

I may have a small workaround that I just discovered. I tested it out twice, but it seems to have worked for me so far, please let me know if you also have success or not. So, I typically copy my messages in color similar to the one displayed by Ornelaks in this thread. I decided (out of random curiosity) to use the copy and paste function within outlook to see if it would paste and keep the color formatting.

The first two tries of using copy and paste, I used the keyboard shortcut and the left click of the mouse. THEN, I used the the copy and paste icon located in the top left corner of outlook to paste it, and VIOLA! It kept all the color in the formatting. I hope this is helpful to you all (until it stops working again), but let me know if this is helpful!

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-07-29T18:29:11+00:00

    Some of the people responding here are recommending users to click menu options that don't even exist.
    Especially Kevin Muldowney.

    This feature is broken and it's pathetic that copying and pasting information from excel into a message composition can be so broken.

    Office 365 is a major regression and a severe pain point over Microsoft Soultions thaat were already in place and didn't need to be improved or recreated.

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-07-25T21:14:08+00:00

    In Outlook, start by selecting File in the upper left of the top menu ... then click Options, Mail, Editor Options, Advanced, and see the default options under the Cut, copy, and paste heading. Note, I'm using 365 for Enterprise in which the default for "Pasting from other programs" is Merge Formatting. I changed it to Keep Source Formatting, and this fixed my issue when pasting SQL code from Teradata into an email.

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-05-04T16:51:30+00:00

    LIFE SAVER, THANK YOU!!!

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-01-23T18:16:48+00:00

    I have the same issue and have gone through the recommended trouble-shooting steps to no avail, but I just discovered that, for me, it is a Google Sheets interface issue. When I copy/paste from Google Sheets, it is no longer retaining the format but if I pop the paste into Microsoft Excel then copy/paste into Outlook it is fine. Hope this might help someone!

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