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Apple Mail Font Issues with Outlook

Have apple fixed this issue with fonts changing and appearing differntly when you send emails to users on Microsoft Outlook. Most of the forums have message posts from 2011 but 2 years on you would think the issue would be fixed.


I have a whole team of computer illiterate staff and can't expect them to change the font format everytime they send an email. It looks so unprofessional sending emails out like this - next step is to switch to outlook for mac - any good feedback on this, I've heard if you have high volume emails working through gmail imap accounts that it just crashes all the time?


Any help or plugins would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks

Apple Mail

Posted on May 31, 2013 5:28 PM

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12 replies

Jun 10, 2013 4:31 PM in response to lolavie

just chipping in to moan about Outlook. I went that route to 'fix' this issue with apple mail and the inline attachments annoyance, but the probelms thrown up by outlook are even more annoying for me.


its pretty clunky and slow feelign after mac mail, search is terrible, but more importanly the way it threads conversations means half the time you miss incoming mail as it just squirels it away in a thread but doesnt make it at all obvious anything has arrived (if you miss the initial notification).

it costs a load of cash and doesnt perform much better than Thunderbird which was my previous option to get round apple mail problems.

same issues still seem to persist under Mountain Lion as far as inline attachments go - there are 'fixes' out int he wild with attachment tamer etc, but i dont really want more potential issues to contend with at the mo.

Nov 4, 2013 3:53 AM in response to lolavie

This font issue on Apple mail with other mail apps like Outlook, has been one of my biggest gripes with Apple Mail for a long time. I do not understand why it has not been sort it out by now.


In terms of attachments I use Attachment Tamer for my attachments, which works well (but we should not need to use an app to fix how attachments work, this should be automatically built in function as a basic standard).


MessageFont apparently did work for the font issue, but seems to be no longer available.


There is also Universal Mailer but I don't like the way it affects attachemts, because it keeps converting my inline company logo in my signature to an attachment instead of leaving it inline - which means I have to keep re-attaching it which is frustrating. Also it is non compatiable with Attachment Tamer.


In the end, this should be Apples responsability to fix (I know some Apple advocats say it is not acctually a glitch but as I see it, if I have to keep manually changing my font and font size to force it to NOT look crap on the other side, that is a problem. Apple mail is the only mail software - that I'm aware of - that does this).


I Love using Apple Mail for all its other uses and handy features, so I do put up with it, but this font issue is a basic feature which should be fixed and I cannot understand why it has been ignored?


I'd love to know if there is another solution or any advice on how best to solve this issue without me having to manually change things everytime. (I currently have a 'type here...' at the begining of my signature so my body text is part of that, but I find even that can be glitchy if I have to copy and past text/content or links into the body, and sometimes that even goes funny when it gets to the other side, but it's better than nothing I suppose).

Nov 4, 2013 6:13 AM in response to lolavie

In order for recipients to see mail as you composed it, you must use rich text format (HTML). You also must use a font both of you have, which would, for the most part, be limited to this set:


Arial

Comic Sans MS

Courier

Georgia

Helvetica

Impact

Tahoma

Times New Roman

Trebuchet MS

Verdana


If you use any fonts not normally found on default systems (Mac or Windows), then only you will see that font. Fonts do not get sent along with an email. Only a tag that notes what font was used. If they don't have the font on their end and have it activated, that part of the message will have the font replaced with whatever is set as one of their mail defaults.


Anything sent as plain text is the same. It doesn't matter what font or point size you have set on your end, they will see the message as whatever font and point size they have set for incoming plain text messages. A recipient will only see the same thing if they just happen to have the same font and point size chosen for viewing incoming plain text as you do for composing.

Nov 4, 2013 8:10 AM in response to Kurt Lang

Hi Kurt,


Thank you for your response. I am fully aware of what you have just said, and I do follow this basic protocol. The 'gripe' is that it seems that when we setup our message font in preferences one is under the impression this is the font that will be sent out. I later discovered this is only my screen font, and when we compose an email this font (for instance Arial 12pt) is not tagged in the outgoing message. In-fact it is left blank, and the receivers mail will change it to a default such as times new roman. However this seems to create strange changes on the receivers end and sometimes the font can come out huge or varying, there is no consistency and the email looks ugly, As a business owner, my email is my letter head, and is a communicational face of my business.


The issue could be easily resolved with an option for an Apple Mail user to set up what font they want their out going message to be in and for Apple Mail to actually tag that font in the message. Without the 'user' having to each time manually choose this font.


I always use Arial 12pt for my out going message, but it's frustrating that I have to each time select my text and change the font and point size, (which means my screen message font has to be another font and size otherwise apple mail does not pick up the change). What I, and from what I can see many people, don't understand is most Mail Software (if not all), except Apple mail, don’t have this issue. And if I used a different mail app I can choose my out going font such as Arial 12pt, and the receiver will see the same font (obviously providing it's a websafe font), and I don't need to keep telling the programme to make it Arial every-time I compose a new message. This would save time.


I know that this ‘gripe’ is not only myself, and that there is a large number of people out there also annoyed by this, and many Apple uses choose not to use Apple mail simply because of this reason. Which is a shame, because Apple mail in my opinion is the best mail app out there.


I don't expect the programme to be perfect, but this is basic user experience and basic functionality, so why can't Apple correct it? All the amazing features in the world are worthless if the basics ‘user experience’ is not friendly.


I really really hope Apple does something about it, or at least develop a plugin that we can download to sort it out for those of us who want to use mail as I have described.


Attachment Tamer has sorted out the whole compatibility and friendliness of attachments, and I can set up how I want my attachments to work, I do it once and don't have to think about it again. I did have to pay for this function. But I should not have had to. this is not a feature I should have had to plugin, it should come standard with Mail, every other mail software does, so it is a user expectation... And the same goes for how we set up our fonts, in Rich Text, I should only need to set it up once and not think of it again, a general out going font should be a standard function.


As I said, I do ‘put up with it’ mostly because I’m an Apple fan, and In general hugely happy with the Apple products. But should someone have to ‘put up’ with something like this, when it is something so small that should really have been sorted out years ago in the early versions of Mail?


Sorry Kurt, I'm not really moaning at you directly, it's just that its a frustrating non-feature that I can see Apple is not even taking into consideration, and probably will never look at sort out. Why, is the question?

Nov 4, 2013 8:22 AM in response to Seany444

Congratulations on formulating this response, thoroughly and without letting the annoyance cloud the issue, i'd like to add my support and +1 for the same issues and the same annoying work arounds you and many more of us are using.


Obviously I'd like to add my own main gripe to the list, of mail marking messages as 'read' without the option not to. I've been using a plug in for that fix too (waiting for maverick version). I finally gave in and bought MS outlook last year but it just isn't as good / speedy / reliable, able to find searches as we'll, preview well as a slightly annoying mac mail does, so I plod on and try not to get enraged. Thunderbird almost stole the job, and 'send later' still gets it opened up most days but I really just want mac mail to 'just work' as they love to say. Pretty please with a cherry on top make it work! (I have submitted these same requests through the proper apple feedback channels too - before someone posts their favourite blanket response)

Nov 4, 2013 8:29 AM in response to Seany444

Sorry Kurt, I'm not really moaning at you directly,


No problem. Not taking it personally at all.


I do understand your frustration. This has been a consistent complaint with Mail since its inception. It's difficult to get it to send out an email as HTML without using something other than your default font. Personally, I've always used Entourage, and now Outlook. Mostly because I've purchased each version of Office for Mac as it came out, and so have always stuck with Microsoft's email client.


Outlook for Mac used to be a bit weird, too. Like Mail, you could have it set to HTML for composing, but if you didn't change something (font or point size), it would go out as plain text. That has since been fixed. Overall, MS has fixed up Outlook pretty well for being essentially a 1.0 product on the Mac side. Doesn't have anywhere near the features yet of the Windows version, but it's still a pretty nice email client.


The settings in Mail should make it do what the user wants, but doesn't seem to stick. Either that, or the simple fact that it uses a rich text format instead of HTML for formatted emails could be the whole problem. Most other clients (I think all) expect formatted text to be HTML, not rich text. Could be wrong here since I don't, and have never used Mail. I've only played with it enough to get a feel for how the app works and where the controls and settings are.

Nov 14, 2013 9:30 AM in response to lolavie

Great responses and I agree with everyone on this topic. I recently purchased a Macbook Pro for business purposes and have spent a considerable amount of time trying to get the fonts to work (as described in this email), signatures formatted properly, snipits/screenshots working when adding them into emails, having images/signatures not removed when replying, and really a lot of other small, very annoying issues. I have tried Outlook for Mac 2011 and Mozilla Thunderbird also and they have thier limitations too. I think my problem is I am so use to using Outlook 2007/2010/2013 and the ease and funtionality that they provide. "Ignorance is bliss" I guess...

Apple Mail Font Issues with Outlook

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