Word as Email Editor.

By default, Microsoft Outlook 2003 installs and uses Word 2003 as its default editor.  While this provides robust editing features for an email message, there are a few downsides to utilizing this option.

First, if you use Office Add-ins, such as Document Management Systems, Adobe PDF Maker or macro packages, such as KI Systems Law Office Automation Tools, you may experience intermittent Add-in failures.  Failures commonly occur if Outlook with Word 2003 as the default editor is launched prior to opening Word.  The ability to use Word 2003 as the default editor is a "dummied" down version of Word.  This session does not load all Add-in functionality and, in certain cases, disables functionality when the user chooses to launch Word.  To avoid issues with Add-in applications, Word 2003 should not be used as the default email editor.

Second, using Word 2003 as your default editor allows you the highest level of Rich Text Formatting for your email message.  Unfortunately, many corporations and universities do not use Microsoft Office 2003 and Word 2003.  When email messages are drafted in Rich Text, they include formatting that cannot be read by non-Microsoft email applications.  While your email message may look great, the recipient may receive nothing but gibberish.  Several articles can be found on Microsoft's Web site that address this issue.  It is commonly referred to as Transport Neutral Encapsulation Format (TNEF).  Because you may not know the type of mail system each of the potential email recipients are using, select one of the following formats when composing your message:  RTF, HTML or Plain Text.  This ensures your email will arrive in a format the recipient can read.

To remove Word as the email editor, launch Outlook.  Then click Tools, Options, Mail Format, and clear the two "Use Microsoft Word to..." boxes: