# Why can't I "Paste Special" in MS Outlook HTML message?



## BudFox007 (Feb 8, 2001)

By default I use the "HTML" format for my outgoing Outlook messages. Whenever I need to paste something into my message, such as a portion of a Word doc or a website, I normaly like to do this without any formatting. Normally, when you use the "Rich Text" message format instead of "HTML", you have the "Paste Special" option in the Edit menu which allows you to paste only the text without formatting. Why is this option not available when you use the "HTML" message format? 

My current work-around is to paste my selection into Notepad first and then into the e-mail but I was hoping to skip this step.

Any thoughts?


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## Mr_Webmaster (May 16, 2003)

If you have office 2002, you should have a little icon at the end of the text that you click. The other option is to set the prefrences to use Word as your E-mail editor.


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## Anne Troy (Feb 14, 1999)

Rich text format in Outlook should NEVER be used to send mail to non-Outlook users. That's because it's ONLY an Outlook format and not a true email format.

That's also why the paste special isn't available. The only workaround I can suggest is lame, of course: open a new doc, do your paste special, then copy and paste into OL.


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