# Outlook 2003 - Can't see reply text



## finewine291 (Mar 2, 2007)

I have users that are running Outlook 2003. We have various clients that run other email aps and progs such as Lotus. For some reason certain emails that we get back (replies to emails we send) are coming back blank. There isn't a problem with receiving the email. It's that there is no actual text in the reply. I have made adjustments such as reading all incoming mail in plain text. I have disabled such things as editing in Microsoft Word for editing and reading rich text emails. I scanned all computers for possible viruses and worms. All are clean. I am stumped with this one. Does anyone know of a possible reason that there isn't any text in the reply emails?


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## scott_seattle (Mar 13, 2007)

I have had the exact same problem with replies from two people in Canada. I send them an email, they reply, and I get their email but there is no reply text. It just looks like they hit reply and then send, without typing anything. If they add text to the subject line, I see that, but not text in the body of the email. I'm also using Outlook 2003, and I have looked at all my settings and cannot see anything that seems out of place.


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

Is there no text or is there text that you just can't see.


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## scott_seattle (Mar 13, 2007)

In my case, there is no text. The body of the email looks exactly like what I sent, so if I wrote "Hi Joe" on the first line, that is what appears at the top of the text section of the reply from Joe. There is not a gap where there ought to be the reply text.
I tried forwarding to hotmail and it looked the same.


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## Ny6258 (Mar 21, 2007)

I have had the same problem with various users too. If I send them an email directly they can read it, but if I reply to their email they have no text in the body of the message. 

I suspect that it is connected with some Patches that were rolled out via WSUS in February since that is when it started. Microsoft released a lot of Rich Text related updates that month too. I have not identified which one yet, or what to do to fix it. Any ideas?


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

As a test, what happens if you use Plain Text.


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## Ny6258 (Mar 21, 2007)

*Bob Cerelli*
Sorry... I fixed the problem for the user before I saw your post so I didn't get a chance to test that. I am assuming from the fix though that using plain text would have worked fine since it ended up being a font problem. Her plain text font was set to Courier which was not corrupted. See below for an explanation 

*finewine291* and *scott_seattle*
Here is something to try. Go to the C:\Windows\Fonts directory and sort by file size. (you'll have to be on the details view) See if there are any font files that are 0kb in size. If Outlook is trying to use a font that got corrupted then it may be the source of the "Invalid RTF" message.

I just fixed the problem for the user I mentioned above... they had 30-40 zero kb fonts. I am suspecting that one of the updates in February caused the corruption in the font files since that is when the behavior started. Once I deleted the corrupted fonts and set outlook to use another font (I chose Arial since its standard and similar to what they were using) the problem they were having with no text in reply messages went away. Don't forget the autosignatures too... if they are set to use a font that is corrupted or no longer exists the same behavior will happen.

I still suspect that the patches caused the font corruption since I had a number of users all have the problem starting the same day we rolled them out.


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

Glad you got it working.

Think it may have been something other than the updates. Have three computers with Office2003 and latest updates. None have corrupted 0 byte files. What is the date on those files?

--

Addition. Just did another Office2003 update an again no corrupted fonts.


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## Ny6258 (Mar 21, 2007)

You are right... I cannot say for sure or not if it was the updates that caused the problem. But we rolled them out to about 5,000 computers in the morning of Feb 14th and in the afternoon we got about 5-10 reports of this "Invalid RTF" problem on users computers. Combine that with the fact that many of the Security bulletins (both Windows and Office Updates) were related to RTFs and you have a real coincidence on your hands. But it would be difficult to prove one way or the other since we did have such a low rate of failure.

Unfortunatly I did not get a date on the files before I deleted them.


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

5-10 out of 5,000 is a pretty low percentage


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## scott_seattle (Mar 13, 2007)

I checked and do not have any 0kb font files. As with certain people not receiving attachments, I have not had the problem when I use plain text, just rich text or HTML.


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## MarioGian (Aug 14, 2007)

Having the same problem here with not being able to see the reply text in some messages.
When I go directly to my WebMail from my ISP , the reply text shows there, also shows in my blackberry phone. But it won't show in Outlook 2003.
Have also tried changing how text is handled from HTML to RTF and still can't see reply. Same problem with all 3 computers and the laptop with Outlook 2003.
Never had this problem with same people replying to me and I receiving reply in Bellsouth Webmail, Incredimail or AOL.
Disappointed to have switched to Outlook 2003 to find this problem, most mail handlers will read anything. Considering upgrading to Office 2007 to see if that would fix the problem


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

Seems to be a problem with IE7 and Office2003.


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## MarioGian (Aug 14, 2007)

Just seen your reply about the problem of not seeing the reply text with Outlook 2003.
Being that the problem is apparently related to IE7 and Office 2003 , what are other users doing to reach a solution with this issue ?? Just consider a certain amount of missing replys in 5000 computers an acceptable loss?? If it wasn't for my blackberry, I wouldn't be able to read the replys to now several text messages in Outlook 2003 and I only converted to Outlook when I bought the blackberry so I could synchronize contacts 10 days ago.
Otherwise I would have never known about this and i been recommending it to lots of clients. I'm sure they are having the same issues, not just a handful out of 5000, as most of our large group use an assortment of mail handlers such as WebMail for Comcast, Bellsouth, Road Runner, ACC, Incredimail, AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.
I can see where an office of people that all use Outlook , a handful would not be so disturbing but then again if all are using Outlook 2003 then they should not be having this problem. Also, many other users maybe having same problem and just sending some other sort of reply maybe by phone or fax to communicate their business when it happens and may not have reported it. I was at al loss when it first happened.
I may be able to narrow it down, it appears that sometimes when some graphics are imbedded in the e-mail , the problem is more recurrent.


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

"i been recommending it to lots of clients."

What have you been recommending?


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## MarioGian (Aug 14, 2007)

Since most businesses use Outlook and some fiends and clients are still using direct webmail from their websites and/or ISP's , I have been using Outlook Express for years.
Recently a colleage asked me how come I don't use Outlook 2003 which came with my Office 2003 Professional. 
Some also were told by their Web Designers to use Outlook.
In general it si a great way to organize mail, contacts, phone numbers, addresses , etc.
But what of this glitch with the can't see reply text ??
I'm sure some are going to be as dumbfounded as I am.
Most everybody has the Office 2003 and are waiting to see if the Office 2007 doesn't have any bugs. Also the 2007 needs a lot more Ram to run.
When they ask how to synch their Palm or a Blackberry, you pretty much have to rely top anyone to switch to Outlook.
Maybe I should switch back to Office 2000 and I won't have this problem


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

Another option is to simply not install IE7. This is assuming you don't have Vista on all those computers. 

Or configure Outlook for plain text.

But as I recall the problem is only with text that was sent using HTML.


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## Eugene7 (Aug 16, 2007)

I have exactly the same issue, but is seems to be when e-mails are sent from people NOT using Outlook for their e-mail client...

Any further thoughts as I really need to fix this!

Steve


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## Eugene7 (Aug 16, 2007)

Update on this is that all the problems I am having with ni seeing 'reply' text is from people using Lotus Notes...

No idea on a fix though!

Steve


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## finewine291 (Mar 2, 2007)

Thanks for everyone's input on this topic. All of the computers I manager are still running IE 6 (or 6.5) whichever version is the latest before IE 7. Upgrading everyone to 7 would be a loooooong day for me because of having to train them on using it. I have a lot of semi-literate-computer users. This being the case it rules out the IE7 possibility. I haven't checked the fonts yet but I have a feeling that is not it.

The problem seems to happen when the other person sending the email is using Lotus, or Corel Wordperfect applications. I have done some testing with a friend who uses Lotus and we were able to send emails back and forth in all different formats with no problems. I am guessing that there may be a patch or something that is missing on the sender's end for the emails that are missing the email body. 

I hate telling my co-workers that there is nothing I can do about it but unfortunately I don't have another answer. The only thing I can say is that the client needs to contact their IT department. I hate saying that but it only happens occasionally and with only certain clients that are using Corel or Lotus. (Not all Corel and Lotus users.)

Again, thank you everyone for your input and I will double check the font file.

Jennifer


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

As always, getting the relevant information up front is always faster to getting a solution.

What format is the text being sent as (Plain, HTML or Rich Text)?
What format is Outlook configured for?

"I have done some testing with a friend who uses Lotus and we were able to send emails back and forth in all different formats with no problems."

What are the details to the test?


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## finewine291 (Mar 2, 2007)

Normally the employees use HTML format however if they are having problems I always tell them to switch to plain text. It doesn't seem to make a difference.

When I did the testing with the Lotus notes user we sent messages back and forth in HTML, RTF, and plain text. All came back fine.

This is problem that really needs to get fixed. The employees can go to their personal email accounts (yahoo, hotmail, gmail) and send and receive everything okay with the same client who could not receive the email from Outlook in any format. This reinforces the fact that it is a bug with Outlook.

I also posted another thread on Outlook converting PDF files to win.dat files. (Another Outlook 2003 problem) Any input on that problem wold be helpful also.

Thank You,
Jennifer


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

Are the Outlook users switching to plain text before the message is read. Switching afterwards might not solve the problem.

So a test would be:

Have the Outlook user switch to plain text
Have the Lotus user send an e-mail in plain text
Then open the e-mail in Outlook and send a reply


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## finewine291 (Mar 2, 2007)

They don't switch to plain text until after they have opened the email in html since that is their default setting. I don't think I can get everyone to switch to plain text. They like all of the fancy fonts and pictures.

Unfortunately, I can't ask the lotus users to switch to plain text. Most of the time they are computer illeterate and I would be on the phone all day long trying to solve email conflicts. 

My thought on the whole thing is this. If my employees can go out to yahoo etc. which is html, send an email to the client, they can read it, then the client doesn't have a problem viewing html emails. The client can then email back to the webmail and all text is visible. I don't think it is a general html error unless it is an html error in Outlook.

I was hoping someone knew of a patch or quick fix. I will check the fonts tomorrow. I guess this one will go as unsolved for the time being. I haven't given up on this. This is a huge thorn in my side.


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## kdh_dtmnd (Sep 5, 2007)

Have the same problem as reported above. Some (but interesting: Not all!) of MS Outlook 2003 recipients does not receive reply texts sent by Lotus Notes users. 
We did another test that we asked a Lotus Notes user (from Atlanta) to reply to our MS Outlook 2003 messages. The reply was received on four machines (1 as direct recipient, 3 of them as CC): Two of them received the message and can read the reply text and on two machines the reply text on top of our original message was like being cut. Font-check on all machines brought no results. So we configured outlook to leave the messages on our mailserver and inspected the raw messages on how they are stored in the (Linux-) sendmail mailboxes: The mail was sent by Lotus Notes as multipart message (assuming this is the normal way how html formatted messages are transferred). Those html messages contains the message text twice: Plain text and html coded in different mime sections. We found that the html section of this raw mail file on the server was EMPTY! So may this could be (at least part of) the problem?? I am thinking of a scenario like: The message which should be displayed by Outlook contains an empty html and a plaintext section; Outlook ignores/discards the plain text section and displays the html section. Other mail clients may not proceed in this way and display the plaintext section in case html section is empty. If this _is_ the problem, I might be interesting to find out, why Lotus sends an empty html section or how to configure the two mail clients in a different way.  Anyone of you guys might have a clue of this?
Would be thankful for any comment and will go on testing and report here if anyone else is interested in further results.

Klaus


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## Eugene7 (Aug 16, 2007)

I have managed to fix this problem - and it wasn't easy to understand (still isn't!).

The issue is with Outlook and the way it sends the original message that is then replied to.

If you go to Contacts, select the contact you have problems with so you see the full contact details page, then double click the contact's e-mail address you should get a small box pop-up that shows e-mail properties.

If this box doesn't appear you will have issues sending e-mail to this address.

If it does pop-up there should be 4 info boxes, and the last one should say 'Let Outlook decide the best sending format'. If is says 'Send using Outlook Ritch Text Format' you will also have the same problem.

With e-mail contacts that don't show the pop-up info box I had to delete their contact details and re-write them.

No idea how Outlook gets into this state, but I no longer have the problem.

Hope this helps.

Steve


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

So this solves it but only on a contact by contact basis and only after you know there is a problem with each particular contact. Is that correct?

For those computers that were working before, is that what was done to make it work?


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## Eugene7 (Aug 16, 2007)

Hi Bob,

It seems that way - I have no idea why but the test is to see if the details provided by Outlook are as I describe or not.

I had no issues before, but for some reason a few of my contacts started playing up... no idea why, but what I describe fixed them.

If you have issues with all contacts I have no idea if this is the same problem or not.

Be very interested to see if this works for you with a test selection of contacts you have been having problems with...

Steve


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

So for those computers that were working before, is that what was done to make it work?

This is to help figure out why some of your computers worked and some didn't.


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## finewine291 (Mar 2, 2007)

I have been continuing to deal with this problem. This is what I have found. It is definately an Outlook 2003 problem. (I am not sure if this problem exists in other versions.)

I have been closely watching the emails that arrive without the email body text. I am able to go out to the webmail client and view the body text with no problem. In addition to this I have had some clients say that any .PDF documents we send to them are arriving as win.dat files. These are sent from the same pc's that cannot view the email body text. When I send the same exact PDF file from the webmail client they are able to view the PDF with no problem. It arrives as a PDF.

Now that I know it is a definate Outlook problem, it would explain why some employees can see email sent from a particular client while another employee cannot. The next step I am taking is to make sure that all pc's that are experiencing the problem have all of the updates installed that have been released by Microsoft. I am suspecting that not all of the computers have all of the updates installed.

I will post the results here.

Jen


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## Eugene7 (Aug 16, 2007)

Ok, what you are describing about .pdf attachments and the win.dat file that lotus notes users end up seeing is exactly what I experienced.

It is not a software update issue, but is as I described (or it was for me) with the settings on Outlokk allowing some messages to go out as Ritch Text e-mail, rather than HTML or plain txt to specific contacts.

If you look what I did I think you will find the issue is to do with the individual settings for each address contact held in Outlook.

Really hope this info helps.

Steve


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## finewine291 (Mar 2, 2007)

Can I set the settings for for rich text or html for each individual contact? I thought that was a "global" setting for all emails.

Jen


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## finewine291 (Mar 2, 2007)

Steve,

I reread your post. 

I will try this tomorrow. I am crossing my fingers.

Jen


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## Beckyk (Sep 14, 2007)

I have been reading your posts trying to resolve a similar issue. 

My issue is when recieving an email there is no text that is showing. I thought the individual just forgot to include the text. I went to reply to the email and the text displays in the window. 

I have checked all the things you mentioned here. I have tried changing the users settings to html, rich text, plain text, and checked to see that the contacts settings were set correctly in the properties setting.

This is only happening with one end user's email when he recieves from just this individual that I can tell. I don't know for sure when it actually started....so don't know what the possible cause could have been. 

I can open it using OWA without any problems....all text is there. I can reply to it....all there. I can forward it.....all text there.

Any help would be appreciated!


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## Eugene7 (Aug 16, 2007)

Hi Beckyk,

All I can say is that what you describe is very similar to my initial issue when receiving mail from a Lotus Notes user who is replying to a message first sent from Outlook as a Microsoft Rich Text e-mail.

I found the only way to fix the issue is to check the settings for the specific user as I described previously - not via the global settings - and set them to let Outlook decide the best sending format.

Hope this helps.

Steve


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## finewine291 (Mar 2, 2007)

Update!

Steve, the fix partially worked. I had my coworker add the person directly in their contacts. I double checked the properties and made sure that "Let Outlook decide..." was selected. When my Coworker Kathy sent the email, the client got the email, could read it, and could open the PDF attachment. The client replied to Kathy's email and Kathy could read the reply text. Now, this is where it starts to go wrong. Kathy then replied back to the client using the same email and the client could read her text and still view the attachment. The client then replied back (so this is the 4th email in the chain) and boom...kathy couldn't read the reply text. The attachment had also turned into a win.dat file.

The problem is partially fixed. I am planning on explaining to a group of coworkers how to deal with the problem. They will have to use a new email for each time they need to send a message to the client. (No replies)

At least now they will be able to use their work email account in communicating with all clients.

Steve, have you experienced the same issue?

Jen


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## Eugene7 (Aug 16, 2007)

Do you have more than one entry for the client in Contacts (local or server?)?
Since I did the specific contact change mentioned I've had no further issues.
I just wonder if the second reply from your coworker went via the original e-mail address for your client - the faulty one?

Steve


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## finewine291 (Mar 2, 2007)

No - they were added in for the first time into Contacts. I am wondering if maybe that 'unsupported' database that has the preciously typed email address in it might have something to do with it. (The database that holds all email addresses a person types. It auto completes email addresses. Even those not stored in Contacts.)

I will try deleting that entry and run another test. Maybe somehow a property is associated with that non-supported auto complete entry.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Jen


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