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To Use Internet-Style Quoting

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› Outlook › Email › To Use Internet-Style Quoting

Last reviewed on December 1, 2017     13 Comments

Applies to: Outlook (classic), Outlook 2010, Outlook 2016 (Mac)

Internet-style quoting consists of putting a > or other character in front of the original message when you reply or forward it. Recipients can easily distinguish the original message from your comments. This method is preferred on many Internet mailing lists that transmit in plain text only

The default setting in current versions of Outlook in no quoting, no indentation. This can be changed to use a quote prefix, indent quoted messages, or attach quoted messages. We do not recommend using the Indent or Attach options.

Note that the quote prefix character (usually ">") is applied only to plain text messages. When you enable this option and reply to an HTML message, the quoted message is prefaced with a blue line.

Quote prefix on plain text messagesHTML replies with quote prefix enabled

Outlook 98 or later | Other Tools | Notes | More Information

Outlook 2010, 2013, 2016

  1. Choose File, Options, Mail
  2. In the Replies and forwards section (about halfway down the dialog), choose Prefix each line of the original message.
  3. Enter the desired prefix character in the Preface each line in a plain text message with: field.
    Change the Quote prefix in Mail options

We highly recommend using > as the character as its the commonly accepted quote-prefix.

Outlook 2007 and older

  1. Choose Tools | Options. On the Preferences tab, click E-mail Options.
  2. Under When replying to a message and When forwarding a message, choose Prefix each line of the original message.
  3. Set the prefix character(s) under Prefix each line with.
  4. Click OK twice.

Preferences, Email options dialog in Outlook 2007 (and older)

Outlook 2016 for Mac

Outlook for Mac doesn't support changing the reply format to include line prefixes. The only option is to indent or not (with separate options for HTML or plain text message format). Unlike Outlook for Windows, you can change the reply header format.

To access the options in Outlook for Mac, click on Outlook in the top bar and choose Preferences from the menu then click Composing.
Outlook for Mac preferences

The only reply format option is to indent the original message (or not). This setting can be different for HTML and plain text messages. Outlook for Mac users also have the option to customize the reply header block.
Compose Options on a Mac

 

Tools

Email Templates

Exchange/Outlook add-on to create custom replies, forwards, signatures -- inserting any type of boilerplate text into your message. Templates are stored in Outlook or Exchange folders and can contain scripting elements (in VBScript or ET's own script language) to build replies that use information from the incoming message. Various extensions can handle such tasks as mailing list subscriptions. For a rotating quote, download the Rotating Text template. Has some issues with Outlook 2002 -- make sure you get the latest update, disable RTF templates, and don't try to use ET as a custom action in Rules Wizard.

To Use Internet-Style Quoting was last modified: December 1st, 2017 by Diane Poremsky

Related Posts:

  • The Blue Line and Inline Replies in HTML messages
  • To Control Line Length in Internet messages
  • To Change the Look of Outlook Replies
  • Read Outlook Messages using Plain Text

About Diane Poremsky

A Microsoft Outlook Most Valuable Professional (MVP) since 1999, Diane is the author of several books, including Outlook 2013 Absolute Beginners Book. She also created video training CDs and online training classes for Microsoft Outlook. You can find her helping people online in Outlook Forums as well as in the Microsoft Answers and TechNet forums.

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Jeff Hammond (@guest_203646)
January 2, 2017 12:27 pm
#203646

How can I make this work in Mac Outlook 2016? These option are not present there.

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Diane Poremsky(@diane-poremsky)
Author
Reply to  Jeff Hammond
January 3, 2017 12:37 pm
#203681

Outlook for Mac lacks many of the options that Outlook for windows has... the closest it comes to this is in Outlook > Preferences > Composing - you can set it to indent the lines (but not add carets >) and change the reply header.

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Reply
Sean (@guest_210792)
Reply to  Diane Poremsky
April 5, 2018 7:08 pm
#210792

Thanks for the article Diane... It is annoying that Outlook won't let you choose to prefix HTML messages with the > character rather than the line.

As an aside, this is the first time I've heard > referred to as a caret... wherever I've worked (Europe, Australia and NZ) a 'caret' has always been ^ and > and < have always been 'greater than' and 'less than' symbols. What do you call the ^ character?

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Diane Poremsky(@diane-poremsky)
Author
Reply to  Sean
April 5, 2018 11:58 pm
#210796

you are correct - its not really a caret, but its less typing :) less than or angle bracket would be the proper term. I clearly wasn't thinking when i typed it.

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Christophe (@guest_203400)
December 14, 2016 6:26 pm
#203400

Is there any way (possibly using VBA) of coloring different level of quotations when receiving plain text messages?

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Diane Poremsky(@diane-poremsky)
Author
Reply to  Christophe
December 14, 2016 11:16 pm
#203406

No, the editor doesn't support that in plain text messages.

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Kevin (@guest_181608)
January 30, 2014 1:07 pm
#181608

Anyone know how to do this with webmail?

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Diane Poremsky (@guest_181610)
Reply to  Kevin
January 30, 2014 1:55 pm
#181610

In OWA or other email read in a browser? You are limited to what the server's mail application provides. I'm not aware of any way to change it. I'm not aware of any browser extensions that could change it either, but that might be worth looking into.

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0
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Didi (@guest_180062)
October 26, 2013 11:11 pm
#180062

Thanx a lot!

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0
Reply
Didi (@guest_180056)
October 25, 2013 11:56 pm
#180056

How can I change these properties using VBA?
I like your posts :-)
-Didi

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Diane Poremsky (@guest_180057)
Reply to  Didi
October 26, 2013 5:04 am
#180057

The settings in Options are stored in the registry. You can either use a reg file or set it using vba.
read-and-change-a-registry-key-using-vba has code to read, change, delete, and add keys & values.

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Name (@guest_20698)
November 14, 2011 4:26 am
#20698

Wrong instructions for Outlook 2007. In the Options tab there is no such thing as Preferences tab and email options.

Will search the Internet for better information.

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Diane Poremsky (@guest_20708)
Reply to  Name
November 14, 2011 4:50 am
#20708

Um... where are you looking? There *is* a Preference tab in Tools, Options (its the default tab) and it has Email options on it. (Will add a screenshot to the instructions.)

2
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