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Outlook's Font button is disabled

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› Outlook › Outlook’s Font button is disabled

Last reviewed on March 24, 2017     11 Comments

Applies to: Outlook 2016 (Win), Outlook 2013, Outlook 2010, Outlook 2007

A user contacted me with a problem:

When I go to File, Options, Stationery and Fonts in Outlook, the buttons to change fonts are greyed out. How do I fix this?

It sounds like you are using a default theme for your email. When a theme is assigned, you have three choices for the font: Use theme's font, Use my font when replying and forwarding messages, and Always use my font.

using themes affects font options

When Use theme's font is selected, the buttons to change the font will be disabled. Choose Always use my font to enable both Font… buttons or Use my font when replying… to enable the Font button for Replies and Forwards.

Outlook's Font button is disabled was last modified: March 24th, 2017 by Diane Poremsky
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Related Posts:

  • Understanding Fonts and the +Body Style
  • Always use a New Window to Compose Replies
  • To Change the Font on Incoming Messages
  • Change the size of the font in Outlook's Folder list

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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Emile (@guest_219889)
December 1, 2022 2:36 am
#219889

Hello!
I follow your procedure but the default font (Arial)t always come back when I restart Outlook.
I think it is because "Default Button" is inactive (see image)

Default Font button inactive.png
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AKM (@guest_218511)
July 7, 2021 11:43 am
#218511

Most Helpful... God bless

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coldinak13 (@guest_217937)
April 16, 2021 12:38 pm
#217937

Thank you! Was banging my head over this one.

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Julian Cribb (@guest_215065)
April 20, 2020 2:44 am
#215065

I cant find where to do this in Outlook. It doesn't have a button called 'signatures and stationery'

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Niceday (@guest_214613)
January 15, 2020 1:46 pm
#214613

still not working, Office 365 Outlook is a disaster.

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Mike Cunningham (@guest_212820)
February 22, 2019 6:47 pm
#212820

I had no theme selected, and I could not change the font color on a reply...the selection box was grayed out. Similar to the conditions reported above.

So, I selected a theme, any one will work. Having done the selection, I was then able to choose "always use my font." Next I selected "No Theme", which was my preference. I opened No Theme and the font selection was activated. I changed the font and color and the problem was remedied.

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Francisco (@guest_209708)
December 19, 2017 1:56 pm
#209708

How could this possibly be the result of reasoning There should be no connection between them and the ability to determine font colour. It does not add any value for the user, but does create the problem of having to set the font colour manually every time a reply is being drafted since the default is red. What was MS thinking?

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Diane Poremsky(@diane-poremsky)
Author
Reply to  Francisco
December 19, 2017 2:07 pm
#209709

They figured if you choose to use a stationery theme as your default message format, you want to use the fonts the stationery designer picked.

Pick new color when replying option should be available-if its picking red, try turning it off.

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Joe D. (@guest_210755)
Reply to  Francisco
March 30, 2018 4:35 pm
#210755

I'm with Francisco on this. There are so many weird, convoluted issues like this within MS products. For me, I had my font options greyed out in Outlook today and still haven't figured out why. I tried the solution in this article, but it didn't work for me. But then, I wasn't using stationary at all. I had "no theme" selected (and always had). And yet still my font options are greyed out. I figure I shouldn't have to spend an hour cruising the internet figuring out how to make bold text in my email!
I fired up a competing email program, copied and pasted my text from Outlook, and hit "control+B", Ta-da! Bold text. Done. That's how easy it SHOULD be.

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Diane Poremsky(@diane-poremsky)
Author
Reply to  Joe D.
April 1, 2018 9:17 pm
#210760

Is this with Outlook on a new computer? There are issues with some features because OEMs are shipping the store version preinstalled - there can be problems if you install a regular version without removing the store version.

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Julian Cribb (@guest_215066)
Reply to  Joe D.
April 20, 2020 2:58 am
#215066

Same issue. Microsoft keep greying out the fonts for no reason.

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