How Do I Make Text In Incoming Email In Outlook 2016 For Mac

Learn techniques for quickly organizing your inbox, managing incoming messages, and replying to emails, as well as a few other cool tricks, like dictating email messages in Outlook. This course also helps you manage your appointments, share calendars, work with contacts, and stay on task with Outlook for Mac 2016. Set the option to read all incoming email as plain text if it is necessary to increase the text size of all incoming emails. To do this, go to 'Tools', then click on 'Options,' then look for the button that says 'Email Options' and click 'Read all Standard Mail as Plain Text.'

Change the text size of the sidebar, message list, and reading pane (*This feature requires macOS 10.11 and later.)

You now have the ability to increase the display size of the sidebar (1), mail list (2), and reading pane (3) text.

1. Go to Outlook > Preferences > Fonts.

2. Move the slider left or right.

Change the font size temporarily for messages

To temporarily increase or decrease the font size of messages:

1. Select a message from your Inbox or other folder, including Sent and Drafts.

2. Select Format > Increase Font Size or Decrease Font Size.

   The changes will be applied to all mail in the selected folder, or subfolder. However, if you navigate to a mail in another folder or subfolder, you will lose your changes. For a more permanent solution to change the font size, you can change the text size of the sidebar, message list, and reading pane and change the font size of incoming or outgoing messages.

Note: Incoming HTML messages often have font styles and font sizes applied to the text. The default font and font sizes that you select will not affect the formatting of these incoming messages.

Choose a default font

To change the default font for incoming and outgoing messages:

1. Select Outlook > Preferences > Fonts.

2. In the Default fonts for composing messages section click the Font button next to the composition style you want to edit. For example, click Font next to New mail to select a default font for new messages, or next to Reply or forward to set a font for outgoing messages.

3. On the Font tab, choose the default Font, Font style, Size, Color & Underline, and Effects.

4. On the Advanced tab, adjust default character spacing and typography.

5. Click OK to save the changes.

6. Repeat steps 2 through 5 for each composition style you want to edit.

Change the text size when composing an email

You can make your text larger or smaller when composing an email message. This is a temporary setting that's only used during the compose phase. The font returns to its default size once you send the message.

1. Place the cursor in the body of the email message you're composing.

2. Select Format > Zoom.

3. Select a zoom percentage or enter a custom percent.

See Also

Two questions:

(1) Is it possible to change the default font and size of text for INCOMING plain text emails in Outlook 2016 for Mac? It seems to be fixed on Consolas 11 point, which is tough to read on large monitors.

I appreciate that the display size can be increased for an individual email. But it is a hassle to do that for every email. So I am looking for a way to change the default.

(2) Is it possible to change the default font of text on INCOMING HTML messages that have no font set by the sender?

Incoming Mail

To avoid an unhelpful answer I should explain that I understand that you cannot change the font in HTML messages when it has been set by the email client of the person who sends the message.

But several popular email clients by default, do not set a font in HTML messages (e.g. gmail, Apple Mail). So the email text appears in Outlook on the recipients machine in whatever font Outlook chooses to display them in by default.

The problem is, on some of my machines Outlook will display an email with no font set by the sender as 12 point Times New Roman, on other machines as 14 point Calibri and on some machines a difficult to read font like 13 point Futura. There seems no explanation for this difference and no way to change it.

I'd be VERY grateful for help.

Free Incoming Email Alerts

Conrad