I have been constantly having to go though the highlight and five-click process for every e-mail message to turn off the the retched "feature" that adds the space between paragraphs. I even tried to use the "Set as default" option.

I have been drawn to my wits end with this.
What can I do to turn this %^$# thing off permanently?

The paragraph spacing is controlled by the styles and formatting setup that you have.

The simpliest way is to draft your emails in plain text. No paragraph spacing is involved.

Alternatively, if you prefer to send HTML emails, go to the "Format text" tab, right click on the normal style, select modify.

Then click the the bottom left "format" button, select "paragraph...".

Under "spacing", change the values to 0 for both before and after.

Jay

thanks, It looks like it worked.
It looks like you cannot get to Format Text unless you have a valid e-mail address in the e-mail message.

I wonder why when I hit Format Text, Paragraphs, and click on "Don't add space between paragraphs of the same style, then click on "Set as default". It did not set as default.

I also clicked on "All documents..." when it asked me "Do you want to set the default alignment, indentation and spacing of the paragraphs for: All documents..."

Did I do something wrong? Does this "feature" not work? I ask only for when I run into something like this again I might know what to do...

Nope, it looked like it did at first, and it looks like it changed back when I exited Outlook 2010 and opened it again.

Can this be connected with my problem with the E-mail address look up?
When I address an e-mail message, I hit D and get a list of mostly useless e-mail addresses that I have used in the past. I highlight them and delete them but they return next e-mail address...

I did the delete all and cleared out the contacts but if used since then, they remain un-deletable in the queue. I only mention this in this note in case the two might be related...

You are right. I forgot one step. It didn't work because we were just modifying the style for one session. In other words, we did not modify the normal template.

Sometimes the "set as default" feature is flaky. I don't really use that, so I can't comment.

What I prefer to do is to open the email normal template directly and edit it. It's easier to backup my customizations that way.

Launch Word. From Word, open C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Temp lates/NormalEmail.dotm

You have to open from Word instead of opening the file directly. In Word, go to the Home tab, Styles group.

Right click on the normal style, select modify.

Then click the the bottom left "format" button, select "paragraph...".

Under "spacing", change the values to 0 for both before and after.

Save and close the template. That should work.

Jay

It makes sense to edit the original file and yes, again it looks like it is going to work.

Funny how it takes time or figure out a typo. Your directions said to look for the "/Temp lates/" folder. I was wondering what are temporary "lates".

Just as when I stayed up all night wondering where the sun went...
Suddenly it dawned on me...
(-:

Thanks again...

You cured a strong peeve on mine. All one has to do is hit <Enter> a second time when they want to add a space between paragraphs.
I wonder why was the added space the default.