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.

Haha. Nice quip about the sun.

You're welcome. Glad your peeve is fixed.

Can you believe it? it is not working again...
I now have three situations that reset after "fixing" them. Is there any possibility that these are all related (well, other than being MS)?

1) I cannot permanently eliminate the extra space after paragraphs. (This is after editing the NormalEmail.Dotm template)
2) I enable the "remove cursor when typing" option but it only works for a while.
3) I can delete the auto-complete entries in e-mail and delete the entries as contacts but they keep coming back in auto-complete. (and this is after cleaning up the contacts, using the delete all option, and rebuilding the list of auto-completes that I actually want..)




ccckkkkkk "The Shark is working"
Three minutes later...
ccckkkkkk "The shark is not working...."

When you reopened the email normal template again after your problem resurfaced, was the paragraph spacings in the Normal style reseted?

Jay

Just did it again and it does seem to stick. I have tried this so many times, I now have the template folder as a desktop shortcut.

One thing that is annoying is that when I go to save, it doesn't go back into the same folder but tosses it off into the Documents library and I have to go rename the original, chase the new version and put it back in the templates folder. )-: It is possible that this may have been part of the problem in earlier attempts but I am sure I did all this back then..

For now, it seems to be sticking.
Optimistically, it might work this time...

I have two thoughts based on what you recounted.

1. Did you edit the normal template by opening it from Word or from the folder? If you open it from the folder by launching the file, the modifications will not be made to the template. You'll have to launch word, and open the template from Word.

2. Is your workstation personal or an office PC? It could be, though unlikely, that there is some kind of group policy/ script that's rewriting the template periodically to ensure that users don't "tamper" with it.

Jay

1) I will keep this in mind. I went to the folder and double clicked on it to do the edit. It still seems to be working as I want it. Time will tell.

2) no office here, just my own terminal although it is networked wit a server. I doubt that any of the installation went there though.

Thanks for the solution

It looks like when I reply to an e-mail message, that my MS Office takes on the setting of whoever sent the original e-mail message. As idiotic as it sounds, it seems to be the pattern. Who is the yoop that set this to default in the first place?