# Outlook Express typeface  question

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outlook-express-typeface-question/510729>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 19, 2009, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outlook-express-typeface-question/510729 "2009-09-19T18:01:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2009, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outlook-express-typeface-question/510729/1 "2009-09-19T18:01:13Z")

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I type my message in the New Message box and it appears in the typeface Arial in 10 pt. Then I cut and paste something that is in a different, bold type face. I can convert it to Arial by going to the Font drop down menu. But I can’t ‘un-bold’ it. I highlight it and click on the ‘B’ but nothing happens. Worse, everything I type after the cut and pasted text remains bold no matter what typeface I try to change it to.

How do you get back to Arial ‘not bold’ in the message?

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**Author:** ![fubbleskag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fubbleskag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fubbleskag)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2009, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outlook-express-typeface-question/510729/2 "2009-09-19T20:20:48Z")

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I haven’t used Outlook in some time, and Express in even longer, but until you figure it out I can offer a work-around. Paste your text into Notepad first, then re-copy from there and paste into Outlook - doing so converts the paste to plain text, stripping out all the formatting. This should also retain your current typeface when you then paste into Outlook.

(There may also be an option under the Edit menu called Paste Special - if it’s there, use that instead of the above, and choose “Text” or “Plain Text” or similar. This basically does the same as my work-around above, but I don’t recall if OE has that menu option or not).

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**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2009, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outlook-express-typeface-question/510729/3 "2009-09-19T20:53:30Z")

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Highlight what you want to change and click on the “paragraph style” icon (to the right of where you can change the font size) and click on “Normal” in the pop-up box.

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**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2009, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outlook-express-typeface-question/510729/4 "2009-09-19T22:50:27Z")

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Not familiar with Outlook . . . but here’s a possible solution. Convert the text to a font that doesn’t have a bold version, then back to Arial. Of course this won’t work if Outlook creates a pseudo-bold in the absence of a bold font.

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**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 2009, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outlook-express-typeface-question/510729/5 "2009-09-20T00:41:58Z")

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> [@x-ray\_vision](#):
>
> Highlight what you want to change and click on the “paragraph style” icon (to the right of where you can change the font size) and click on “Normal” in the pop-up box.

Thanks to everyone, but this is the easy way. Not very intuitive (to me, obviously) that Paragraph Style would be the place to change the font characteristics, but there it is.