Is there a way to set the default font weight in Outlook 2011?

Is there a way to select a specific weight of a given font family to use for new messages, either in the GUI or by directly modifying a preferences file somewhere?

There doesn't appear to be a method for selecting a particular font weight in the new message default font dialogue box. For example: I can select Calibri, but not specifically Calibri Light.

default font selection dialog box

However, once I've started a new message, I can use the drop-down font selection box and select choose..., which brings up a totally different dialog that enables me to select light from the typeface list box.

enter image description here

microsoft-outlook-2011

Adam Wuerl

Posted 2013-05-19T23:25:21.660

Reputation: 745

Answers

Open the Outlook plist file.

Location of Outlook 2011 plist file

Edit the HTMLWebPrefsIdentifierWebKitStandardFont key to call out the desired font, e.g.:

<key>HTMLWebPrefsIdentifierWebKitStandardFont</key>  
<string>Calibri-Light</string>

Adam Wuerl

Posted 2013-05-19T23:25:21.660

Reputation: 745

Minor note: to see the ~/Library folder in Finder, execute "chflags nohidden ~/Library/" – David Hergert – 2014-11-24T21:16:34.783

1Even better, you don't need Finder... just execute

"defaults write com.microsoft.Outlook.plist HTMLWebPrefsIdentifierWebKitStandardFont Calibri-Light"

Something I just realized: on OSX the font is "Calibri-Light" but on Windows its called "Calibri Light" so when people view your emails on Windows, it will look like crap. I don't understand why they can't be named the same. It appears OSX (or at least Outlook) uses the font's PostScript name. – David Hergert – 2014-11-24T22:20:29.300

As far as I have found on Google, there's no way to increase font size, unless you zoom the whole page.

However, if you think that solution would fit your needs, i found this link that sets up a workaround, in order to zoom only some applications.

Outlook 2011, font too small

Andrea Gottardi

Posted 2013-05-19T23:25:21.660

Reputation: 447

Not really what I was looking for, as I want to change the default font weight and not the font size, but your answer pointed me to what I needed to change in the Outlook plist file, which I'll included in an answer below. So thatnks. – Adam Wuerl – 2013-05-21T17:54:53.753

For anyone looking for how to do this for Outlook 2016 for Mac (since the preference plist isn't used for 2016)

Use defaults on the terminal like so:

defaults write com.microsoft.Outlook HTMLWebPrefsIdentifierWebKitStandardFont Font-Weight

In my case I wanted Gotham in Book weight so I put Gotham-Book where Font-Weight is.

Fred Stark

Posted 2013-05-19T23:25:21.660

Reputation: 111