Data emailed from Unix (AIX) file to Outlook 2010 Not aligning properly

Question

We just upgraded from Windows XP to Window 7 and from Microsoft Outlook 2007 to 2010. Prior to the upgrade, data from a file that was created on Unix (AIX) was being e-mailed via java mail to outlook and the alignment was maintained when opening the e-mail.

Now, The same data emailed to Outlook 2010 in Windows is not aligning properly. By that I mean the columns are no longer lining up with the column headings.

Nothing changed on the Unix side as far as how the file was being generated. The only change was the upgrade to Outlook 2010 and Windows 7.

Answer 1

My guess would be that the emails are sent as plain text, and that your new Outlook is using a proportional (non-fixed width) font to show that. But we'd need more details to be sure, like maybe a screenshot and some of the non-personal headers of the email message.

Outlook 2010 - plain text not lining up indeed claims:

The reason you are seeing a difference when viewing the message in Outlook 2010 versus Outlook 2003 is that Outlook 2010 uses a different default font for displaying Plain Text messages than Outlook 2007 or 2003 did. The good news is that you can change the font that Outlook 2010 uses for Plain Text.

Here are the Plain Text defaults for different Outlook versions:

Outlook 2003 - Courier New, 10pt
Outlook 2007 - Consolas, 10.5pt
Outlook 2010 - Calibri, 11pt

If you want Outlook 2010 to display these messages like 2003 did, then you can specify Courier New as the Plain Text font, using these steps:

1. On the File tab, click Options.
2. Click Mail.
3. Click "Stationery and Fonts"
4. Click the Font button under "Composing and reading plain text messages"
5. On the Font tab, change the font settings.
6. Click OK three times.

Cherry Canaday
[MSFT]

Alternatively, you could change the server side to send HTML formatted emails that specify a fixed-width font, or even use <table> for the layout.