Re: Outlook 2003: RTF-to-HTML Table conversion

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You're welcome, not that I helped all that much. I think your best solution is to teach your users who have problems with certain correspondents how to configure their message formats.
--
Ed Crowley MVP
"There are seldom good technological solutions to behavioral problems."
..

"Joern.Lippold" <JoernLippold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:7AC2E6C4-648B-4276-BF01-3103831D8C8D@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hello Ed,

the Global Exchange Setting we currently use for message formats is in fact
"Determined by individual user settings". At the client side we currently use
HTML, but want to switch back to RTF (because of some annoyances we
expierenced with HTML and the Outlook Editor). For messages leaving the
company, of cause HTML will still be the format of our choice. The only one
obstacle to the change seems to be the table conversion (we use tables for
four-eye-signatures in Outlook).

I assumed Exchange is doing the conversion because the message's HTML source
code contains
<META NAME="Generator" CONTENT="MS Exchange Server version 6.5.7654.12">

Concerning the RTF tables we use, it's just a table as you can create it
within Word and then saved as a Rich-Text file. I'm not familiar with the RTF
definition, but in contrast to an OLE embedding containing a keyword
"{\object\objemb{...binary_data...}", the table file only comprises of the
typical RTF text keywords (no binary part).

But anyway, I just found something new in a Technet article I haven't seen
before: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996958(EXCHG.65).aspx
just staes for RTF-to-HTML conversion of tables "Do not convert correctly".
So this seems to be a real limitation.

Thanks for your support!

Regards from Germany, Joern

"Ed Crowley [MVP]" wrote:

Now, wait, if you're configuring Exchange to perform message format
conversions, you shouldn't be surprised when it's doing it! I stand
corrected in my statement, Exchange will make format conversions when you
tell it to do so, but the tone of your question didn't indicate how you had
configured the server. That's the problem with an incomplete question, we
have to make assumptions.

I can't speak to the quality of the conversion that Exchange 2003 will
perform, especially when tables are concerned. I suspect that what you're
seeing, although again you didn't provide specifics, is that what you're
calling a table in the composed message isn't really a table, it's some kind
of imbedded OLE object that Exchange doesn't know how to convert. But
that's just a guess.

Seriously, I think that the best way to handle these kinds of cases is to
allow your users to compose their messages in a format that their
correspondents can understand.
--
Ed Crowley MVP
"There are seldom good technological solutions to behavioral problems."
..

"Joern.Lippold" <JoernLippold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:225349ED-D247-4BE2-9E26-750CA5DA1BF8@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Hello Ed,
>
> does that mean the Exchange Global Setting "Exchange rich-text format"
> ("Internet Message Formats" - "Advanced") only influences the way > Outlook
> formats outgoing messages when connected to an Exchange server? So, > this
> is a
> kind of Outlook policy?
>
> I always thought, Exchange really does the RTF-to-HTML conversion for
> messages leaving the Ex Organization (depending of the settings made
> here).
>
> Thanks for your response!
>
> Regards, Joern
>
> "Ed Crowley [MVP]" wrote:
>
>> Exchange doesn't generally mess with message formats, so you might >> want
>> to
>> post your question to an Outlook newsgroup.
>> -- >> Ed Crowley MVP
>> "There are seldom good technological solutions to behavioral >> problems."
>> ..
>>
>> "Joern.Lippold" <JoernLippold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in >> message
>> news:F82BC74E-C5EE-4C95-8B7B-E931B968FDA5@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> > Despite of the fact that both formats, RTF and HTML do support >> > tables,
>> > neither Outlook 2003 nor Exchange 2003 seem to support the >> > conversion
>> > of
>> > tables when sending to Internet users.
>> >
>> > So, for instance, when creating a RTF signature using a table, the
>> > formating
>> > gets lost after Echange or Outlook transforms the message into HTML.
>> >
>> > Any solution known for that?
>> >
>> > Thanks in advance, Joern
>>
>>



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