Line breaks are removed in posts made in plain text format in Outlook

Consider the following scenario. You create a new plain text formatted post containing line breaks in one of the following versions of Microsoft Outlook:

• Microsoft Office Outlook 2010
• Microsoft Office Outlook 2007
• Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
• Microsoft Outlook 2002

In this scenario, Outlook removes the line breaks and displays the message. However, the posts do not display any indication that this has occurred, other than the change in formatting. The information bar message about extra line breaks does not appear, either in the Preview pane or when you read the post. This processing appears to happen when the message is initially posted.

Note E-mail message items display the information bar as expected when the line breaks are removed.

By default, the Auto Remove Line Breaks feature in Outlook is enabled. This causes the line breaks to be removed. Any two or more successive line breaks are not removed.

Use one of the following methods to work around this behavior.

Note If you edit the existing post and you save the changes before you use one of the following methods, the line breaks are lost and can only be replaced manually.

Method 1. Disable the feature that removes extra line breaks

This method disables the feature for all plain text items. To do this, follow these steps:

For Outlook 2010:

1. Open Outlook.
2. On the File tab, click Options.
3. In the Options dialog, click Mail.
4. In the Message format section, clear the Remove extra line breaks in plain text messages check box.
5. Click OK.

For Outlook 2007 or earlier versions:

1. Open Outlook.
2. On the Tools menu, click Options.
3. On the Preferences tab, click the E-mail Options button.
4. Click to clear the Remove extra line breaks in plain text messages check box.
5. Click OK two times.

Method 2. Use HTML or Rich Text format

You can use HTML or Rich Text formats when you create new items. Or you can change existing posts to these formats.

New posts

You can change the format for individual messages, or for all messages. To change the format for all messages, follow these steps:

For Outlook 2010:

1. Open Outlook. 
2. On the File tab, click Options.
3. In the Options dialog, click Mail.
4. In the Compose messages section, click either HTML or Rich Text in the Compose messages in this format drop-down list. 
5. Click OK.

For Outlook 2007 or earlier versions:

1. Open Outlook.
2. On the Tools menu, click Options.
3. Click the Mail Format tab.
4. Click either HTML or Rich Text in the Message Format section.
5. Click OK.

When you create a post item you can change the format for an individual message. To do this, follow these steps: 

For Outlook 2010:

1. Open Outlook.
2. On the Home tab, click New Items, and under More Items click Post in This Folder. 
3. On the Format Text tab, click As HTML or click As Rich Text in the Format section.

For Outlook 2007 or earlier versions:

1. Open Outlook.
2. On the File menu, click New, and then click Post in This Folder.
3. In Outlook 2007, click HTML or click Rich Text on the Options tab in the Format group.
   
   In Outlook 2003, or Outlook 2002, click Plain Text, and then click HTML or Rich Text.

Existing posts

• In Outlook 2007, click Other Actions after you open the post item on the Discussion tab in the Actions group. Then, click Revise Contents before you change the format.
• In Outlook 2003, or Outlook 2002, open the post item, click Edit, and then click Revise Contents before you change the format.

Method 3. Restore the line breaks in Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2002

This method allows you to restore the line breaks that were removed. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Open Outlook.
2. Open the post item.
3. Click Format.
4. Click to clear the Unwrap Text check mark.

Note This option is not available in Outlook 2010 or Outlook 2007.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.