OL98: "Mark My Comments" Doesn't Work with Plain Text or WordMail

When you use Microsoft Outlook 98 to forward or reply to a mail message, your comments or annotations to the original message are not marked with your name, initials, or other special characters.

The "Mark my comments" feature only works when the original message is in the HTML or Microsoft Outlook Rich Text format. It does not work if the original message is in Plain Text format, or if you used Microsoft Word 97 (WordMail) as the editor.

To change your original message format, follow these steps:

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
2. On the Mail Format tab, select either HTML or Microsoft Outlook Rich Text in the "Send in this message format" list. Click OK.

NOTE: Outlook uses the format originally applied to the message when you reply or forward it. The above steps are included to enable the recipients of your messages to avoid the problem when they reply or forward your messages.

To enable the "Mark my comments" feature, follow these steps:

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
2. On the Preferences tab, click E-mail Options.
3. Under "On replies and forwards," click to select the "Mark my comments with" check box and type your name, initials, or any other identifier.
4. Click OK twice to close the Options dialog box.

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Outlook 98.

Microsoft Word 97 has a similar feature that is called Track Changes. To enable the Track Changes feature using WordMail:

1. Open a mail message that you have received, and click Reply.
2. On the Tools menu, point to Track Changes, and then click Highlight Changes.
3. Click to select the "Track changes while editing" check box, and then click OK.

For more information on WordMail, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: