Amal Nagm

 
Ever try to forward a really funny or thought provoking e-mail, only to have the forward appear horribly mis-formatted due to a bunch of weird, commonly blue, vertical lines streaking down the left side of your e-mail? Well, you can take a small amount of comfort knowing you are definitely not alone. An odd anomaly generated by some e-mail clients/services when a message is forwarded, these colored lines are not only annoying, but typically a pain to get rid of as well. However, there are a few tricks that can speed up your ability to remove these annoyances without resorting to using a third party "e-mail cleaner" program. Here are the top three methods to remove vertical lines in some of the most common e-mail programs and services . . .

Microsoft Outlook:

Despite possibly having the most options for formatting e-mail of any e-mail program or service available, Outlook has, surprisingly, the simplest method of removing vertical lines from forwarded e-mails:

Step 1. Open the e-mail you wish to forward, select the content directly in front/to the right of your vertical line(s) in the body of the e-mail message, and press Ctrl+C to copy the highlighted contents to your clipboard.



Step 2. Create a new blank e-mail message.

Step 3. Paste (press Ctrl+V) your copied e-mail into the new e-mail message. Your e-mail message will be pasted into the new message window sans most, if not all, vertical lines.



Step 3-1. If any vertical lines remain, simply copy any text and images with said vertical lines still attached, and paste the copied content into the same e-mail just above the content you just copied.

Step 3-2. Repeat Step 3-1 until all vertical lines are gone.

Step 4. Delete any duplicate or unnecessary text/images beneath your newly cleaned content, and send your e-mail.

Quick, simple, and easy!

Windows Live Mail

For those needing to remove vertical lines in the latest evolution of Outlook Express, Windows Live Mail offers a push button solution to removing these email annoyances:

Step 1. Select your e-mail and press the forward button to open it in the standard "Send E-mail" editor.



Step 2. Place your cursor directly in front of (to the right of) the vertical line you wish to remove.



Step 3. At the top of your e-mail editor, select the Message tab if it is not already selected. Various message formatting options will appear.



Step 4. Find and click the Clear formatting button just next to the font size and style fields.



Step 5. Voila! The vertical line will instantly disappear. Repeat Step 4. as needed to remove any additional vertical lines.



Step 6. Once all vertical lines have been cleared, you will likely be left with a bit of margin space to the right of your e-mail content. To remove this, simply select the message content you wish to forward, copy it (Ctrl+C), and paste it (Ctrl+V) at the beginning of your message. Delete the old content beneath your freshly formatted message, and hit Send.