How to Prevent Windows Mail or Outlook Express from Underlining Email Addresses

If you type an email address in the body of a message using HTML formatting, Windows Mail and Outlook Express will promptly convert it to a mailto: link. This makes sense since it allows the recipient to start a new message to the address by simply clicking on it, but it also contributes to the visual clutter by adding an underline and blue color to the text.

There are two ways to get rid of the underlined email addresses. The easier method removes the mailto: link while the more involved way lets you keep the link intact while the formatting is removed.

Prevent Windows Mail or Outlook Express from Underlining Email Addresses

To stop Windows Mail or Outlook Express from underlining email addresses by removing the mailto: link:

• Click with the mouse inside the email address.
• Now click on the Insert Hyperlink button in the toolbar.
• Press Del so that the URL: field is empty.
• Click OK.

To prevent Windows Mail or Outlook Express from underlining email addresses by removing only the formatting:

• Open the email source editor in Windows Mail or Outlook Express.
• Look for the email address you just typed.
• Right before it, you will find '<A href="mailto:<the email address>">'
• Insert 'style="text-decoration:none;"' just before the closing ">".
  • If you found <A href="mailto:me@example.com">­me@example.com</A>, for example, it should be <A href="mailto:me@example.com" style="text-decoration:none;">­me@example.com</A> after the editing.
• Return to the Edit tab.
• Highlight the email address with the mouse.
• Select the desired font color from the Font Color toolbar drop-down.