This post was written on May 2022 and assumes you are using the Outlook version of Office 365.
Steps to set the default format on Outlook messages
Set default styles in Outlook
When we say ‘styles’ here, we mean color palette and fonts.
Color palettes are shared among Office 365, so you may have a look at this post about how to change colour set in Word.
Create a new message in Outlook from the main screen by going to “Home” >”New mail”.
From the new e-mail screen, click on the mail body and go to “Format text” tab > “Styles” group > “Change Styles” dropdown list. Here you can set your color palette and font themes.
To apply this changes to all message, also click on “Set as default”.
We already set the fonts in the “Stationary & Fonts” dialog, but this step set the default fonts for heading and body.
Set default fonts in Outlook
From the Outlook main window go to menu bar > “File” > “Options” >> “Mail” > Button “Stationery and fonts”
From this screen, you can:
- Apply a theme
- Set default fonts for new, replying and plain text messages
If you use fonts “+Body” or “+Headings”, the fonts to be used would be the ones set on the step “Set default styles in Outlook”.
This post does not cover how to create a custom theme for Outlook.
According to some users, there are two places in Outlook where you can set the default fonts. one is the “Stationary & Fonts” dialog screen, and another one is the file “NormalEmail.dotm”. More information on this discussion. In my experience, I did not need to change this file; it was enough to set the Headings and Body fonts in “Styles”, and then change the size from “Stationery and fonts”.
Apply a signature
Inside the message window, go to “Message” tab > “Include” group > “Signature” dropdown list > “Signatures…”.
You can edit and add signature on this dialog.
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External references
- “How to change the body font in Outlook“; StackExchange
- “How an I make custom themes and color palettes default in Outlook 2016?“; Microsoft Answers