plonq | Grim Outlook

I like some of the features in Outlook, but other things about the program drive me up the wall. I created a number of personalized signatures (one for every occasion) each containing a little fuzzy guy (see my current LJ user icon as an example) and my contact information. That sounds pretty straight-forward, doesn't it?

The pattern has been the same each time. When I first create the signatures they look fine on both new correspondence, and on replies. After awhile they begin acting up. Sometimes on replies the picture refuses to display (which I fix with a manual edit). Sometimes the text simply double-spaces itself for no good reason. Sometimes both happen. Soon it starts to happen on new messages as well.

When I fix the spacing on the text, the font changes. When I fix the font the point size changes on a couple of the lines. When I fix that, the font changes again...

Today it threw a new twist at me. I made the mistake of changing my stationary to blank (I'd been using a subtle grid line for internal emails) and when I called up a new message my picture was missing, the font was wrong, the text was double-spaced, and its colours had changed to yellow on white. What's worse (yes, it does get worse), when I tried to edit the signature and save over it again... I couldn't save over it. I got a file error in Word (the "external" editor that Outlook employs for editing complicated signatures).

That was the last straw.

I deleted all of the signatures and associated files and recreated them from scratch, coding the HTML myself in Notepad and then setting the Read Only flag on them all to discourage Outlook from trying to modify them in any way. It's a little early to give a final reading on this, but so far it's working good.