How to Keep the Formatting of a Document in the Body of an Email Using Copy and Paste

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How to Keep the Formatting of a Document in the Body of an Email Using Copy and Paste
How to Keep the Formatting of a Document in the Body of an Email Using Copy and Paste
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Email, in general, involves only plain text (ASCII), while Word documents can contain a lot of formatting. There is no way to fully preserve the formatting of a Word document when copied into the body of the email. There are several possibilities, however, depending on your goals.

Steps

Preserve Formatting When Using Copy and Paste Step 1
Preserve Formatting When Using Copy and Paste Step 1

Step 1. Add the Word document to the email as an attachment rather than in the body of the email

However, some people who will receive the email may not have a copy of Word and therefore may not be able to read the document. Also, due to the differences between users' computers, some documents may be slightly different.

Preserve Formatting When Using Copy and Paste Step 2
Preserve Formatting When Using Copy and Paste Step 2

Step 2. Save the document from Word as an RTF (Rich Text Format) file and then attach this document to the email

WordPad, a software that comes free with Windows, and almost all Word Processors can read RTF files. RTF files preserve most, but not all, of the formatting of Word documents.

Preserve Formatting When Using Copy and Paste Step 3
Preserve Formatting When Using Copy and Paste Step 3

Step 3. If you have the full version of Adobe Acrobat or some other way to create a PDF document, you can export the Word document to a PDF file and attach it

Adobe Acrobat Reader software is free and most users will already have it installed on their computer. A PDF file will look exactly like the Word file, but it cannot be edited easily. You can also use a free product, called PDF Creator (https://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/), to create the PDF file.

Preserve Formatting When Using Copy and Paste Step 4
Preserve Formatting When Using Copy and Paste Step 4

Step 4. Many email clients allow you to put some formatting in the email

Called "rich text" or "html mail", this feature is accessible in different ways depending on your email client. It actually sends the email in HTML format (like a web page) which is slightly more restrictive than the RTF format described above. It is often more convenient to put text in the body of the email, rather than as an attachment, but not all people who receive email are able to view it in HTML format.

Preserve Formatting When Using Copy and Paste Step 5
Preserve Formatting When Using Copy and Paste Step 5

Step 5. Paste the Word document directly into your email client as plain text, but take some precautions first

Use as little formatting as possible. Change the "English quotes".

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