How should I use Outlook to send code snippets?

Mag_Roader_10606 0
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As a programmer at a big corporation, I frequently send Outlook emails that contain code samples.

I'll actually type code directly into an email. This inevitably causes problems, as Outlook really likes to format text in pleasing but unhelpful ways. My code needs to be copyable out of the email and directly into code, so I don't want Outlook to mess with it by adding special characters or whatnot.

So I always need to tweak options like:

  • Don't capitalize first letter of every sentence (else all my functions be Public instead of public)
  • Disable smart quotes (fancy quotes don't copy+paste out of emails well)
  • Never use spell checker (because it just gets annoying)

I also like my code to be in a monospaced font, black, indented, and smaller than other text. I've tried to make a Style for this, but for some reason the Style never saves. :-( [edit: turns out I wasn't telling it to work on "new documents based on this template"]

Is there some way to put code in <pre> blocks or something that tells Outlook to ignore all these rules and format code the way I want it to? If not, what ways have you found to send code snippets in Outlook emails without it getting super annoying?

outlook-2007 outlook
12 Answers

If you attach your code as a text file and your recipient(s) have "show attachments inline" option set (I believe it's set by default), Outlook should not mangle your code but it will be copy/paste-able directly from email.

user_1313680

When I paste code into Outlook or have sentences containing code or technical syntax I get annoyed by all of the red squiggles that identify spelling errors. If you want Outlook to clear all of the red spellcheck squiggles you can add a button to the Quick Access Toolbar that calls a VBA macro and removes all squiggles from the current document.

I prefer to run this macro separate from my style choice because I often use it on a selection of text that has mixed content.

For syntax highlighting I use the Notepad++ technique already listed by @srujanreddy, though I discovered that the right-click context menu option a bit handier than navigating the Plugins menu.

Image showing you can right-click on selected text and choose to copy text with syntax highlighting

If you get annoyed by spell check while you are preparing your email you can add a button to your quick access toolbar that will remove the red squiggles from the message body.
See this article: https://stackoverflow.com/a/49865743/1898524

Remove Spell Check Squiggles

outlook-vba

user_18985240

For me VS Code works best.

  1. Copy the code snippet in VS Code empty file
  2. Save the file with required extension .cpp,.js etc
  3. Copy the code snippet to clipboard
  4. Paste into outlook.
user_53376640

Here is another method with Sublime Text:

  1. Copy into Sublime Text
  2. Format as wanted
  3. Edit --> Copy as HTML
  4. Insert in Mail in Outlook

Tested with Outlook 2202 and Sublime Text 4126.

user_52722060

If you do not want to attach code in a file (this was a good tip, ChssPly76, I need to check it out), you can try changing the default message format messages to rich text (Tools - Options - Mail Format - Message format) instead of HTML. I learned that Outlook's HTML formatting screws code layout (btw, Outlook uses MS Word's HTML rendering engine which sucks big time), but rich text works fine. So if I copy code from Visual Studio and paste it in Outlook message, when using rich text, it looks pretty good, but when in HTML mode, it's a disaster. To disable smart quotes, auto-correction, and other artifacts, set up the appropriate option via Tools - Options - Spelling - Spelling and AutoCorrection; you may also want to play with copy-paste settings (Tools - Options - Mail Format - Editor Options - Cut, copy, and paste).

user_525450

Would sending the mail as plain-text sort this?

"How to Send a Plain Text Message in Outlook":

  • Select Actions | New Mail Message Using | Plain Text from the menu in Outlook.
  • Create your message as usual.
  • Click Send to deliver it.

Being plain text it shouldn't screw up your code, with "smart" quotes, auto-capitalisation and such.

Another possible option, if this is a common problem within the company perhaps you could setup an internal code-paste site, there's plenty of open-source ones around, like Open Pastebin

dbr_7450

Well this is late answer, but if you don't absolutely need it to be in text format, then why just simply copy/paste a screenshot taken with some tool like Windows build-in Snipping tool ?

user_14768010
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