How to read your Slashdot emails in Outlook 2007

 

The Solution

1. In Outlook, click on your Inbox folder so your emails are shown on the screen.
2. Chose the menu item "Tools->Macros->Visual Basic Editor".
3. Cut and paste the following code into the main editor area...

   	Sub FixSlashdot(Item As Outlook.MailItem)
   		Item.BodyFormat = olFormatHTML
   		Item.HTMLBody = Replace(Item.HTMLBody, "FONT SIZE=2" , "FONT face=courier SIZE=2" )
   		Item.Save
   	End Sub	

   
   



4. Close the Visual Basic window.



5. Choose the menu item "Tools->Rules and Alerts..."



6. "New Rule...", "Check messages when they arrive", "Next>"



7. Check "with specific words in the sender's address"



8. Click on the words "specific words" in the lower window and enter "slashdot@slashdot.org" then "add" then "ok"



9. Click "Next>" then check "Run a script".



10. Click on the words "a script" in the lower window and then select the FixSlashdot script we created above and click OK.



11. Click finish followed by OK.



12. You're done! You can even do "run rules now" to fix any amputated slashdot emails already sitting in your Inbox.

Now Outlook will automatically run the FixSlashdot script on each slashdot email the instant it arrives in your inbox. Basically all the script does is to tell Outlook to display the email as HTML rather than plaintext. Apparently the Outlook HTML rendering engine is more forgiving than the plaintext one. The "replace" just sets the font to courier because Slashdot emails just don't look right unless they are in a fixed point font. You can change the font or size here to anything you want as long as it is in keeping with the Slashdot aesthetic (no hevetica).

How to read your Slashdot emails in Outlook 2007