Outlook 2016 - ics: description shows no html formatting anymore

hi abalone,

i would like to confirm the following information to better understand the problem:

• are you using office 365 business or home/personal subscription?
• which outlook 2016 version are you using? please provide us with the detailed information about this.
• does this issue happen to all the ics file or specific ics file?
• where and how did you created ics file?
• regarding “before updating office 365 recently i was able to see html-formatting in the description field of an ics-file. after the update i only see plaintext”, could you please provide us with a screenshot about the detailed steps which you have tried to see html-formatting in the description field so that we can try to reproduce the issue from our side?

to post the screenshots, please refer to the following steps:

click use rich formatting to post your reply.
on the top ribbon, click on insert /edit media button, and then browse the picture to upload.
click insert.

best regards,
shyamal

Hi Abalone,

I'm writing to follow up on this thread. Could you please provide us with the information above at your convenience?

Best regards,
Shyamal,

I'm having the same problem. I create .ics files daily and have never had a problem until I upgraded to Outlook 2016. I always create an html file. Open it in a browser (normally Firefox, but tried Chrome & IE), copy and paste it into the body of a calendar file. I changed the format from Plain text to HTML Before pasting the copy into the body. I click, file, save as (oft) and when I double click to open it back up I get plain text with some formatting issues and my proofer, who did not upgrade sees the same thing.

Also, I noticed that if i open others that were created before. They look bad to me, but are fine for others. It seems to open the old and new in Plain Text format and clicking HTML Format seems to do nothing even if I save it that way.

Mostly, I lose some of my line breaks, paragraphs, and the hyperlink formatting (as well as all other formatting)[View:/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-discussions-components-files/158/oft-issue.pdf:320:240].

Also having the same problem.  Version 16.0.6001.1043

The problem occurs when opening .ics files with an x-alt-desc.  The HTML description is ignored and only the plain text version displays.   The .ics file was downloaded from the internet.  I zipped a version here:  dl.dropboxusercontent.com/.../siteVisit (3).zip

In office 2013 this file opened with the HTML, while in Office 2016 it opens just the plain text description.  This is a problem for all users in our organization using Office 2016

Hi All,

I'd like to share that we can now reproduce this issue by using Outlook 2016 (version 16.0.6366.2036). I have reported it to our relevant team, and our engineers will work on it for further investigation. I will let you know once there's any updates.

Thanks for all your time and patience.

Regards,
Allen

i'm also interested in this.

on outlook 2013 professional (15.0.4737.1001), outlook displays the content of the x-alt-desc field (html formatted) of the ics file.

on outlook 2016 professional (16.0.6326.1010), outlook displays the content of hte description field (plain text) of the ics file instead.

does outlook 2016 still support an x-alt-desc;fmttype=text/html field in ics files?

see the attached ics file and screenshots.

[view:/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-discussions-components-files/158/classroom_5f00_registration_2d00_order_5f00_1251_5f00_041310477194.ics:320:240] ics file

outlook 2013 view

 outlook 2016 view

As a workaround you can edit the .ics file in notepad and delete the "Description" descriptor which will then cause Outlook 2016 to use the x-alt-desc descriptor.  It looks like it assumes that if the plain text descriptor exists, the HTML doesn't need to be used. That is a change from 2013.

Hi All,

Thanks for all your time and efforts. We have done a lot of tests from our side as well, and we got the same results as you did. Moreover, we also discovered that the workaround provided by PeterZaidel can help us with this behavior in Outlook 2016. Please refer to it and see if you can get the full version of descriptions.

@ PeterZaidel, thanks very much for your sharing.

Regards,
Allen

The problem is that this is cumbersome when you don't control the .ics.  I don't anticipate wanting to explain to our entire company that in order to have an .ics that they got from the airline (or someone else) to appear correctly you just have to edit every one in notepad.  This is a deviation from how the standard was interpreted in all other versions of outlook in the past, and has wide reaching effects...  I don't believe the "workaround" is a viable answer to this much larger problem.

Hi PeterZaidel,

I fully understand the concerns you described, and I’m sorry for the inconvenience which has been caused.

Also, I agree that the workaround may not be considered a solution, which is why I’m now still working with other engineers on this “issue”. We will keep you updated. Thanks for your patience and understanding!

Regards,
Allen