Format of Excel Tables suddenly lost when Copying & Pasting into Outlook.Com emails

Hello! My name is Mostafa, and I’m an independent advisor and a long-time Microsoft user.

I’m sorry that you are experiencing this issue, and I will try my best to assist you with this so that you find a satisfactory solution.

Please follow the steps below:

1. Check the “Keep Source Formatting” option in Outlook.
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook_com...

2. Paste as an image: Instead of copying and pasting the Excel table directly into your email, try taking a screenshot of the table and pasting it as an image. This will preserve the formatting of the table.

3. Check your email format: Make sure the email you compose in Outlook.com is set to HTML format. If it is set to plain text or rich text format, the formatting of your Excel table may not be preserved.


I hope the above steps helped you. In case of additional questions, reach out back to me, and I will be happy to help and try my best to resolve your issue. Thank you.

Best,
Mostafa
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Mostafa -Thank you for your response but please note that this issue relates to the OWA Outlook.Com (as emphasized in my query and Thread Headings) and not an Outlook Desktop Application.

The OWA (Outllok.Com) Does not offer the the advanced Editor Options for Cut, Copy and Paste

Whilst this still allows the Pasting of the Table as an image OWA always used to allow you to Cut, Copy & Paste an Excel Table into an HTML email but over the last day or so something has changed to prevent this - Pasting the contents of the Table as Plain Text.

My apologies for the confusion. Here are some additional suggestions for resolving the issue:

1. Try using a different web browser: Sometimes, issues with copying and pasting can be caused by the web browser you are using. Try using a different web browser to see if the issue persists.

2. Use "Paste Special": Instead of using the standard "Copy and Paste" function, try using "Paste Special" and select "HTML Format" or "Rich Text Format". This may help preserve the formatting of the Excel table.

3. Save as a PDF: You can also try saving the Excel table as a PDF file and attaching it to your email instead of copying and pasting it into the email. This will ensure that the formatting of the table is preserved.


Please let me know if the above steps do not resolve your issue. Thank you.

Mostafa - Thanks again for your contribution, however, I think you are missing the crucial point that, without any other changes, Copying & Pasting Excel Tables into OWA (Outlook.Com) emails was working seamlessly a couple of day ago with exactly the same Browser & Settings and no other updates at this end.

Whilst I appreciate their are numerous workarounds with any issue, one might expect that you should be able to Cut Copy & Paste an MS Excel Table, retaining all its formats, formulas and contents into MS OWA email as I , like many, will have done for many years without any fuss but as usual I suspect something has been updated or changed by MS, either by accident or intentionally, as part of MS's continual development process which is now affecting this simple function.

The main purpose of me reporting this issue on this Platform is in the hope that this is picked up quickly by MS or forwarded by a contributor to the appropriate team at MS so they look at what they have done and then quickly fix it ... since they no doubt unintentionally 'broke' it in the first place !

You're welcome! I understand your frustration with the issue, and you are correct that it is possible that a recent update or change by Microsoft may have caused the problem. In that case, the best course of action would be to report the issue https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/sen....


I hope this helps.

Mostafa - Thank you again for your contribution and suggestion, however, unless you know differently, the link you have provided refers to 'Sending feedback to Microsoft with the Feedback Hub App' which states it is specifically for Issues relating solely to Windows 10 & 11 and therefore does not deal with the OWA (Outlook.Com) email platform since I understand from previous issues that this is supported and maintained by a totally separate team within MS who do not, to my knowledge, provide any similar means of directly reporting issues, such as this and hence why users like myself have no means other than using the Community Forum to flag up issues in the hope that this will be picked by the appropriate team within MS.

I'm afraid I'm running out of ideas. Let's ask other advisors and Teams users for suggestions that might help you.

They would be able to reply to this thread and share their comments.

Your patience will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Hi ,
Sabya here, Independent Windows Adviser. Hope you are doing well.
Have you tried to use another browser like edge and check?
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/edge/download?f...
It is available for Windows 7. Please click on the downward arrow beside download for Windows 10/11

Sabya - Thank you for your contribution and suggestion but having been here before I am not convinced using another 'Chromium' based Browser such as Edge will make much difference.

Whilst I appreciate Windows 7 Updates for Google Chrome have ceased this is also the case for Edge who stopped their Updates for Windows 7 even earlier than Chrome on 10/01/23.

There have also been several widespread global issues recently with the stability of the OWA (Outllook.Com) such as those affecting - Editing & accessing Contacts, Junk Mail Filtering and more recently Draft emails - but on each and every occasion although many contributors & advisors suggest like yourself that each might be a Browser related issue, they all turned out, in the end, to be an MS (Outlook.Com) issue where they had been ‘tinkering’ or updating the platform.

This issue here as ever with the OWA (Outlook.Com) is the fact there is, as far as I am aware and unlike the Desktop 365 Applications, no means of directly reporting issues to the OWA Support Team, to give them the ‘heads up’ either Online or by Phone - where you just go round the houses and frankly ‘loose the will to live’

Hi,
It will be hard to say if it is an outlook issue as I have been using outlook.com while pasting excel data and never had any issues. I am however using Windows 10 and also Windows 11. So chances are as the browser updates are ceased for Windows 7 so the way these data were copied may not work the same way anymore as outlook.com is also getting updated and using newer technology.

You can also try using a free mail client to check if it is working there. Please note most of the mail clients also have stopped updating for Windows 7.
So it will be hard for me to suggest which may work for you perfectly
https://windowsreport.com/email-client-software...

You can report the issue to OWA support Team but as Windows 7 is no longer supported chances are it will not be answered or ask you to upgrade to Windows 10.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/how-...

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