How to Make the View in Outlook Larger (2023)

Do you ever find yourself having a hard time reading your email in Outlook because of the font size or type? When you have a hard time seeing the text in Outlook, it can translate into having a hard time communicating with your clients or generally reading and writing emails. It helps to understand Outlook settings and be able to manipulate them to change the view size in Outlook where it is easier for you to work.

The thing about Microsoft Outlook is that the default font is set to either Arial or Calibri, both of which are small by default. This might not be your preference. If that is the case, then you can change the size of text in Outlook to something you would prefer. In this case, your only limitation is the fonts that are available in your system itself. The instructions in this article work for Outlook 2010 through Outlook 2019, including Outlook for Office 365.

Changing Fonts in Microsoft Outlook

Open Outlook

Start by opening Microsoft Outlook. In the program window, go to the File tab and click on it. Beneath it, you will find a range of options. Click on the one labeled “Options.”

Choose Mail Category

On the left-hand side, you will find a bunch of categories. Select the one labeled “Mail,” and another set of options will appear on your screen.

Select Stationery and Fonts Option

Select the option labeled “Stationery and Fonts” from the list of options that appears on the screen.

Change the Fonts

You will now be able to change fonts in a variety of sections. Under each section you want to change, simply select the option labeled “Fonts.” The section labeled “New mail messages” allows you to change Outlook inbox font size. The section labeled “Replying or forwarding messages” enables you to change the font that appears whenever you forward an email or respond to it. The section labeled “Composing and reading plain text messages” allows you to change the appearance of plain text messages, but only from your own perspective. When you send plain text messages to others, they will still receive them in the plain text format.

Choose Whether to Disable Theme

In case you have already set up a stationery or theme you can select the “Theme” button. In case you want it turned off, you can simply disable it with a click.

Now that you are in the Font area, you can choose the font you prefer. You can actually choose a lot more than the font type here. You can also choose the style with which the font is applied, its size, color, and also the effect as to how it appears.

Apply Changes

Once you have chosen all the font features, you would like to see in your Outlook; you can apply them by clicking on the button labeled “OK.” This finishes the whole process. However, you will have to click on OK again in order to exit the window labeled “Signatures and Stationery,” as well as the options window in Outlook.

In case you’re running Outlook in an older version, such as the 2003 and the 2007 versions, there is a broadly similar process you can use to change the font features in your view.

Open Outlook

Start by opening Microsoft Outlook so you can apply edits to the fonts.

Choose Button Labeled Options

Go to the tab labeled “Tools” and click on it. Once you open it, then click on the button labeled “Options” to open the options menu.

Click Mail Format Tab

Now click on the tab labeled “Mail Format.” This will open a dialog box that allows you to select more options.

Choose Stationery and Fonts

Click on the option labeled “Stationery and Fonts” to select it.

Edit Features

Once again, you will have a bunch of sections to edit. In this case, the most important sections to edit are the “New mail messages,” “Replying or forwarding messages,” and the “Composing and reading plain text messages” sections. Click on the “Fonts” option under each of these sections so you can edit font features for all of them. This process works for Outlook 2007. For Outlook 2003, the process is slightly different: you will click on the option labeled “Choose Font” for the sections labeled “When composing a new message,” “When replying and forwarding,” and “When composing and reading plain text” sections. This allows you to change font features for each of these sections.

Choose Font Options

Once you're in, you can select all the font features of you want. You can select the type of font you want, t_he style_ you want as a display font; the size you want, the effects you apply; and also the font's color. You have full control over the text's appearance in your messages.

Once you have finished editing your fonts, click on the button labeled “OK” for O_utlook 2007_. For Outlook 2003, there is a little thing you should look out for. There is often an option labeled “Use this stationery by default.” If that button is checked, then the stationery set as the default for that section will be used and will override whatever changes you have made to the font. You can change this in one of two ways. You can modify the default stationery itself, so that it reflects your preferences, or you can tell Outlook to ignore everything specified in the default stationery.

Click OK

Once you have finished with everything, click “OK” to close the Stationery window, as well as the options menu.

The default fonts you have selected - and their respective features - should now show on the sections where they were changed.

Change the Way Messages Appear

You can also change the way messages appear by default on Outlook.com, which is the online version of Outlook. The process for changing the way outgoing messages look in Outlook.com is pretty simple. Remember, you won’t be able to change the way messages look when you’re reading them on the website, as you could do on the software versions o_f the application. However, you can change the font_ on the messages that you send.

Open Outlook

Start by going to Outlook.com and opening your account on the site. Head over to settings and then click on “View all Outlook settings.” A menu will appear with a variety of options.

Compose a Message

Click on the button labeled “Mail” and then click on the option labeled “Compose and reply.”

Choose New Font

You will find a list of options next. One of them is “Message format.” Under it, you will find an option labeled “font dropdown.” Click on it and then choose the new font you want to use for your outgoing message. You should also be able to change other things, such as the size of the font, its styles (if you want it in italics, underlined*, bold, and so on)*, and also the color of the font.

Save Changes

Once you have finished selecting y_our font's features, click on the button labeled “Save”_ to save the new settings.

Now any new messages that you compose on the website Outlook.com should use the font settings you have set as the default.

As a general tip, you can also change the settings of an individual message while you are still composing it. Go to the bottom of the composition window and find the different options that enable you to change the way your font appears. These settings will only be applied to the email that you are currently composing.