Why do my mailings have justified text and hyphenation in Outlook?

Why do my mailings have justified text and hyphenation in Outlook?

Introduction

Microsoft has introduced the so-called Advanced Typography as a "feature" in Outlook. This was activated by default during an Outlook update.
This automated formatting can adversely affect the display of your newsletters:
  1. Left-aligned text is displayed as justified text.
  2. The spacing between letters and words can increase.
  3. Automatic hyphenation. Words are sometimes incorrectly hyphenated.
  4. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) may consequently not be met.
The affected email client is Outlook 365 on Windows with activated classic view.

How it looks

This is how a current Microsoft email looks in Outlook Classic/Legacy when "Advanced Typography" is enabled:
This is how the email looks in every other client:

 How to deactivate this feature

Within Outlook

To turn off this feature, go to File > Options > Mail > Editor Options > Advanced > Advanced Typography and uncheck the "Use Advanced Typography" checkbox:

In the mailing source code or template

The following fix is already implemented in the standard templates. Please contact us if you have an older version of a standard template. We'll be happy to provide you with an update.
However, the fix works only in the preview view of the email. If you open the email with a double-click, "Advanced Typography" unfortunately remains active.

If you use a custom template or HTML mailing, you can add the following source code within the head:
  1. <!--[if mso]><xml><w:WordDocument xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word"><w:DontUseAdvancedTypographyReadingMail/></w:WordDocument></xml><![endif]-->


Support

Contact us if you have questions about this topic.

Sources