Themes and Stationery

You can change the appearance of your outgoing mail by using one of Outlook's built-in themes or stationery to better reflect the nature of your business. Themes include a background and text formatting, while stationeries contain only a background.

Use a Theme or Stationery Once

You can create a new message using a different theme or stationery than what is applied by default.

1. Click the New Items button on the Home tab.
2. Select E-mail Message Using.
3. Select More Stationery.
   

   The Theme or Stationery window opens, and you can browse available themes and stationery.

4. Select a theme or stationery.

   A preview of the selected theme or stationery appears, letting you know how it will look when its used.

5. Click OK.

A new email window appears using the new theme or stationery.

Use Theme Styles

As you compose your message, you can use the text styles assigned to your theme simply by selecting them as you go.

1. While composing a message, click the Format Text tab.
2. Open the Styles gallery, if necessary.

   Depending on how big the message window is, the styles gallery may appear on the ribbon, or be condensed into a menu that appears when you click the Styles button.

   Every theme will use the same style names but will use its own set of colors and fonts.

3. Select a style.

Now just enter the text and it will appear in the theme style that you selected.

Set Defaults

If you want to use a certain theme, stationery, or font with every email, you can change your default settings.

1. Click the File tab.

2. Select Options.
   

   The Outlook Options window opens.

3. Click the Mail category in the left pane.

   Your default mail options appear.

4. Click Stationery and Fonts.
   

   The Signatures and Stationery window opens. From here, you can set the default look for all your outgoing emails.

5. Click Theme.
6. Choose a default theme or stationery and click OK.
   

   The theme or stationery is added. You can also further customize the font settings used for both new email messages and replies / forwards.

7. (Optional) Customize the font settings.
8. Click OK to save these settings.
9. Click OK to close the Options window.

The theme, and any extra font settings you added, will be applied to new email messages.