Hi Guys,

I am trying to send an plain text email using the com object Outlook.Application using Outlook 2003, which works, but I have having trouble trying to get the body of the message to format correctly?

I have a plain text file with the following lines in it:

PS C:\> Get-content "C:\Users\James\Desktop\body.txt"
Line1

Line2

Line 3
PS C:\>


When I use the following code to display the email in outlook, the body of the message is all on one line like:


<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:1; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:0 0 0 0 0 0;} @font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1073750139 0 0 159 0;} @font-face {font-family:Consolas; panose-1:2 11 6 9 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:modern; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1073750091 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} p.MsoPlainText, li.MsoPlainText, div.MsoPlainText {mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-link:"Plain Text Char"; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.5pt; font-family:Consolas; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} span.PlainTextChar {mso-style-name:"Plain Text Char"; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-locked:yes; mso-style-link:"Plain Text"; mso-ansi-font-size:10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.5pt; font-family:Consolas; mso-ascii-font-family:Consolas; mso-hansi-font-family:Consolas;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> <!--[if gte mso 10]> Line1  Line2  Line 3

#############################################
$ibody = Get-content "C:\Users\James\Desktop\body.txt"
$ol = New-Object -comObject Outlook.Application
$mail = $ol.CreateItem(0)
$Mail.BodyFormat = 1
[void]$Mail.Recipients.Add("Test@Internal.com")
$Mail.Subject = "Test Message"
$Mail.Body = $ibody
$Mail.Display()
#############################################

Does anyone know how to do this, so I get the formatting right as it needs to be in plain text.

Cheers
James

James,

Your problem is with get-content.  When Get-Content ingest a file like that, it strips off all the line breaks.  Normally, the line breaks are added back in when any out-* or format-* cmdlet is invoked.  Anyways, two fixes that I know of are either a here-string, or add the breaks back in manualy.

$ibody= @"
Line1

Line2

Line 3
"@

or

$ibody = Get-content "C:\Users\James\Desktop\body.txt"
$body = [string]::join([environment]::NewLine,$ibody)

Hope that helps,
~Glenn

Thanks Glen,

That works great, i will remember that for next time.

Cheers
James

You can also try:

$Mail.Body = [io.file]::readAllText("C:\Users\James\Desktop\body.txt")

Anyone tried to add formatting to email text before it is sent?  I need to bold or perhaps change the font when email is created.  Are there special back tick characters for this or do I have to create an HTML stream and use that?