I often notice that when people want to reply to specific parts of an email, they will type responses within the body of the original email, and change the color of their text to make the answers stand out.  Outlook has a great tool that makes it even easier to distinguish between these comments and the original email text by marking replies with your name.

If you type within the body of the original email, it will mark replies with your name in a different color.  If you type within the reply area of the email (at the top), it will not mark a reply with your name.

This feature is available in both Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007 for rich text and HTML messages, but will not work with plain text messages*.

Turn on In-Line Comments

1. In Outlook, go to the Tools menu and select Options.
2. On the Preferences tab, click on the Email Options button.
3. Check the Mark my comments with box.
4. In the box below, enter the text you would like them marked with (if you do not like the default).
5. Click OK.
6. Click OK again.

* Updated March 23, 2010.