How to reply with quoting the original message in Outlook?

Author Kelly Last modified 2025-02-28

By default, when replying to an email in Microsoft Outlook, the original message is included at the bottom of your reply, but without any visual indication that it’s a quote. If you want to add a quoting effect—either by prefixing each line of the original message or by selecting only specific content to quote—there are two ways to do it:

Method 1: Automatically Quote the Entire Original Message in Outlook (Basic)

Method 2: Quote Only a Selected Portion of the Original Message with Kutools for Outlook 👍 (Advanced & More Flexible)

Method 1: Automatically Quote the Entire Original Message in Outlook

This method involves modifying Outlook's settings to automatically add a prefix line to every line of the original message in replies, mimicking a quoting style.

Step 1: Open the Outlook Options dialog box

Click File > Options in Outlook.

Step 2: Adjust the reply formatting settings

In the Outlook Options window, select Mail from the left panel.
Scroll to the Replies and forwards section.
In the When replying to a message dropdown, select Prefix each line of the original message.
Click OK to save the changes.

Result

When replying to an email, Outlook will automatically add a blue vertical line before each line of the original message, creating a quoting effect.

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Pros and Cons of Method 1:

✅ Quick and easy setup: Requires a simple one-time change in Outlook settings.
✅ Automatically applies to all replies: No need to manually modify messages each time.
❌ Cannot selectively quote text: Includes the entire original email, even if only part of it is needed.
❌ May clutter long email threads: Repeated quoting can make email chains harder to read.

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Method 2: Quote Only a Selected Portion of the Original Message with Kutools for Outlook 👍

Sometimes, you may only need to quote a specific section of the original message instead of including the entire email. While manually deleting unwanted text is an option, Kutools for Outlook offers a more efficient way to quote only the selected text using its Reply Selection feature.

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Step 1: Enable the prefix quoting setting

Follow Steps 1-2 in Method 1 to enable the Prefix each line of the original message option in Outlook.

Step 2: Reply with the selected text

Double-click to open the email you want to reply to. Highlight the portion of the original message you want to quote.
Click Kutools > Reply Selection in the toolbar.

Result

A reply window will open, displaying only the selected text as a quote. This ensures that only the relevant portion of the original email appears in your reply. Simply compose your message and click Send.

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Note: To apply the Reply Selection feature in Kutools for Outlook, firstly, you should download and install Kutools for Outlook.

Advantages of This Method:

✅ More control: Choose exactly what to quote instead of including the full email.
✅ Keeps replies clean: Avoids unnecessary information in the reply chains.
✅ Saves time: No need to manually delete extra content from the reply.

Which Method Should You Choose?

Here’s a comparison of the two methods to help you decide which one best suits your needs:

Method	Best For	Ease of Use	Flexibility
Automatically Quote Entire Email	Full email replies with minimal setup	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐
Quote Selected Portion Only (Kutools)	Cleaner, more precise replies with relevant content	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

For automatic quoting, the first method is the easiest option, while selecting specific text using Kutools provides more control and cleaner replies.

Demo: Reply with quoting a selection of original message in Outlook

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