You can add formatting to your emails in the Fastmail web interface or Fastmail mobile app using the formatting toolbar that appears on the email composer.
- Formatting toolbar
- Change default email formatting
- Change default rich text or plain text
- Switch between rich text and plain text in a message
Formatting toolbar
Our message composer has a built-in formatting toolbar. In the web interface, you can hover your mouse over each icon in the toolbar to see what each tool does.
If you do not see the formatting toolbar when composing a message, this is likely because rich text has been turned off for your account. See Change default rich text or plain text below for more details.
Font styling
Font styling options include bold, italic, underline, and strikethrough.
Font face and text size
For the font face, there are various styles that can be used. For text size, the options include small, medium, large, and huge. Clicking on the tool for each will present a list of these options, which you can then choose from.
Text and highlight colors
There are various colors that can be used for text and also for highlighting the text. Clicking on the tool for each will present a menu that you can pick the color from.
Inserting images
Inline images can be embedded in your messages. Clicking on the tool will allow you to select images you've saved on your device, and insert them into the text body.
Inserting links
Highlight text and click this tool to turning the text into a hyperlink.
Bulleted or numbered lists
Lists using bullet points or numbers can be added with this tool.
Quote blocks
Quote blocks can be used for quoting sections of text. Quote blocks can also be nested within other quote blocks.
Clicking on the left quote tool will quote the selected text, and clicking it again will nest the quote block within another quote block. Clicking the right quote tool will undo one quote block.
Text alignment and direction
Text alignment options include left, center, right, and justify. The text direction can be set to go from left to right, or from right to left. The highlight on the options let you know which are currently selected.
Clear formatting
The clear formatting tool allows you to clear the formatting on selected text. Highlight over the text you want to clear the formatting of, and then click on the tool.
Formatting in the Fastmail mobile app
The Fastmail mobile app includes a formatting toolbar in the composer. You can swipe the toolbar left or right to access all of the available formatting options.
The formatting options available in the mobile app and the web interface are different. In the mobile app, the font face, text size, text and highlight colors, insert images, and text alignment formatting options are not offered at this time.
Change default email formatting
You can customize your default text font, size, and color.
- Open Settings → Mail preferences.
- Scroll down to the Compose section.
- Find the option for Default style. Use the dropdown menus on the toolbar to edit the font, size, and color of your text.
Change default rich text or plain text
You can choose whether you compose messages in rich text or plain text by default:
- Open Settings → Mail preferences.
- Scroll down to the Compose section.
- Find the option for Compose format. Select the Rich text or Plain text option.
If you want the formatting toolbar to show by default, you will want this option set to Rich text.
If you would like to compose as rich text by default but still use plain text formatting when replying to a plain text message, you can also enable the When replying, use the same format as the original message option on this screen.
Note: There is one formatting option when using Plain text. You can use the Ctrl + M keyboard shortcut, which rewraps paragraphs and tries to align the text to make it neater.
Switch between rich text and plain text in a message
If you're composing a message and you want to switch formats for this message only, you can click the gray More dropdown menu in the upper right hand corner and select Make rich text or Make plain text.