Mail in Windows 11: how to set up a default 'Send' format? Help appreciated.

Continuing my voyage around the bloated dross that is Windows 11, I'm now contending with Eleven's awful email.

Despite running a variety of Internet searches in hope of finding out how to set up Mail for my day-to-day usage, thus far not a solitary word of relevant info has emerged.

I can see at a glance that 'Mail' in Windows 11 is inferior to what I've long been used to (I imported Vista Mail into Windows 7 back in 2013 when upgrading my then computer, doing so because Windows 'Live Mail' was too obviously a Microosoft joke at customers' expense) but as (a) I can't install Vista Mail on Windows 11 and (b) I absolutely do NOT want anything to do with the irrelevant pretentiousness of Outlook's 'schedules / diaries/ meetings / appointments' (I'm mid-70s, retired 20 years ago, and would greatly prefer not to 'schedule' any 'meeting' with any 'colleague' seeing as how they're all dead) it seems I'll have to make the best of the very, very bad job that is Windows 11 Mail.

I know there are alternatives. but I really don't want to have to spend hard-earned/ saved cash on paid-for email. I've installed Thunderbird as an alternative, but quickly uninstalled it: much too cluttered aand aesthetically ugly, in latest guise it resembled nothing like the Thunderbird I remember of old.

So. . . I'm using Mail in Windows 11. And I haveI to highlight every word of text I write so as to alter the font to Verdana, which I much prefer, and the font size to 12pt (again, a personal preference.)

Actually locating the drop down menus for changing the type of font required and the font height requires some detective work, seeing as how nothing is remotely intuitive in Mail nor has any attention been paid by Windows 11 devs to KISS (but then, this is Microsoft after all).

In the old Vista Mail, I could set up a default 'Send' format with my preferred choice of font and font size; the option to do this was instantly visible at the top of the Mail page and setting up took less than 30 seconds.

I could also choose where to insert an image -- left, right or centre, at the instant click of the mouse -- whereas now if I want to centre anything I need to conform to some kind of bureaucratically insane formatting protocol and specify how many mm should be nominated for the left indent, and how many for the right: ye gods, all I want is for the darn thing to be C E N T E R ED!!!

If anyone knows how to set up one's own preferences for writing and sending mail in Windows 11, such info would be invaluable at this time. Many thanks!

PS: meant to add, not only are the font choice and font size drop down menu options difficult to locate: the damn things don't even work for me anyway; even after using the downward pointing arrow in the 'format' section, every option in both the font name and font size menus is greyed out -- to change to another font one needs to know t its name and then carefully type it in. Same for size, too.

As things stand then , I can only do that after highlighfing all the text I've hd to pen in the wrong font at the wrong size. Another Microsoft triumph!

BUMP. It seems the Mail app in Windows 11 is so unspeakably appalling that no-one wishes to speak about it.

That's a shame, because it's forums such as this via which light gets shone on Microsoft's business conduct and technological capabilities.

Yet another problem has come to light with Windows Mail: despite the fact we have 4 separate email accounts, a joint one for my wife and I, one for myself, one for use in setting up accounts like Facebook and one relating to online shopping accounts, every time an email is composed and sent from any of those 4 accounts the recipient receives it with a header SENT FROM. . . the name of my wife.

I cannot see how it's possible for email accounts which have no reference to her, which do not have her name anywhere in the email account set-up, should all be being treated by Windows 11 mail as if she is the author of every email sent out.

There's no way I can see of even setting up an address wbook / Windows Contacts in Windows 11 mail either, so it's not as if the system is somehow ransacking a contacts book: there isn't one on this computer. So now I'm having to contend with reply emails from friends and acquaintaneces all beginning, somewhat nervously, with the q

I am beginning to wonder if the numerous problems that have plagued my use of this new Dell has something to do with its setup, because at the outset on first registration Microsoft urged me to register with an Outlook account, and as we have one that we rarely if ever uise -- my firstname and hers, jackandjill@outl;ook.com, I input that.

The system allocated that email address to the title of owner of this computer, but mangled it so that 'jack' vanished. Instead, the computer is regeistered wholly and excvlusively to Jill.

I have today been checking out the appropriate section of the registry where owner and name info is stored, just to see what's there.

I agree the Mail app is a bit clunky but I'm not getting any of your issues. Whether my post will help is another matter.
I created another account in the app and selected it to send mail to another email account and it showed it sent from that email, not the email I log in to.
As for changing fonts and size it's just a matter of clicking the down arrow for both and selecting. Those with the cloud icon are for downloading if required.
Repositioning an image I adjust the size first and put the cursor to the left and use the spacebar. Adjusting again if adding text to left or right of it. The Move option is clunky at best and only seems to work if there is text already there? Not played around with it.
Lastly I find the email easier to work on if I use the 'open message in a new window' icon. Might be a bit helpful to you.

Found you can change the default font/size in accounts or all of them. Open the mail app, select settings, bottom left, then select 'default font' on the right.

Sincere thanks to Fabler2 for coming to the rescue -- very much appreciated!

The guidance was first rate and the attached screenshots, exceptionally helpful.

I have manually changned the name of the preferred font, and manually changed its preferred size, because Window 11 Mail's 'Settings' did not provide any active choices in the two drop-down menus: every name and every size in the two lilsts was greyed out.

So, yup, there's obviously something still very wrong about the way this particular Windows 11 system is working.

I have received further queries from friends and acquaintaneces about "strange emails" from me which are NOT from me, but sent in someone else's name. The recipients are rightfully wary of online scams and phishing so I'm now having to explain to all of them that somehow in some way, Microsoft's Mail app is interfering in my affairs to the extent that it is adding SENT FROM to every outgoing email of mine, but then using my wife's name instead of mine as the sender.

How this might happen mystifies me; there was never any call for Microsoft to create a SENT FROM feature in its email app seeing as how people are all perfectly capable of signing off on an email with their own name, and in their own style -- and it's even worse when Microsoft's interference results in the wrong name being used and provoking anxiety in others.

I'm wondering if this has anything to do with the setting up of this Dell machine because when it arrived I had a helluva job trying to get it to work: the standard user registration screen was altogether missing, as was the follow-up screen within which to insert the passcode to my router. Thus, I had no ownership of the PC and no Internet connectivity.

Dell telephone support took the best part of 2 hours trying to sort out the mess. The help largely consisted of being repeatedly asked to switch off the PC, then switch it back on and keep the button pressed in for 15 seconds. As to why it had been so darned difficult to get started, Dell Support failed to provide any explanation at all.

It was only after those initial (missing) on-screen pages had finally come to light and the registration process completed that I realised the wrong name appeared as computer owner/ user / administrator: my wife's name, not mine.

We have a rarely used Outlook email account dating back to the time Microsoft actually announced Outlook mail. It features both our names in the title; I surmise my wife's name was extracted from that because there's no way she has any interest in computing or in having any 'ownership' or administrator rights to this PC. And there's no way I would've typed in her name as the computer's owner / user/ administrator.

As to the interference with outgoing emails, the use of her name suggests to me that in some way Windows 11 is accessing the (wrong) name of the computer user and assigning that to the unexplained SENT FROM function it has dreamt up. It shouldn't be doing any such thing.

I'm going to see what i can do about changing the username, the computer's name, and any other flippin' names I can think of relating to this computer.

I don't remember there being a paranoid plethora of names required with Windows 7. I never logged in at any time, either, with that machine, and would prefer not to have to bother each time with this one: it's a private home-use computer, in a room in a privately owned house.

Right. Am off to find the icon for 'open message in a new window'. Many many thanks again! Fingers crossed at some stage todnight or tomorrow I'll be rid of Windows 11 mail altogether and have Claws mail installed instead.

FINAL UPDATE:

Obviously, Windows 11 Mail is indefensible trash.

I have now changed this PC's Username to a Local Account (Administrator) and changed the name of the computer, too. So although being conned by Microsoft into thinking it was pretty much mandatory that one had to have an Outlook account in order to actually register ownership/ usage of the new PC, that registration is changed now to a new local account name without an accompanying Microsoft Outlook email address.

Bizarrely though, despite all the changes, Microsoft is still interfering in my emails, and still overprinting any and every message sent from Windows 11 Mail registered email accounts with my wife's name, causing no end of confusion at the recipients' end.

Nobody asked Microsoft to invent a method of marking sent emails with SENT FROM (the computer log-in username) when anyone and everyone is perfectly capable of sending and signing off on their own email. In my case it's even worse because Microsoft is associating the wrong name with each different email account in use. Some of the accounts are not identifiable with any person; they were devised that way on grounds of privacy and security.

I'm junking Windows Mail now, time is too precious to spend on the darn thing. My loathing for Microsoft remains undiminished; I wish I could junk Windows 11 with it.