Getting set up

Set the default compose font

Have Footer365 set the font your people's new messages start in, in Outlook on the web, on the mailboxes of everyone or of the people you choose, from the Add-in settings page.

Last checked against Footer365 on 27 October 2026

The Default compose font on the Add-in settings page is the font and size your people's new messages start in. Footer365 sets it on each person's mailbox in Exchange Online. The Outlook add-in plays no part in it: Microsoft gives add-ins no way to set or read the font a person types in.

Footer365 makes the Add-in settings page available to organisations gradually, so it may not be in your portal yet. See Early access pages and features.

Which Outlook it works in

Footer365 sets the font with Microsoft's Set-MailboxMessageConfiguration cmdlet, and Microsoft documents what that reaches:

  • Outlook on the web: Microsoft documents the font as "the default font when the user creates messages in Outlook on the web".
  • The new Outlook for Windows: Microsoft says some of the cmdlet's settings "also apply to the new Outlook client", without saying which. Whether the new Outlook uses this font is still to be confirmed by our own test in a real tenant.
  • Classic Outlook for Windows and Outlook for Mac: Microsoft says these settings "are not used in Outlook". Classic Outlook keeps the font set on each computer, which Footer365 cannot reach.
  • Outlook on phones: Microsoft says the settings are not used in Exchange ActiveSync or other email clients.

Your signature keeps its own fonts, whatever the compose font is.

Before you start

  • Only a Super Admin can change the compose font, because Footer365 writes it into people's mailboxes. Anyone else who can open the page sees what is set. Roles and permissions
  • Footer365 reaches your mailboxes through the Exchange Administrator role your organisation grants when it sets up mail flow. With the Outlook add-in only, Footer365 cannot set it, and the page shows the PowerShell to do it yourself instead. Using the Outlook add-in only

Set it

  1. In the portal's left-hand menu, under Account, select Add-in settings.
  2. Beside Default compose font, choose Everyone or Only the people chosen. For Only the people chosen, add the people, groups or departments it is for. Anyone under Except these people is left alone.
  3. Choose the font and the size. The size is a number from 1 to 7, as Microsoft documents it: 3 is 12 point, and Microsoft gives no point size for the others.
  4. Select Save changes.

Every organisation starts with the compose font for Nobody, and while it is for nobody Footer365 never touches a mailbox's font. It is set only on user mailboxes Footer365 signs, so never on a shared mailbox, or for anyone outside the people you sync or still waiting for your approval. How directory sync works

What happens next

Footer365 sets the font in the background, a few mailboxes at a time, and reads each one back from Exchange to check it. While it is working the page shows Applying; open the page again to see how far it has gone. Outlook on the web can take a while to show a new font, so a person may see their old one for a time.

Afterwards the page says how many mailboxes have the font and when it last read them back. Footer365 also sets it for someone who joins the people chosen, after the next directory sync, and reads back each mailbox about once a day.

  • Some could not be set. If Exchange does not set the font on a mailbox, the page names it with Exchange's own reason, and each one is in your audit log. Select Try again to have another go; Footer365 also tries again by itself a day later.
  • A person changed it. Someone can still change their own font in Outlook on the web. Footer365 shows who reads back with a different font, and does not keep overwriting their choice. Select Set it again for these people (or this person), and confirm with Set it again, to put yours back.
  • Someone leaves the people chosen. Footer365 does not put their font back, because it does not know what they had before. The page shows them as Left as it is, with the font they still have.
  • Footer365 cannot reach Exchange. If Exchange refuses Footer365's access, nothing is set or checked and mailboxes keep what they have. Reconnect from Getting started, then select Try again.

The Check a person card shows whether the compose font is set for one person, why, and when it was set.

Set it yourself with PowerShell

An administrator can set the same font in Exchange Online PowerShell, for example for an organisation on the Outlook add-in only:

Set-MailboxMessageConfiguration -Identity [email protected] -DefaultFontName "Verdana" -DefaultFontSize 2

Good to know

  • Footer365 changes only the font and the size. The rest of each mailbox's message settings, its Outlook on the web signature among them, are left as they are. What Footer365 creates in Exchange
  • Every change to the setting is recorded in your audit log with who made it, before and after, and each run records how many mailboxes it set.
  • Footer365's record of what it set is part of your organisation's data: it is in a data export and deleted with your account.

Still stuck?

Tell us what you were trying to do and what you saw. Include the sender, a recipient and roughly when a message was sent, and we can trace it.

Contact support Service status