One thing with the new Outlook 2011 for mac that I really like, is the ability to reply (reply all also) with just a portion of an email. As far as I know this isn’t part of the Windows based Outlook set.
When you receive an email, sometimes it’s useful to be able to hit reply but to not include the entire original mail body, just the portion to which you are wishing to comment upon or draw attention to. It’s simple in Outlook 2011 for mac, you highlight the portion you wish to include in your reply, as normal
Then simply hit reply (or reply all), and your email will instantly include just the highlighted text, but retain the original to/from header information.
Useful feature for me, especially when I want to jump on something somebody said, or praise a worthy comment etc.
Luke Darby 
Is there anyway to turn this off? I highlight when I read, so you can imagine the unwanted results I experience on almost every email I reply to.
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I don’t think there is I’m afraid. Ironically it happened to me the other day for the reasons you say. I still like the feature though, but agree it should be configurable. Anyone else know?
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me too. This is the worst feature ever invented by mankind!
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I want it to be able to be turned off as well!! I can’t stand this feature. I personally compulsively highlight as I read and almost every email I send has bizarre items excerpted. It boggles the mind that this isn’t configurable.
I’ve had lots of bugs with Office 2011. In Outlook, the preference pane won’t remember my message composing font selections–I had to muck around in the preference file and manually change it that way. The Rules don’t always behave as they should… and a host of other issues.
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I agree this should be able to be disabled; why isn’t it configurable? If it ever changes, please let us know.
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Same here, I totally hate this excerpt feature but it still hasn’t changed yet!!!
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Hi Mike,
Nope, still not a configurable option in the latest patch set. my liking for it has waned somewhat where I’ve replied to people with just the highlight making it look like I was picking them up on 1 thing in the mail. Not the end of the world, but in one case it put someones back up. I still think it’s useful, but I’d like some sort of highlight and button combo, or a right-click. I’ll check the new client and see if it’s the same.
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Nope, still not an option
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Just switched to a mac. This is a great feature. Any way to do it on a PC?
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