Those are html css styles, and the names have aol in them. Do you receive/send your mail through an AOL account that has a web-based component?

In Mail Preferences - Composing, under Responding, do you have "Use the same message format as the original message" checked? Whatever your setting of that is, try it the other way.

Also, I know it's a handy feature, but just for trouble-shooting purposes, try unchecking "Quote the text of the original message". Doing so should make this stop happening, which will help us localize the problem.

P.S.: I also have switched to Mail, after using Thunderbird. For some reason, Thunderbird wasn't handing my semi-large IMAP mail folders... it was just choking on them...

Thanks, Fred, but I have given up and returned to Entourage 100 percent. I'm going to divide my accounts in that one system.

After about two weeks and a couple of hundred emails on a project, I found I could not work with Mac Mail's search when trying to find an email with the info I needed. Spotlight on Mac does a great job of searching Entourage. It was very frustrating trying to use Mac Mail.

Yes, part of it might be just being familiar with one product and the other being new to me, but in my opinion Mac Mail has some serious limits for the email power user.

But, for the record, I don't have an AOL account, which makes the above all the more odd to me. I'm moving on. Thanks again.

Aye Entourage here too. Mac Mail isn't great. Lacking many features I'd say were totally essential.

I use mail.app with great satisfaction.
Have it connected to multiple imap mailboxes (most gmail or google apps), and some pop3 corporate ones. No complaints here.

I can't beat the feeling that entourage is never going to a priority for Microsoft. In my mind, the mere fact they differentiate it from outlook by using another name says enough that they have no ambition. Hence I'm not interested.

Snow Leopard's mail.app should get exchange connectivity for those who have email server admins that can't/won't turn on imap or pop3, or who need more than just email.

I didn't like Mac mail at all. It is still on and set up but I'd rather just login to gmail. Heck I'd rather check my email on my iphone than Mac mail. :)

I haven't used it in like a year so I might give it a try again. Forgot why I hated it so much...

I remembered another reason I like Mac Mail. It's integrated with Time Machine. So, just like doing it with a Finder window, you can start Time Machine with a Mac Mail window open and go backwards looking at previous versions of your inbox or other mail boxes.