This is Outlook trying to insert the initials. No initials provided =
blank space(s). I don't know if there is a way to turn this off.

Roy N wrote:
When I forward or reply to a message but need to edit the text in the body of
the message (the text in the originally sent email) Outlook automatically
places an extra space before & after the inserted text that I type.

This only happens when replying to HTML email, no problem with plain
text. Also, when I edit the original sender's text it is in blue arial
font regardless of what font & color the original email was formatted
in.

I am using OL 2003 SP2.

Many others are having this same problem. I've seen the question asked on
several forums but nobody has been able to provide a solution.

Can anyone help?