Microsoft's apparent ambition to make Outlook the worst email client for Mac shows no sign of fading after a recent update broke font selection in emails.

The problem occurs when composing an email. Outlook uses the default font as the user types, but will ignore any request to select something different.

Several threads have appeared on Microsoft's forums about the issue, and a moderator confirmed that something was amiss in a post on July 8.

One workaround is to roll back to an earlier version of Outlook and turn off updating. Another is to copy and paste text from elsewhere. Alternatively, users can wait for a fix to arrive.

An affected Register reader told us: "Not being able to share terminal output and snippets of code in a monospaced font is quite the limitation. The workaround, sad that it is, is to compose messages in Word and then paste them into Outlook."

Savvy users have looked into the issue and noted that the problem appears to lie with the HTML behind the scenes and quotes being inserted where they shouldn't.

The Register asked Microsoft to comment, and will update this piece should an explanation be forthcoming. In the meantime, there are reports in the forums that the issue is not present in the beta and preview versions of Outlook, suggesting a fix may be on the way.

Our reader noted that the bug wasn't the end of the world (unlike, say, something that removed the original email text from replies), but the fact that it made it into production highlighted a greater malaise at Microsoft.

"It's a fairly fundamental problem that should never have made it past the unit tests, let alone into the wild and for it to take four weeks with still no fix is astonishing." ®