Outlook 2013/2016: Make Sender and Subject the same Font Size

In Outlook 2013 and Outlook 2016, the sender is shown in a bigger font than the subject in the email list. This is a change from Outlook 2010 where both lines were with the same font size.

To get that behaviour back, do the following:

  1. Go to the View tab
  2. Click on View Settings
  3. Click on Conditional Formatting...
  4. Click on Add and give the new rule a name (e.g. "Sender name")
  5. Click on Font...
  6. Under the "Size" heading, click on Smaller
  7. Click OK
  8. You will get a warning that you have not created a condition. Click Yes

That's it.

24 thoughts on “Outlook 2013/2016: Make Sender and Subject the same Font Size”

  1. I agree with all those who are asking for help with their font size of the To, CC, BCC, Subject Lines while COMPOSING a message. I am an IT Person and I like everything to be tiny to the point of almost microscopic so I am not affected however I provide support to a huge community of over 55 year olds within the Government and they are frustrated as screen resolutions get better and better they have more and more issues seeing the font on their screens. I have one guy's Windows Display Settings zoomed to 200% and he still can't see the To, CC, BCC, Subject fields in his Outlook 365 for Home Use and it is super frustrating for these older people to continue using their computers.

    Additionally why does every piece of software have so much white background? I have to change the settings for many staff due to it being too bright and hurting their eyes to stare at their screens all day.

  2. Thank you. This worked. I had been looking on line for days for a fix. All the others would only change size of existing emails listed. Incoming emails would still come in very small. Yours is the only one that corrected the incoming emails as well. So thankful.

  3. For new email that I compose, how do I change the font size in the To, CC, and Subject lines?

    1. When you compose an email, you can't change the font size in To, CC and Subject as they are just plain text and have no formatting information. You can only change the font size of the body, which is HTML.

      1. Well, that's frustrating. Could they make the font any smaller?! I appreciate your help. Thanks!

      2. I'm having a similar problem to Maria, in that the addressee and subject are incredibly small. This has never happened until today so how come it's changed all of a sudden??

        1. I'm having the same problem as well. Addressee and subject are like a 3 font. I can't hardly see them?

        2. in response to Liz comment,, I agree this just happened to me today. Interestingly it happened after I updated my OUtlook/office 365 product to the latest version. However folowing some other suggestions that were not exactly on topic.....i changed my WINDOWS font size from normal (100%) to "larger". That made everything too large. I changed it back to "normal" and after logging back onto the computer, my outlook to/from/subject lines and entries were back to the way they used to be.

        3. I am having the SAME issue. All of a sudden I came in today and the To, CC in emails and calendars are microscopic.

    2. I'm having this same problem. It just started happening today. When I compose a new email, the To, Cc, and Subject line are hideously TINY!

  4. My day has been made. :) Great solution and easy fix to a really annoying problem. I had a suspicion that something like this would work, but wasn't sure of the syntax exactly. +1 for being awesome!

  5. Android phone.
    There are no options like that in Settings.
    I used to be able to view 7 or 8 on the list, now I can only see 3 & there are big gaps between each one. Driving me crazy, having to scroll like a mad man. And deleting multiple emails takes forever.

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