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Redline in Email is the quickest way to mark up an email reply, but there are situations where it cannot complete the job: the add-in panel is blank or will not load, the message is too large for Outlook to process, or the redline will not apply back to your reply. When the change you need to show is essentially text, you can produce the same redline manually in Draftable Legal and paste it into your email. This article shows that workaround.
This is a text-only workaround. It is best for plain wording changes to the body of an email. It does not carry across attachments, embedded images, or complex formatting such as multi-level numbered lists and tables. For those, use the standard Redline in Email workflow once the underlying issue is resolved.

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When to use this

Consider this workaround when you are trying to redline text in an email and Redline in Email will not cooperate, for example:
  • The Redline in Email panel is blank or does not load.
  • You see a “message too long” or size limit error when creating or updating the email.
  • The Create New Email or copy step does not complete.
  • The redline is not applying to the text content of your reply.
Before using the workaround, it is worth confirming the two most common causes of these symptoms:
  1. Draftable Legal must be running in the background (system tray) for Redline in Email to work. Launch it first, then try again.
  2. If the add-in still misbehaves, try clearing the add-in cache and restarting Draftable Legal.
If the feature works after that, you do not need this workaround.

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Before you start

  • Draftable Legal is installed and open.
  • You can copy the text you want to compare from your email (the original text and your edited version).
1

Copy the text from your email

In Outlook, select the section of the email you want to redline and copy it (Ctrl+C). You will paste this into Draftable in the next steps. You will do this twice: once for the original text, and once for your edited version.
2

Start a new comparison and switch the older side to Text Input

Open Draftable Legal and start a New Comparison. On the Older document side, click Text Input (the pencil icon), then paste your original text.
The New Comparison screen with the Text Input option highlighted on both the older and newer document panes
3

Switch the newer side to Text Input and paste your edited text

On the Newer document side, click Text Input and paste your edited version of the text.
A quick way to do this is to paste the original text on both sides, then edit the text on the newer side directly in the box until it reads the way you want your reply to read.
4

Review the live redline preview

As soon as both sides contain text, the Redline preview appears underneath, updating automatically as you type. Deletions are shown struck through and insertions are underlined, exactly as they will appear in your email.
The Redline preview showing tracked deletions and insertions, with the Copy As Redline button highlighted in the preview toolbar
5

Copy the redline

In the top right of the Redline preview, click Copy As Redline (the icon marked with an “R”). This copies the redline to your clipboard with its formatting, ready to paste into an email.
Two other copy options sit next to it: Copy As Tracked Changes (paste into a Word document as tracked changes) and Copy AI-Ready Redline (a plain-text redline for use with AI tools). For an email reply, use Copy As Redline.
6

Paste the redline into your reply

Switch back to your Outlook reply and paste (Ctrl+V). The redline pastes in with its formatting, so your recipient can see the deletions and insertions. Finish and send your reply as normal.

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Limitations

  • This approach redlines text only. It does not handle attachments, images, or complex formatting.
  • The pasted redline is a visual markup of the text. It is not a live Redline in Email session, so the recipient cannot use Accept or reject changes on it. If you need that behaviour, use the standard Redline in Email workflow.
If Redline in Email continues to fail after checking the causes above, please contact the support team at support@draftable.com so we can investigate.