Phantom lines appearing in my newsletter

[ElginPD]

I have used Constant Contact for years to create our newsletters.  When I am working in Constant Contact, I do not see these lines that appear in the newsletter when it is sent through the Outlook email system.  When I am in preview mode within Constant Contact, the lines are not visible, but they randomly appear in an emailed version of the newsletter. When I called support, I was told there was a widespread problem with Outlook in how emails have been appearing.  This sounds like a compatibility issue between Constant Contact and Outlook.  Has anyone else encountered this issue.  This is a brand new issue that I am having after many years of using this.  

[William_A]

Hello @ElginPD ,

This is unfortunately a widespread bug with Microsoft Outlook that affects all ESP emails, including those sent through our system. There are currently no legitimate workarounds for this issue, however, it only seems to affect certain Outlook versions. Microsoft is aware of the issue, and we're closely watching for fixes that can be properly applied in our system. If any are made available, we will take advantage of them. The primary issue is that the lines are random, the next test or live send, they could end up in different positions or disappear entirely (as you've seemingly avoided up till now).

That said, there are a couple potential workarounds you could try:

• Changing the color of your inner background to match the outer background. This way if the lines still try to appear, they'll still be the exact same color and won't be seen.
• Drag a block like a divider next to the affected block to create a column layout. Add all the affected blocks to one column. Delete the block/divider in the other column, so that the content is back to one column. We've seen this workaround have some success, but nothing is guaranteed due to the sporadic nature of the glitch.

For more info on common display issues in different email programs, such as with color and text formatting, I'd recommend taking a look at this post.