... of course, if you've selected "Plain Text" as the Mail Sending Format, then the formatting bar won't appear, 'cos by definition, Plain Text id unformatted.
If that's the case, go to Tools/Options
Go to the Send tab
under Mail Sending Format, check HTML
rojash-thank you for your help- alas i am very much a novice and still could not return to the default setting. I used system restore and that seems to have done the trick-thanks again!
am by no means a computer expert but was advised only to use systems restore as a last resort - some updates can play havoc with your machine if you restore to a point before that update was downloaded. Said with feeling from one novice to another!