passing variable through an html email

I'm writing a page that allows me to add users to a table. Once the users are in the table they will be able to gain access to our downloads section, they will be validated against their user/pass in a mysql database. Here's my question. I understand how to send mail using mail(). I also understand how to send mail in an html format which is what I'd prefer to do but what I'm having trouble with is passing my variables to the email being generated in the html format. This works fine in the plain text emails but can't seem to get it to work in the html emails. Here's my situation...once a new user is added to the database an email is generated with their user/pass. The code I am using to send them the email is this: ================================================================ //mails the new account holder his/her username and pass //for testing purposes I'm sending all mail to myself /* recipients */ $to = "Kevin Ruiz <kevin.ruiz@worktiviti.com>"; /* subject */ $subject = "Access to downloads section at Worktiviti.com"; /* message */ $message = ' <html> <head> <title>Access to downloads section at Worktiviti.com</title> <style> p{font-family:arial; font-size:8pt;} </style> </head> <body> <table width="100%" border=0 cellspacing=2 cellpadding=0> <tr> <td valign=top><img src="http://www.worktiviti.com/images/gifs/logo.gif" alt="worktiviti"></td> </tr> </table> <table width="100%" border=0 cellspacing=2 cellpadding=0> <tr> <td> <p> Dear $real_name ,<br /><br /> An account has been created for you to access the downloads section of the Worktiviti website.<br /><br /> You can log into your account <a href=http://www.worktiviti.com/protected/login.php>here</a>.<br /><br /> Your username and password are as follows:<br /> Username: $username<br /> Password: $password<br /><br /> If you have any problems loggin into your account or have any questions please contact the <a href=mailto:webmaster@worktiviti.com>webmaster</a>. </p> </td> </tr> </table> </body> </html> '; /* To send HTML mail, you can set the Content-type header. */ $headers = "MIME-Version: 1.0\r\n"; $headers .= "Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1\r\n"; /* additional headers */ $headers .= "From: Do Not Reply<do-not-reply@worktiviti.com>\r\n"; /* and now mail it */ mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers); ======================================================================== If you sent the code now it would send fine except the variables $real_name, $username, & $password would not echo anything. They would simply print themselves. I've tried a number of variations. Some of which include \"$real_name\", "$real_name", '$real_name',<?= $real_name ?>. Nothing seems to work. I'm editing the page in dreamweaver. As soon as I try to put the "<? ?>" into the code to tell it that some php is coming it tells me I have an error. Does anyone have any idea what I'm doing wrong? Any help woudl be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Kevin