Re: HTML & plain text in Outlook 2007

On Fri, 2010-02-12 at 19:03 -0600, Skip Evans wrote: > Hey Guys, > > Thanks for all the info on this. Sorry for the late reply, but > I got sidetracked writing the module that will send out all > these nasty emails. > > I do have the text going on top, and I think I said, looks > perfect in Evolution and Thunderbird in both text and HTML. > > I also read about MS ripping out the IE renderer and going > back in time basically. > > I thought the solution of converting a Word document into HTML > with open office is interesting. I'll run that by the client > and test it out. > > Bottom line is, HTML is just a total pain, and yes, the email > the client created in HTML using the most update to date CSS > and HTML! > > Thanks! > > Skip > > Robert Cummings wrote: > > Ashley Sheridan wrote: > >> On Thu, 2010-02-04 at 13:44 -0500, Robert Cummings wrote: > >>>> > >>>> What about signing yourself up to some newsletters to see how they do > >>>> it? > >>>> > >>>> Looking at the ones I get from Facebook as an example, they use the > >>>> boundary codes you mentioned, and I can't see anything particularly > >>>> special that's been added. What order are you sending the two message > >>>> parts by the way? I think the traditional way is to send the plain/text > >>>> part first, so that UA's that don't understand or support multipart > >>>> messages only use the first one. As you mentioned that you're seeing > >>>> HTML code at the top, I'd hazard a guess that you're sending the > >>>> HTML > >>>> first? > >>> The problem is most likely NOT his email structure, but the fact that > >>> Microsoft in all their lock-in, make things difficult, non standard, > >>> monopolistic philosophy chose to switch out the IE HTML renderer > >>> (which was getting pretty decent with IE7 and IE8) with the Office > >>> HTML renderer... so now basic things like CSS padding of something as > >>> simple as a <p> tag is not possible. You now need to use margins > >>> instead. The full list of supported attributes / CSS can be found here: > >>> > >>> > >>> http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa338201.aspx > >>> > >>> Obviously creating HTML emails was getting too easy (like it is with > >>> Thunderbird). Of course... I guess it could be as bad as Google > >>> stripping out the stylesheets entirely when viewing HTML content > >>> which forces you to put the styles on the tags themselves. > >>> > >>> ... actually I'm not sure what's worse... at least you can use > >>> standard styles with Google's gmail. Either way... making nice > >>> looking HTML emails that work across Outlook, Thunderbird, Gmail, > >>> Yahoo, and Hotmail is a pain in the ass. > >>> > >>> Cheers, > >>> Rob. > >> > >> > >> If he's getting HTML output at the top of the email, I would think that > >> did suggest that MS Word didn't like the structure. Making HTML emails > >> is now such a difficult job, as the email clients rendering engines tend > >> to not get updated as often as browsers, and there doesn't seem to be > >> any effort in bringing the rendering of the email clients together. > >> > >> Whenever I create these emails I try to make sure I try no to get too > >> creative in the design, and use not only CSS styles, but properties of > >> the HTML tags themselves. It means I end up writing the CSS essentially > >> twice and backing it up with old deprecated HTML attributes, but it > >> usually does the trick. > >> > >> Is there any effort by some standards group that email clients could > >> benefit from? > > > > I think I skipped over some relevant information in the original post :) > > > > Still... as you've said... email HTML sucks... and MS made it worse. > > > > Cheers, > > Rob. > > -- > ==================================== > Skip Evans > PenguinSites.com, LLC > 503 S Baldwin St, #1 > Madison WI 53703 > 608.250.2720 > http://penguinsites.com > ------------------------------------ > Those of you who believe in > telekinesis, raise my hand. > -- Kurt Vonnegut > That last reason could be why your email is failing! HTML email is the one place where it is actually better to code "the old way" with tables for markup, <font> tags, and very little (if any) CSS. If you do use any CSS, it's best left inline as well, as some email clients strip out anything within the <head> tags of your email. Thanks, Ash http://www.ashleysheridan.co.uk