HTML e-mail

[pendean]

The magazine I edit sends out a quarterly promotional e-mail, with a coloured background, images, and HTML formatting. We find it extremely difficult to do this satsfactorily in Thunderbird and Outlook. Has anyone any suggestions for a programme that does this easily, without constantly ruining what you are trying to do?

best wishes

Philip

[StuartR]

I have run into this problem, and would be delighted to have a good solution.

Outlook seems to destroy intra-document links, and styles, in the most horrid way.

StuartR

[Pilgrim]

Have you tried using Microsoft Word as your e-mail editor?

Jeff

[Jezza]

Hi there

I was going to answer earlier but Pilgrim has got a good point, you can use various options using word.

The Help desk at my work uses email templates to notify staff when a system is planned to go off line is offline due to a failure...whatever the problem. This email template was originally created in Word and converted to HTML and used as a template stored in a system folder. I was called in to clear up the (nasty IMO) HTML created by Word just make the file smaller.

Obviously this is a standard utility in Microsoft Office but hopefully some other Loungers may have some other ideas.

[IMNetUser]

Hans,

I'm with you. However, a good friend does the following (he is the company IT and responsible for cleaning up the HTML code for documents and forms):

1. <LI>Requires users to use MS Work or Excel to create the document/form and save as document/template in RTF (Rich Text Format) format.
   <LI>He uses a free AceHTML Freeware editor to load the .RTF document.
   <LI>He saves the document to HTML.

NOTE:I have not personally used this product or performed his "Trick". My friend claims it works great and he only converts AFTER the user has verified the document/template is working correctly. The conversion is supposed to provide "Clean" HTML
code and has a HTML Syntax checker that does NOT require a user to be knowledgeable in generating HTML.

HTH

[AlanMiller]

You might have some luck with one of the <img src=/S/free.gif border=0 alt=free width=30 height=15>ware programs at Freeware4u.com A Site Dedicated to Freeware.

Alan

[Pilgrim]

I can't comment on Ace HTML Editor, but I have used Ace FTP Pro for years and if their HTML Editor is of the same quality, it should be quite good. Personally, I use Namo WebEditor 5.5 to convert Word and RTF documents to HTML. Without exaggeration, I have done this in excess of 3000 times with marvelous success. Like ACE, Namo writes extremely clean code compared to Word (aka: FrontPage). I would assume, perhaps wrongly, that most current WYSIWYG HTML Editors have a similar feature. Some are perhaps free. But again, I can't speak from personal experience not having used much of anything for nearly 6 years other than Namo. <img src=/S/grin.gif border=0 alt=grin width=15 height=15>

Jeff

[pendean]

Thanks for all this. The problem we're having is not getting the HTML written, but finding an e-mail client that doesn't just mangle it. Once we've saved a draft and re-opened it in Thunderbird, for example, the artwork becomes completely distorted.

[Pilgrim]

Gotcha! Sorry, but I don't have any other suggestions other than to create the document in a HTML Editor and mail it as an attachment. However, that too has its drawbacks since you would need to send: 1) the actual HTML file (xxxx.html) and 2) any and all images included in the same folder. The only other thing I could suggest would be to create the document in HTML and upload it with all the images, if any, to a remote server. Then simply include a link in your e-mail to the "xxxx.html" document. Oh.... well, you could create the document in MS Word and then convert it to PDF and attach that to the e-mail. <img src=/S/shrug.gif border=0 alt=shrug width=39 height=15>

Jeff

[jscher2000]

There are plenty of specialized email clients for sending, er, bulk mail. Assuming you find one that spam filters don't automatically refuse to deal with, I think you will find that sort of tool most efficient. Some found in a quick Google:

e-Campaign - $100 for a 2,000 address mailing list, $180 unlimited

Mail Them Pro - $80

There was one from a company that also sells a mailing list of 238 million addresses. I think it would be a bad idea to patronize that one!!

[IMNetUser]

In addition to Jeff's idea's, one thought ...

Watch the graphic resolution setting's. Make sure the E-Mail client and actual attachment are similar in nature (say 600X800). This really should not matter, but ...

P.S. Jeff - I really like the PDF Idea - Adobe Reader then adjusts the graphics to whatever the user's PC Resolution is <img src=/S/grin.gif border=0 alt=grin width=15 height=15>

[pendean]

many thanks

Philip

[JohnGray]

I hate to pour petrol on troubled waters, but some people and companies are Not Happy with the problems which receiving email in HTML format can cause, and only accept it in ordinary text format...

John