html Newsletters!

[AgentFitz]

ok so I've made an HTML page w/ divs and css -- laid out how I want it for a newsletter...how do I go about inserting it into an email so I can send it out to people?

my outlook and web-based email don't seem to directly support the html....so how is done?

thanks very much in advance

[ditt0]

You might wanna look at this page:

http://www.macromedia.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/index.cfm?id=tn_15200

Other than setting this up, there are other issues with html emails that you should be taking care of. A few I can think of : have the css embedded in the html file (and not linked or imported), test your code in as many browsers as possible (if possible with browsercam) and resolutions to check it's fluidity, try to use as little images as possible (or should i say none?) as XP sp2 strips images in outlook for security reasons, don't use in the text words that are checked by the MS filter file in Outlook (there should be a list somewhere).
Other than that, good luck with it:)

[AgentFitz]

thanks for the info ditto - some good bits in there for sure. the link was on cue as well!

[AgentFitz]

oh I also wanted to ask --- I followed some of the steps and "inserted" the html into an email in outlook but it actually "attached" the html in the email so it didn't show up right within the content of the email like I had hoped. I'm going to read up on this, but does anyone happen to know a tried and true method of getting the html to "insert" directly into the body of the message itself?

thanks!

[UNFLUX]

i believe if you use Outlook Express instead, you can edit the email's source directly. I used to send out our newsletter like that, and it worked great. :)

[AgentFitz]

thanks for the response unflux! hey man, I found a dope program you may have heard of called group mail:
http://www.group-mail.com/asp/common/default.asp

only thing is, when I sent my newsletter out, it read the html but disregarded the embedded CSS. is this pretty typical? or is there a way to make sure the CSS will stay in tact? did you use css in the newsletters you sent out?

thanks very much

[AgentFitz]

after re-reading ditt0's post it looks like she was saying that as long as the CSS wasn't linked, which mine isn't, then it should be OK. hmmmmz....wonder why it's not working

[UNFLUX]

you'll have to embed the css into the page itself, and within the actual layout rather than in the header. That's teh safest way to ensure the formatting you want is being translated.

[ditt0]

it's probably because of the classes, email clients strip the dot from ".someclass" and that leaves "someclass" as something unknown to the parser.So using class selectors ( i mean using "div.someclass" instead of ".someclass") shall solve the problem. It's advisable to do the same with all elements, like for example with links, instead of just "a:link" use "div.someclass a:link" cause you might alter the styling of webmail clients.
And yes, inline styles could do it too:)

[UNFLUX]

good point ditt0 ;)

[AgentFitz]

goodness, you guys are superstars. what are your addresses so that I might send each of you a bottle of 'Dom Perignon'

[UNFLUX]

gosh, just for a little advice? hell if that happend all the time I'd be drunk all the time I think! :D