Is there any chance that we will see a future revision of Freeway make it straightforward to create stationery for Apple Mail? This could surely be a big selling point, as I am unaware of any tool that can perform this task easily at present. It would presumably be a relatively straightforward job (I know that devs hate it when you say something like this!) to do the necessary work to be able to export in the right format directly from Freeway.
That’s an interesting idea. I’d assume there could be some templates made that could be used and then by using Safari’s “Mail This Page” it could be sent off.
I would be very happy, just to see some more templates just like that. Most of them on the sp site are as old as fw2
it’s not that i use them as a template, but sometimes, they contain a item, i look for, or am to embarresed to ask for here.
( like a menu, or inspiration, or …or… )
so people would make me realy happy with templates…
… by using Safari’s “Mail This Page” it could be sent off.
I don’t really see why Safari has to be involved at all. Surely there could be an option in the File menu along the lines of “Install as Stationery into Mail…” or similar?
It’d probably be a licensing nightmare for Softpress to integrate that. It would be easier probably for them to create templates that could be mailed using Apple Mail with Safari then it would to integrate it.
Just an idea, I could potentially be wrong here.
I’d be interested in figuring out how to make mailable items in Freeway since there’s been a few past threads about HTML e-mails.
You’re probably correct that it would be simple enough to do, perhaps there’s an Action developer who would be willing to tackle the formatting and translation issues. As a Web developer’s tool, though, I don’t know if it makes sense for Softpress to devote energy to creating something specifically for a non-Web platform. (Mail is specified as a text-only medium, and is extended through the MIME standard to support attachments and other non-text message body contents, of which HTML is one particular flavor.)
Personally, I find HTML mail to be a wasteful and annoying thing, and have gone to great lengths – even incantations in Terminal to set private flags in the various preferences involved – to turn it off.
The more I thought about it, it’d be rough to do because I’ve never really had a successful mailing experience that worked across the board in an HTML e-mail campaign. The expectations and questions flooding in would be why doesn’t Outlook like my e-mails?
Perhaps an Action Developer has another way to simplify it.
If you are trying to create HTML e-mail advertising, then two bits of
advice:
First, consider hiring a really excellent writer to write plain-text
messages that send the recipient to a Web site. This is the single
best approach I have found. You annoy almost nobody this way, and a
really great writer can make 16pt Courier sit up and get noticed.
Idea is king, you know.
Second, if you are really intent on sending HTML mail, use a service
like MailChimp that provides you with robust previewing and
validating services, otherwise you might be better off not sending
anything. It’s so easy to get labeled as a spammer and blacklisted
these days. And very hard to get off those lists.
Walter
On Aug 2, 2008, at 2:18 PM, Dan J wrote:
Interesting waltd.
The more I thought about it, it’d be rough to do because I’ve never
really had a successful mailing experience that worked across the
board in an HTML e-mail campaign. The expectations and questions
flooding in would be why doesn’t Outlook like my e-mails?
Perhaps an Action Developer has another way to simplify it.
As a Web developer’s tool, though, I don’t know if it makes sense for Softpress to devote energy to creating something specifically for a non-Web platform.
Probably because all of a sudden it would open up the product to an additional market - people who want to be able to create stationery for use with Apple Mail. I would have thought that any developer would be keen on expanding the reach of their product, particularly if it was a relatively straightforward thing to do that makes use of the basic functionality of the product.
Doing it through a third party Action would not serve the same positive purpose of expanding the marketplace for the product as it would not be part of the basic product and therefore would be very difficult to market and build awareness of the feature.
Personally, I find HTML mail to be a wasteful and annoying thing, and have gone to great lengths – even incantations in Terminal to set private flags in the various preferences involved – to turn it off.
I would submit that this is prejudice and rather backward - it’s a bit like saying you prefer it when the newspapers didn’t have any pictures and no colour and were all one typeface throughout. YOU may prefer this (and I know that there is a small hardcore of people who do oppose progress in this area), but the majority of people have no such prejudice and welcome it.
Do you honestly imagine that in the future all email is going to be text only? If so, you’re crazy. The percentage of people annoyed by HTML email is tiny and the vast majority of people either accept or welcome it. Welcome to the real world…
Sorry about the formatting above - I missed a quote mark and the second last paragraph looks like it is part of the quote when in fact it is part of my reply. Hope that is clear!
Sorry Nickoll, I have to agree with Walt, I don’t think I’ve ever had
an HTML email that has ben useful, probably about 95% of them come
from spammers and the other 5% from various stores I have an account
with.
Whenever I see a lovely colourful email all it gets is a quick look
and then deleted as I know it’s not important to me, so therefore
another few seconds of my life gone, never to be reclaimed. I neither
wish to accept or welcome it…I just don’t want it.
Each to their own though, if you like them, I’ll forward all of mine
onto you!
Trev
On 4 Aug 2008, at 08:46, nickcoll wrote:
various preferences involved – to turn it off.
I would submit that this is prejudice and rather backward - it’s a
bit like saying you prefer it when the newspapers didn’t have any
pictures and no colour and were all one typeface throughout. YOU
may prefer this (and I know that there is a small hardcore of
people who do oppose progress in this area), but the majority of
people have no such prejudice and welcome it.
Do you honestly imagine that in the future all email is going to be
text only? If so, you’re crazy. The percentage of people annoyed by
HTML email is tiny and the vast majority of people either accept or
welcome it. Welcome to the real world…
Sorry Nickoll, I have to agree with Walt, I don’t think I’ve ever had
an HTML email that has ben useful,
That’s fine, but it doesn’t really matter whether you and the others who have posted don’t like HTML email. You’re entitled to your view, but, believe me, the future will not be built around text-only email. If you don’t like HTML emails then of course you should deal with them in whatever way you want.
But just try and put yourselves in the shoes of the majority of average people who use computers. They do not have any reason to dislike HTML email as you do - to them, HTML emails are better at communicating complex messages and the ability to incorporate pictures etc is a good thing. They could not even imagine a reason to dislike them.
This is one of the problems of which developers need to be very wary. You are not typical users, and it is vitally important to be able to put yourself in their shoes. I am afraid that you are not demonstrating that ability in your prejudice against HTML emails.
I am sure you will all be up in arms about this, but once again, welcome to the REAL world, a world of customers who you need to want to buy your products. What’s important is what they think, and how you can best create products to tap into that.
Including Viagra, Cialis, enlargement pills etc…I’m sure they’re welcome with open arms.
I don’t think it’s prejudice as such, it’s just the normal abuse you get with new technology which really P’s me off.
As you say, I’m entitled to my view and I’ll stick with the dislike until someone asks me to do an email campaign for them, at which point I’ll probably sell my soul to the devil.
Trev
On 4 Aug 2008, at 10:04, nickcoll wrote:
They do not have any reason to dislike HTML email as you do - to them, HTML emails are better at communicating complex messages
As you say, I’m entitled to my view and I’ll stick with the dislike
until someone asks me to do an email campaign for them, at which
point I’ll probably sell my soul to the devil.
I always try to gently steer clients away from things I dislike. If
they insist, and want to pay me for it, I’ll do it while making sure
they’re clear about the potential problems along the way.
(Chalk me up for another one who dislikes HMTL emails, by the way.)
On 4 Aug 2008, 10:13 am, Trevreav wrote:
I don’t think it’s prejudice as such, it’s just the normal abuse you
get with new technology which really P’s me off.
I think one of the problems here is that you’re equating HTML emails with spam. I would submit that they are actually two separate issues that should not be conflated in this way. HTML emails have many uses which are not limited to the distribution of accursed spam, and the technology should surely not be allowed to be hijacked by its abuse.
That’s one of my points, if the amount of HTML emails I got were from
legitimate sources then I wouldn’t mind them so much, but the fact
that spammers have jumped on the bandwagon have spoiled the whole
idea of them for me.
I sincerely hope that technology is not hijacked by the abuse, but
judging by my inbox this morning it seems to be going that way. The
simple fact that you can have the relevant bit of copy as a graphic
rather than text is the ultimate abuse to get it through people’s
filters and intrude into their day, hence my dislike of them.
Trev
On 4 Aug 2008, at 12:06, nickcoll wrote:
I think one of the problems here is that you’re equating HTML
emails with spam. I would submit that they are actually two
separate issues that should not be conflated in this way. HTML
emails have many uses which are not limited to the distribution of
accursed spam, and the technology should surely not be allowed to
be hijacked by its abuse.
On 4 Aug 2008, 12:31 pm, David Ledger wrote:
And many people, me included, still use Eudora mainly because it
doesn’t interpret HTML.
David
That’s great - if it works for you, fine. Still doesn’t seem to me to have any bearing on the question of what the majority of people want/need.
BTW, and I know this is very OT, I was trying over the weekend to get Eudora going for a friend who wanted to be able to send mail using an SMTP server that required authentication. Despite searching through the settings dialog I just couldn’t find a way of doing this. In particular, there doesn’t seem to be a way of specifying the username/password combination for a particular server. It all seemed rather primitive, but then maybe it was my lack of prior experience with Eudora that was at fault. I was surprised that it wasn’t more obvious how to do this very basic thing, though.
