The other issue with HTML mail is deliverability. Having HTML in the body of a message without an equivalent plain-text message part is a clear flag for every spam analyzer I have ever met. The bulk of the mail sent by my sites on behalf of my clients are password confirmation, reminders, important messages that must get through. To have them classified right off the bat as spam defeats their purpose, and any amount of branding or fanciness is entirely wasted if they don’t make it to their recipient. Plain text, with a clear set of headers indicating who it’s from and what for, rules the day in my world.
If you want to make HTML e-mail messages and deliver them to people, you really need to dig deep and learn the inner workings of these multivariate client applications. Even Web-based mail, like Gmail, has its own set of foibles. Even though you may be showing the message in a browser, where you could reasonably expect anything valid to fly, Gmail filters and re-shapes all messages sent through it to prevent attacks.
The lowest common denominator is shockingly low – HTML 3.2 (which means no layers) with inline CSS (I know, not a valid combination, but then it’s not actually HTML any more – it’s MIME mail). Several people on this list have done a lot of work with HTML mail, and have developed workflows involving post-processing with a programmer’s text editor and Actions to “inline” the styles and to simplify the HTML. And once you’ve done that, you really must also create a plain-text variant of the message, and send it as the text “part” of your HTML message. Depending on the software used to read the message, or the reader’s preferences setting, that may be all that makes it to the screen. If that part is missing, as I said before, that’s a clear signal that the message is probably spam, and headed straight to quarantine, to be found weeks later (or not). Composing such a message is not something you can do in Apple Mail or most other desktop mail applications. That’s why there are services like MailChimp, with their composing Web app, and why they provide you with the slot to enter the plain text version. Some desktop applications will try to automatically divine a plain-text variant from the HTML you compose, but these results are only really good for a message of word-processing complexity. They won’t know what to do with a sliced image in a table, for example.
In the work I do, I can’t afford to cross the line into spam, so I don’t even bother with that step. I write a clear text message, format it with plenty of whitespace and a mix of capital letters and sentence case and tabs, and I’m done.
Walter
On Jul 3, 2013, at 2:46 AM, Iain Mackenzie wrote:
I am finding this whole HTML email subject totally confusing.
On the one hand, there is a lot of software out there like Freeway and Mail Designer that purport to allow you to produce wonderful emails to send out.
On the other hand, unless you are using Apple Mail - which most of the world doesn’t - then the emails just don’t work.
How does that square up?
I have been using the ‘export to graphics and slice it in PS’ technique, but I can hardly see the point in that either. I mean, unless there is a hyperlink in the mail, you might as well just generate a graphic file and send that out!
I really can’t see what is the purpose of Freeway/Mail Designer. Even their own templates don’t work.
I’m prepared to be shown the light!
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