Is there a way to create responsive emails with freeway pro? Or backdraft? I’d rather use freeway pro
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I’m sure that with enough elbow grease and deep knowledge of CSS and HTML tables, you could finagle Freeway Pro into creating a responsive email. Backdraft wouldn’t work though: you need to use table-based positioning instead of CSS positioning (which is what Backdraft uses).
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Not responsive per se, but I’ve had good luck using inline flexible layouts
to achieve better html mail results.
I’ve chosen a particular width for my email format, and build it completely
inline (as I would any other site). This way I’ve avoided vertical
breakages from the email clients I test it with. When I’m there
design-wise, I apply the Softpress action for email newsletters - this
wraps it in a table layout and creates the absolute URLs for images and
inline style code, while leaving the content itself as beautiful table-less
html.
Admittedly, I DO go back in afterward and cleanup the inline style code as
I prefer CSS shorthand to the way FWP writes margin and padding - margin:
top right bottom left; vs. margin-top, margin-bottom, etc. Generally I just
adjust the style code.
Besides being vertically flexible, by setting the mobile width to device
width and no initial sizing, the whole thing seems to scale nicely for
devices. Though that wasn’t my intention - the difficulty with email html
is the lack of standards applied to the many different email clients out
there.
Inline isn’t as difficult as true “responsive”, but it takes commitment,
patience and perseverance. You should try it.
–
Ernie Simpson, aka The Big Erns
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Thanks Ernie! I have one other question-- this is from soft press
Bear in mind that this will not be compatible with some email packages, and that Freeway Pro users should stick to HTML 3.2 pages without CSS for best results.
I am using freeway pro – does this mean that when I create the email the css button on the tool bar should be off?
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Yes, precisely. When you make HTML e-mail, you have to “party like it’s 1999”, as the song has it. The reason is mired in false choices taken by the Windows development team, who, instead of securing their core OS against mail-borne illness, chose to weld the controls shut by using the HTML renderer from Word 97 in all versions of Outlook (and Hotmail). It’s the exact equivalent of security through obscurity. At the time this choice was taken, it was possible to use quite a lot of CSS in your rich mail, and have it appear more or less okay. But once this change rippled through, you saw that brief “spring” dissolve into the nuclear winter of our current discontent.
Walter
On Apr 11, 2014, at 7:53 AM, AW wrote:
Thanks Ernie! I have one other question-- this is from soft press
Bear in mind that this will not be compatible with some email packages, and that Freeway Pro users should stick to HTML 3.2 pages without CSS for best results.
I am using freeway pro – does this mean that when I create the email the css button on the tool bar should be off?
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Thanks you Walter – should my page setting be set to html 4.01 transitional or strict?
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It frankly doesn’t matter. You are actually going to use the really dumb parts of HTML (3.2 + a little CSS) once the Action gets done transforming the page into a message. As long as the Create Email Action can be applied to the page, you should be fine.
Walter
On Apr 11, 2014, at 9:36 AM, AW wrote:
Thanks you Walter – should my page setting be set to html 4.01 transitional or strict?
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With the CSS button “off” Freeway Pro creates your layout using tables.
With the CSS button “on” you are creating a normal HTML layout. And your
page set to HTML 3.2. They are advising you to make a table layout.
What they are advising is based on their belief it is a “safe” route - and
it may be safer in many ways, but I’ve found many popular email clients
will break these layouts too. So while it is sound advice for uniformed
novices, it is hardly absolute.
If you google the subject of HTML Emails, you will find a universe of
information - on responsive - on table-less layouts (which is what an
inline construction is in Freeway Pro) - on HTML5, etc. And on a great many
different email browsers. There is even a service which tests your email in
different mail clients - expensive but you only need to subscribe long
enough to make sure your technique works. There are more modern ways of
looking at this subject out there, just apparently not in here.
–
Ernie Simpson
On Fri, Apr 11, 2014 at 7:53 AM, AW email@hidden wrote:
Thanks Ernie! I have one other question-- this is from soft press
Bear in mind that this will not be compatible with some email packages,
and that Freeway Pro users should stick to HTML 3.2 pages without CSS for
best results.I am using freeway pro – does this mean that when I create the email the
css button on the tool bar should be off?
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how important is applying the remote resources action item?
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Critical. Without this step, every one of your images will be missing. An e-mail is sent without any other files – it has to be self-contained. By using the Remote Resources Action, you are directing the message body to find the images where they are hosted on the public Web. The only other way to include images in an e-mail is to encode them as Base64 data blocks, and reference them that way. This makes the message body much larger, takes longer (and more server resources) to deliver, and almost certainly gets it marked down as SPAM.
Walter
On Apr 11, 2014, at 9:46 AM, AW wrote:
how important is applying the remote resources action item?
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I’m not sure why you would use this action, as the Create Email action
seems to do this - at least it has been doing this for me. Apparently, I’m
the outlier here.
–
Ernie Simpson
On Fri, Apr 11, 2014 at 9:46 AM, AW email@hidden wrote:
how important is applying the remote resources action item?
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Ah, good point. The Remote Resources Action’s behavior is rolled into Create Email, and the reference to RR is from the earliest “make an e-mail with Freeway” tutorials out there.
Walter
On Apr 11, 2014, at 10:15 AM, Ernie Simpson wrote:
I’m not sure why you would use this action, as the Create Email action
seems to do this - at least it has been doing this for me. Apparently, I’m
the outlier here.–
Ernie SimpsonOn Fri, Apr 11, 2014 at 9:46 AM, AW email@hidden wrote:
how important is applying the remote resources action item?
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oh good, thanks
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Ernie is correct in that the Remote Resources functionality can be found within the Create Email Action. As the author of both Actions I can tell you that the latter does a lot of heavy lifting of page code to construct a page that will hold up as best it can in email clients.
Regards,
Tim.
On 11 Apr 2014, at 15:15, Ernie Simpson wrote:
I’m not sure why you would use this action, as the Create Email action
seems to do this - at least it has been doing this for me.
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I’m very thankful the Create Email action works with my HTML5 inline
construction in Freeway Pro… I love not having to work so hard to get these
results 
–
Ernie Simpson
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Can I just ask a few more questions for this please…
So, Starting from the top:
1.New freeway doc at at 560 wide
2.Using an inline construction method (which I have a little experience of) in FW Pro, with the CSS button turned off
3.Finish with applying the Create Email Action to the page
4.Publish and upload
5.Happy days
Is there anything major I need to be mindful of when creating, using the inline method - I assume I can’t use HTML image backgrounds?
Finally (and I’ll check this myself by testing but wanted to ask in case someone can say an immediate ‘yes’ or ‘no’) can I set my container box to use 100% width and centre its contents so I get a heading that can stretch the width of the email client window?
Thanks guys, appreciate your help.
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2.Using an inline construction method (which I have a little experience
of) in FW Pro, with the CSS button turned off
I leave the CSS button on. Always on. Never off.
When the CSS button is off, items you create will become table structures
to create your layout - thus negating the whole point of inline layouts…
which is flexibility.
A flexible layout is an adaptive layout - even for email browsers. Applying
the Create Email action will “wrap” your inline layout in a table
structure, in addition to providing absolute links. This should satisfy the
inflexible demands of several of the email clients, while allowing your
more flexible contents to adapt to their browser peculiarities.
That’s my suggestion.
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Hi Ernie,
Thanks for the reply. I’ve just set up a very quick example, as per these instructions. All is well until I apply the Create Email action, then my page ranges left and the 100% width header is gone.
Here’s my page before applying the action: http://www.connectcreative.co.uk/HTMLemail/index.html
And here it is after: http://www.connectcreative.co.uk/HTMLemail2/index.html
Any ideas?!
Thanks.
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Hey Neil,
There is likely something in your layout that is upset when the Create
Email action has it’s way with it. As I don’t have that much time today,
let me show you the template I start with for one of these newsletters I’ve
been doing…
Here without the action -
http://cssway.thebigerns.com/workbench/inline-email/index.html
Here with the Create Email action applied -
http://cssway.thebigerns.com/workbench/inline-email/actionized.html
As a note, the Create Email action fails to properly resolve some of my CSS
styles - I’ve kept them mostly primitive but I still end up afterwards
editing the inline styles to get the correct property when there are
competing definitions. In this case, my link buttons have to be re-styled
every time. By and large, I restrict my edits to the inner html and leave
the head and outer table alone.
Neil, I am sending the file to you privately, only because this is actual
work-product - despite the scrubbing of images and text, I do not feel
comfortable with a public distribution at this time.
Apologies to the Eternally Curious here, myself included… we love to
dissect this stuff, but I expect everyone will be understanding.
–
Ernie Simpson
On Wed, Apr 30, 2014 at 5:51 AM, Neil email@hidden wrote:
Hi Ernie,
Thanks for the reply. I’ve just set up a very quick example, as per these
instructions. All is well until I apply the Create Email action, then my
page ranges left and the 100% width header is gone.Here’s my page before applying the action:
http://www.connectcreative.co.uk/HTMLemail/index.htmlAnd here it is after:
http://www.connectcreative.co.uk/HTMLemail2/index.htmlAny ideas?!
Thanks.
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Huge apologies Ernie - I’ve only just realised I never replied to your post. I’ve been caught up in the whirlwind of work thats ever increasing and not had a chance to revisit this. Unlikely I’m going to get a chance for a while either but wanted to apologise and say thanks for your info and sending the file through - I really appreciate it.
Neil.
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