Re: HTML-format e-mail newsletters?]

Subject: Re: HTML-format e-mail newsletters?]
From: dmbrown -at- brown-inc -dot- com
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 13 Jun 2002 19:21:00 -0700


Mike Stockman wrote:
>
> The trouble with HTML e-mail is that, because there's no standard among
> mail readers, what looks good in Outlook can look like garbage in Eudora,
> Netscape Mail, etc. It's challenging, but not impossible, to design Web
> pages that meet the standard and look good in all major browsers; adding
> mail readers to the mix makes it impossible.

Well, other languages and character sets are a huge problem, of course.

But, sticking with English, the only real problem is AOL. AOL 6 is pretty good with HTML-formatted messages, but earlier versions were VERY limited in how they could handle HTML. AOL 5 (and probably 4) supported a few basic tags--B, I, and A HREF, if I remember correctly--but anything else was just mixed in with the text of the document.

Companies in the e-mail marketing sector have spent a great deal of energy developing HTML messages that look good in the vast majority of popular e-mail clients. Some of them have algorithms that detect a recipient's ability to read HTML-formatted messages, and substitute plain text for those that cannot. It's pretty cool stuff. :)

These companies have to test their output with a wide array of e-mail programs at every release to make sure it still looks good, or their customers would take their business elsewhere.

It's a lot of work, but it definitely isn't impossible.

--David

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Re: HTML-format e-mail newsletters?]: From: Mike Stockman

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