HTML Email

[validatelife]

Hey everyone,
This is less of a GTD question than a general email question. I can't seem to find how to make HTML emails on a mac without 3rd party software. Any tips? This has been on my @R&D @Computer list forever!!

[Brent]

If you're using Apple Mail, go to Preferences > Composing, and change "Message Format" to "Rich Text."

[TesTeq]

I do not think we need HTML e-mails.
I always send short, single subject, plaint-text messages.
I always convert received HTML messages to plain text before reading.

[Brent]

I do not think we need HTML e-mails.

I used to abhor HTML in emails, until I started receiving email newsletters. Sometimes, HTML just makes those much easier to read, no matter how well the plain-text is formatted. Bulleted and numbered lists, as well as tables, are much easier to read in HTML.

So, there's sometimes a use for it.

[validatelife]

If you're using Apple Mail, go to Preferences > Composing, and change "Message Format" to "Rich Text."

Really?? But I'm talking about like columns, graphics, fully decked out HTML emails that look like and read like a newsletter.

[validatelife]

I used to abhor HTML in emails, until I started receiving email newsletters. Sometimes, HTML just makes those much easier to read, no matter how well the plain-text is formatted. Bulleted and numbered lists, as well as tables, are much easier to read in HTML.

So, there's sometimes a use for it.

They're "in" alright! All the subscriptions I have typically at the very least have their own background color, columns, etc. something to jazz up the newsletter to make it more attractive than just "formatted text" -- graphics, borders, etc. Web page design stuff.

[Brent]

Really?? But I'm talking about like columns, graphics, fully decked out HTML emails that look like and read like a newsletter.

Yes, that's what that setting enables.

[tnapper]

Most HTML emails are just small web pages sent to you via a mass email system. Some email programs give you things like columns, background colors all that. Mozilla Thunderbird will create HTML email in a manner that you are talking about. If you want to switch email apps it may be just the ticket.
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/

The majority of HTML email you receive is created much as you would a regular web page (BBEdit, Dreamweaver...). There are ways for you to send HTML email through mail.app you can reference this article but it starts with creating HTML outside of mail.app: http://creativebits.org/HTML_email_with_Mailapp_in_Tiger

[validatelife]

Yes, that's what that setting enables.

Wow, forgot how potent good ol' apple's "mail" program is! Hey, what else could you expect than a solid, extensible, simple, but highly feature-loaded program from applle?! I'm still interested in just using gmail webmail and haven't cracked open the stand-alone mail app for awhile and want ot avoid that, but awesome to know about that mac mail advanced HTML feature!! thanks.

[kewms]

Wow, forgot how potent good ol' apple's "mail" program is! Hey, what else could you expect than a solid, extensible, simple, but highly feature-loaded program from applle?! I'm still interested in just using gmail webmail and haven't cracked open the stand-alone mail app for awhile and want ot avoid that, but awesome to know about that mac mail advanced HTML feature!! thanks.

*shrug* Outlook Express can do the same.

HTML is just text. It's a markup language, not a different format. In this day and age, I'd say supporting HTML mail is an essential feature, not something terribly impressive or advanced.

Katherine

[validatelife]

*shrug* Outlook Express can do the same.

HTML is just text. It's a markup language, not a different format. In this day and age, I'd say supporting HTML mail is an essential feature, not something terribly impressive or advanced.

Katherine

Thanks for trying to explain that, kewms! However,in addition to designing numerous sites, I've written tutorials on web design, and familiar with CSS, javascript, and many areas of hyper-text mark-up language! So i'm very savvy with what HTML is! I've just only coded for sites, not emails yet. And yes, I agree, non-html emails are things of the past, if your email client doesn't support them, you need to get with the picture, and all forma newsletter-like emails MUST be html IMHO.

I know this is a help site, but it's amusing when I realize -- based on some of the responses I get -- that maybe I should be giving the advice instead of requesting it!! haha!! :rolleyes:

Thanks again.

[TesTeq]

non-html emails are things of the past, if your email client doesn't support them, you need to get with the picture, and all forma newsletter-like emails MUST be html IMHO.

I do not agree that "non-html emails are things of the past". HTML formatting simply adds clutter (obesity) to the information exchange.

You can mount roof rack to your bicycle but I do not think it is reasonable. :-)

For me e-mail is for meaningful information exchange - not for fancy formatting and marketing (by the way - I do not read any newsletter-like emails since these are the things of the past in the age of RSS readers, blogs and Web 2.0 social networking).

[jknecht]

I know this is a help site, but it's amusing when I realize -- based on some of the responses I get -- that maybe I should be giving the advice instead of requesting it!! haha!! :rolleyes:

Before you hurt yourself with all that eye-rolling, you might want to consider that this forum is about personal productivity; and, although many of us use computer technology to facilitate our productivity, it is not a tech forum.

[kewms]

Before you hurt yourself with all that eye-rolling, you might want to consider that this forum is about personal productivity; and, although many of us use computer technology to facilitate our productivity, it is not a tech forum.

Yes, exactly.

And in particular, the post to which I was responding did not demonstrate a terribly high level of technical sophistication.

Katherine

[smithdoug]

I had some of the same questions some months ago when I wanted to start sending out html e-mail announcements of new products, special offers, etc. to customers and others who had signed up to receive them from time to time. Since I had built a couple of web sites I reasoned that I should be able to figure out how to code html e-mail. I learned that html e-mail is a different beast. Since the feature set of e-mail clients isn’t as robust as web browsers, there are limitations. Most e-mail clients don’t recognize div tags, for example, so you will use tables for layout.

I didn’t get very far into it, though, because of much bigger issues. If you are going to the trouble of preparing html-formatted e-mail, I presume that you are sending broadcast e-mails; ie. the same e-mail to many recipients. And here you need to tread very carefully, because you risk being labeled a “spammer” and that introduces very serious consequences. If a couple or few of your recipients report your e-mail as spam to AOL, for example, AOL could block any e-mail that you might send to any of their subscribers. You might protest that your e-mail isn’t spam; perhaps it isn’t commercial, perhaps it’s a newsletter, perhaps distributed only to friends, family members and acquaintences. And perhaps they had specifically requested that you send it to them. But spam is very much in the eye of the beholder. If at any time any of your recipients decide they no longer want to receive you e-mail and report it as spam, rather than unsubscribing, it will be considered spam by the various service providers with all the consequences that follow. You may not be subject to the $11,000 per incident penalties called for in the 2003 Can Spam act, but you could still be blocked from sending e-mail to anyone who is a subscriber with the larger service providers.

One common complaint I read is that some providers (AOL? Yahoo?) have very large SPAM reporting buttons located prominently at the top of the page and some folks—upon deciding that they no longer want to receive your e-mail—will simply click on that Spam button to remove themselves from your list, and without understanding the implications.

For these and other reasons, I decided to go with one of the commercial e-mail services instead of trying to deal with the legal ramifications myself. There are a few of them and I think they all offer a catalog of templates which enable you to compose your own html e-mail—and modify their templates, if you’re familiar with html.

[validatelife]

I do not agree that "non-html emails are things of the past". HTML formatting simply adds clutter (obesity) to the information exchange.

You can mount roof rack to your bicycle but I do not think it is reasonable. :-)

For me e-mail is for meaningful information exchange - not for fancy formatting and marketing (by the way - I do not read any newsletter-like emails since these are the things of the past in the age of RSS readers, blogs and Web 2.0 social networking).

Well good for you expressing your opinion. For newsletters and bulk recipient emails, I think you're wrong, I think html is the only way to go, but just an opinion.

I've seen "bloated emails" but I think it streamlines bulk information, rather than make it more clunky (mounting roofrack to bike? strange analogy, but brought a goofy mental picture!:mrgreen: )

Good point about RSS, blogs, and those FAST forms of updates! However I have a cluster of people who like to keep up with me and some of my biz (call them close friends, family, fans, colleagues, what have you) and an html newsletter is most appropriate because many of them aren't "into the RSS and blog thing" due to unsavviness with computers. Many of them just know how to check email and play solitaire or something! Thanks again.

I do read a few newsletters (about 2-4 subscriptions) but actually like the idea of instead shifting to more RSS feeds . i love My Yahoo!'s customized news home page. That's great.

Thanks for the POVs!!

[validatelife]

Before you hurt yourself with all that eye-rolling, you might want to consider that this forum is about personal productivity; and, although many of us use computer technology to facilitate our productivity, it is not a tech forum.

Good point. Thanks for the reminder. After tons of posts to tech forums, I forgot the nature of this one! I recollect being aware of running that risk of posting a tech html email on this board. But I'm more interested in the productivity info nowadays!

[validatelife]

Yes, exactly.

And in particular, the post to which I was responding did not demonstrate a terribly high level of technical sophistication.

Katherine

Well, katherine, some people just like to throw around tech-words to make themselves sound technically sophisticated when they may really only have a novice understanding of the tech stuff! ;)

[validatelife]

I had some of the same questions some months ago when I wanted to start sending out html e-mail announcements of new products, special offers, etc. to customers and others who had signed up to receive them from time to time. Since I had built a couple of web sites I reasoned that I should be able to figure out how to code html e-mail. I learned that html e-mail is a different beast. Since the feature set of e-mail clients isn’t as robust as web browsers, there are limitations. Most e-mail clients don’t recognize div tags, for example, so you will use tables for layout.

I didn’t get very far into it, though, because of much bigger issues. If you are going to the trouble of preparing html-formatted e-mail, I presume that you are sending broadcast e-mails; ie. the same e-mail to many recipients. And here you need to tread very carefully, because you risk being labeled a “spammer” and that introduces very serious consequences. If a couple or few of your recipients report your e-mail as spam to AOL, for example, AOL could block any e-mail that you might send to any of their subscribers. You might protest that your e-mail isn’t spam; perhaps it isn’t commercial, perhaps it’s a newsletter, perhaps distributed only to friends, family members and acquaintences. And perhaps they had specifically requested that you send it to them. But spam is very much in the eye of the beholder. If at any time any of your recipients decide they no longer want to receive you e-mail and report it as spam, rather than unsubscribing, it will be considered spam by the various service providers with all the consequences that follow. You may not be subject to the $11,000 per incident penalties called for in the 2003 Can Spam act, but you could still be blocked from sending e-mail to anyone who is a subscriber with the larger service providers.

One common complaint I read is that some providers (AOL? Yahoo?) have very large SPAM reporting buttons located prominently at the top of the page and some folks—upon deciding that they no longer want to receive your e-mail—will simply click on that Spam button to remove themselves from your list, and without understanding the implications.

For these and other reasons, I decided to go with one of the commercial e-mail services instead of trying to deal with the legal ramifications myself. There are a few of them and I think they all offer a catalog of templates which enable you to compose your own html e-mail—and modify their templates, if you’re familiar with html.

Wow, smithdoug...THANKS! This was massively insightful and helpful. (Much more useful than someone writing to tell me what html stands for! lol:D ). I found your response encouraging me to take caution, and you provided very lucid explanations of how, if down incorrectly, my newsletter could get accidentally "spammed out" even by friends because of it's bulk-recipient nature. Thanks for these tips, smithdoug. You've helped me solve this problem!! I've created a PDF newsletter. I plan to send that out, see how that works, and then maybe integrate some html in, but I don't plan to use broadcast emails. Thanks again reminding me to be wary of interpreting HTML tags in email clients as "a different beast". I should have figured that would be so after tons of debugging of "frames, divs, tables, font-familys" and other attributes that are interpreted differently in different browsers. Those differences have been smoothed out now by w3c 4.01 standards, but I think I remember a time (late 90s) when even the simple line (HR) tag looked significantly different in different browsers! So i can imagine the hell of debugging html emails. I'm still interested in that, may do a low-tech html email, and not get too carried away with it.

Your advice hear was really aligning and served as a good reference for taking bearings on this project. Thanks! :D

[validatelife]

Smithdoug, on the note of "odd html interepretations" I couldn't even put the /HR/
tag on the last email without it causing bad request 400 error (it wanted to interpret it as a tag)! All kinds of debugging occassionally. I forgot all the nuances of how to comment in tags and whatnot, too.

[pwhite]

this forum is about personal productivity; and, although many of us use computer technology to facilitate our productivity, it is not a tech forum.

Agreed, this is not a tech forum. However, using HTML email to add structure to a message can help:

the recipient - easier to read
the sender - more chance of getting a quick reply


Surely that facilitates productivity for both the sender and the recipient.

Phil

[jknecht]

Agreed, this is not a tech forum. However, using HTML email to add structure to a message can help:

the recipient - easier to read
the sender - more chance of getting a quick reply


Surely that facilitates productivity for both the sender and the recipient.

Phil

My response to the OP was driven by two factors.

1. If the OP really wants tech advice, his best bet is go to a tech forum. The people on this forum are really smart, helpful people; and my experience is that most everyone here is willing to answer whatever question they feel they can add value to (no matter how far off-topic the question might be). So, will he get an answer? Probably. Will some of the answers be a bit tangential to the actual question? Probably. And that brings me to the second reason for my post...

2. One of the responders offered some additional info -- info that was not specifically requested, but that the responder thought might be helpful to the OP. The OP responded to that additional info in a way that verges on abusive --

(paraphrasing)

thanks for the useless info, and how dare you imply that I'm an idiot? maybe next time, just keep your trap shut and I'll dispense the advice from now on, ok?


No question that an easier-to-read email might help in terms of productivity. Driving to-and-from work also helps productivity (mine, my boss', and my employees'), so imagine this thread...



Posted by me:

My productivity is affected by my car not starting on cold mornings. I would like to find out how to keep my fuel line from freezing in the winter. Any thoughts?




Posted by someone else:

It's not the gas that freezes. It's water.




Posted by me:

Thanks for trying to explain that, someone else! However,in addition to driving for years and years, I've lived in a cold climate for quite a while! So i'm well aware of the fact that water freezes! I've just only used frozen water for ice cubes, and I see no reason why water would ever be in my gas tank.

I know this is a help site, but it's amusing when I realize -- based on some of the responses I get -- that maybe I should be giving the advice instead of requesting it!! haha!!


In either case, I think that (1) the question is off-topic; and (2) the OP's reaction to the responses he received are inappropriate.

Maybe I'm just cranky this week, but that's my penny-and-a-half worth...

[pwhite]

In either case, I think that (1) the question is off-topic; and (2) the OP's reaction to the responses he received are inappropriate.

Thanks for your reply and I agree with your points above.
Phil

[validatelife]

Agreed, this is not a tech forum. However, using HTML email to add structure to a message can help:

the recipient - easier to read
the sender - more chance of getting a quick reply


Surely that facilitates productivity for both the sender and the recipient.

Phil

Good point. Interpretative productivity is definitely relevant.

[validatelife]

My response to the OP was driven by two factors.

1. If the OP really wants tech advice, his best bet is go to a tech forum. The people on this forum are really smart, helpful people; and my experience is that most everyone here is willing to answer whatever question they feel they can add value to (no matter how far off-topic the question might be). So, will he get an answer? Probably. Will some of the answers be a bit tangential to the actual question? Probably. And that brings me to the second reason for my post...

2. One of the responders offered some additional info -- info that was not specifically requested, but that the responder thought might be helpful to the OP. The OP responded to that additional info in a way that verges on abusive --
[QUOTE]
(paraphrasing)

thanks for the useless info, and how dare you imply that I'm an idiot? maybe next time, just keep your trap shut and I'll dispense the advice from now on, ok?



Woah! Slow down there jnecht!! First off, I was NEVER that harsh. 2ndly, when you try to negatively label and berate someone as being abusive, you can't "paraphrase"! You massively overly inflated what I said, ludicrously distorting it to be abusive, when it was barely confrontational! Could you direct me to the exact thing I wrote that you found (*cough*) abusive?:rolleyes: Thanks. I have better things to do with my time than put it towards people who try to negatively distort what I say. That said. I think these are all helpful. Bottom-line, for techy stuff post html posts to a tech forum. There have been some good insights for html-email producitivity. Thanks.

[validatelife]

Maybe I'm just cranky this week, but that's my penny-and-a-half worth...

I think you've distorted and grossly mispercieved my responses, jnecht. In fact, I think you've had it "out for me" ever since you read my initial post I think! I've been everything but abuse, highly cordial, and grateful of the responses. Thanks everyone! Since you apparently have to have an issue with me or this thread, why don't you just steer clear of this this one, jnecth?? thansk. Probably best for us all. I'll do the same. My html email problem is solved. At this point this just feels like dealing with inappropriate criticism. So let's call this one solved, shall we? Thanks.