Comments on: The Scoop On Outlook 2007 http://blog.bronto.com/2007/01/31/the-scoop-on-outlook-2007/ Email marketing insights from Bronto Software Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:50:26 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Trish http://blog.bronto.com/2007/01/31/the-scoop-on-outlook-2007/comment-page-1/#comment-2254 Trish Mon, 13 Apr 2009 21:41:13 +0000 http://blog.bronto.com/2007/01/31/the-scoop-on-outlook-2007/#comment-2254 Hello all, Is it possible to purchase a software program that will produce a message that will be placed into the body of an email message with a graphics background and text boxes inserted on the top layering that will not have the problems associated with the rest of the world not being converted over to 2007 Outlook, and yet maintaining the integrity of all items in the creation of the message? Blessings, Trish Hello all,

Is it possible to purchase a software program that will produce a message that will be placed into the body of an email message with a graphics background and text boxes inserted on the top layering that will not have the problems associated with the rest of the world not being converted over to 2007 Outlook, and yet maintaining the integrity of all items in the creation of the message?

Blessings,
Trish

]]> By: Nick Cordell http://blog.bronto.com/2007/01/31/the-scoop-on-outlook-2007/comment-page-1/#comment-52 Nick Cordell Mon, 19 Nov 2007 14:59:31 +0000 http://blog.bronto.com/2007/01/31/the-scoop-on-outlook-2007/#comment-52 Dreamweaver doesn't have a tool to automatically do this, but here ( <a href="http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_styles.asp" rel="nofollow">http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_styles.asp</a> ) is a tutorial on the use of inline styles. There are some third party tools ( <a href="http://code.dunae.ca/premailer.web" rel="nofollow">http://code.dunae.ca/premailer.web</a> ) available outside of Dreamweaver that will perform the conversion for you, but I would recommend heavy testing across email clients as the conversion isn't fool-proof. The best solution is to take the time to manually put the styles inline. Dreamweaver doesn’t have a tool to automatically do this, but here ( http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_styles.asp ) is a tutorial on the use of inline styles. There are some third party tools ( http://code.dunae.ca/premailer.web ) available outside of Dreamweaver that will perform the conversion for you, but I would recommend heavy testing across email clients as the conversion isn’t fool-proof. The best solution is to take the time to manually put the styles inline.

]]> By: Donna Tanner http://blog.bronto.com/2007/01/31/the-scoop-on-outlook-2007/comment-page-1/#comment-51 Donna Tanner Sun, 18 Nov 2007 21:53:24 +0000 http://blog.bronto.com/2007/01/31/the-scoop-on-outlook-2007/#comment-51 Thanks for your comments! I have been using a style sheet, is that ok? Thanks for your comments! I have been using a style sheet, is that ok?

]]> By: Nick Cordell http://blog.bronto.com/2007/01/31/the-scoop-on-outlook-2007/comment-page-1/#comment-50 Nick Cordell Tue, 13 Nov 2007 14:56:38 +0000 http://blog.bronto.com/2007/01/31/the-scoop-on-outlook-2007/#comment-50 Dreamweaver doesn't have a tool to automatically do this, but here ( <a href="http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_styles.asp" rel="nofollow">http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_styles.asp</a> ) is a tutorial on the use of inline styles. There are some third party tools ( <a href="http://code.dunae.ca/premailer.web/" rel="nofollow">http://code.dunae.ca/premailer.web/</a> ) available outside of Dreamweaver that will perform the conversion for you, but I would recommend heavy testing across email clients as the conversion isn't fool-proof. The best solution is to take the time to manually put the styles inline. -Nick Cordell Support Associate Bronto Software Dreamweaver doesn’t have a tool to automatically do this, but here ( http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_styles.asp ) is a tutorial on the use of inline styles. There are some third party tools ( http://code.dunae.ca/premailer.web/ ) available outside of Dreamweaver that will perform the conversion for you, but I would recommend heavy testing across email clients as the conversion isn’t fool-proof. The best solution is to take the time to manually put the styles inline.

-Nick Cordell
Support Associate
Bronto Software

]]> By: Donna Tanner http://blog.bronto.com/2007/01/31/the-scoop-on-outlook-2007/comment-page-1/#comment-49 Donna Tanner Tue, 13 Nov 2007 06:16:33 +0000 http://blog.bronto.com/2007/01/31/the-scoop-on-outlook-2007/#comment-49 I am so mad a MS!!! I am glad I found these posts, I thought I was going crazy. I created a beautiful email and the people I sent it to test could not see it. I also learned from this post about the style tags being put inline with the tag that will use it. Is there a way to do this in Dreamweaver automatically or do I need to do it manually?? I am so mad a MS!!! I am glad I found these posts, I thought I was going crazy. I created a beautiful email and the people I sent it to test could not see it. I also learned from this post about the style tags being put inline with the tag that will use it. Is there a way to do this in Dreamweaver automatically or do I need to do it manually??

]]> By: Adam Covati http://blog.bronto.com/2007/01/31/the-scoop-on-outlook-2007/comment-page-1/#comment-48 Adam Covati Tue, 06 Nov 2007 18:12:03 +0000 http://blog.bronto.com/2007/01/31/the-scoop-on-outlook-2007/#comment-48 Kristof, I'm glad to hear that you're venturing into the world of HTML email marketing. This brings you the ability to provide a rich, graphically pleasing experience to your customers. However, it also brings in a much higher burden in terms of content creation and testing. As Eric stated in the original blog post, the Outlook 2007 update removed the capability for background images in tables (and divs). They just don't work in Outlook 2007. Period. End of story. That doesn't mean you're out luck, but it does mean you have to do a bit more work. It also limits your options a bit in terms of presentation. You can still place images in tables, but rather than being background images, they need to be normal images. This means they can't really have text overlapping them at all, unless that text is also part of the image. Some marketers have gone the route of shorter emails that are entirely image based. This usually involves creating one big image and breaking it up into several smaller ones and placing appropriate alt tags. This runs the risk of being identified as spam because the image to text ratio is too high, so I wouldn't really suggest going ALL images. I would suggest breaking up those images, placing the key ones into tables for formatting (not as background images), and placing a nice background image in there that is purely cosmetic. You should also define a background color that is similar to the image, which will be for when images are off and for Outlook 2007. This method allows you to provide the same type of well laid out stylistically appealing message to those who can display it, while still providing something comparably nice, and yet still effective, to those using Outlook 2007. As a side note, I noticed that you had style placed in the head tag of your document (dreamweaver may have placed this there). This will be stripped out by many web mail clients. You should move all style declarations into the body of the message. Placing them inline with the actual tag that will use the style is the best method to ensure it is properly display. I hope that helps, please feel free to let me know if you have any other questions. -Adam Product Manager at Bronto Kristof,

I’m glad to hear that you’re venturing into the world of HTML email marketing. This brings you the ability to provide a rich, graphically pleasing experience to your customers. However, it also brings in a much higher burden in terms of content creation and testing. As Eric stated in the original blog post, the Outlook 2007 update removed the capability for background images in tables (and divs). They just don’t work in Outlook 2007. Period. End of story.

That doesn’t mean you’re out luck, but it does mean you have to do a bit more work. It also limits your options a bit in terms of presentation. You can still place images in tables, but rather than being background images, they need to be normal images. This means they can’t really have text overlapping them at all, unless that text is also part of the image.

Some marketers have gone the route of shorter emails that are entirely image based. This usually involves creating one big image and breaking it up into several smaller ones and placing appropriate alt tags. This runs the risk of being identified as spam because the image to text ratio is too high, so I wouldn’t really suggest going ALL images.

I would suggest breaking up those images, placing the key ones into tables for formatting (not as background images), and placing a nice background image in there that is purely cosmetic. You should also define a background color that is similar to the image, which will be for when images are off and for Outlook 2007.

This method allows you to provide the same type of well laid out stylistically appealing message to those who can display it, while still providing something comparably nice, and yet still effective, to those using Outlook 2007.

As a side note, I noticed that you had style placed in the head tag of your document (dreamweaver may have placed this there). This will be stripped out by many web mail clients. You should move all style declarations into the body of the message. Placing them inline with the actual tag that will use the style is the best method to ensure it is properly display.

I hope that helps, please feel free to let me know if you have any other questions.
-Adam
Product Manager at Bronto

]]> By: Kristof http://blog.bronto.com/2007/01/31/the-scoop-on-outlook-2007/comment-page-1/#comment-47 Kristof Mon, 05 Nov 2007 22:28:08 +0000 http://blog.bronto.com/2007/01/31/the-scoop-on-outlook-2007/#comment-47 Hi everybody, A week ago I've made my very first HTML-based marketing e-mail... I used dreamweaver, and placed a background image in a table, like everyone else does these days... I got some replies that the background doesn't show when opening in Outlook... I've been reading all posts here but I can't seem to find a solution for this problem... just setting my background to a color won't work for me, because my background-image is a part of my concept... this table-background-image contains my actual background, logo's, photographs, shadows, heads etc. The only content added in Dreamweaver is the white text and my links... so this mailing is giving quite an odd view if you can't see the background... you can view the webversion of my mailing when you clik here: <a href="http://www.stolly.be/opmaakbasis.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.stolly.be/opmaakbasis.html</a> Is there anyone with a good solution on how to display these kinds of mails on outlook the way they are intended? Thanks a lot, Kristof Hi everybody,

A week ago I’ve made my very first HTML-based marketing e-mail… I used dreamweaver, and placed a background image in a table, like everyone else does these days… I got some replies that the background doesn’t show when opening in Outlook… I’ve been reading all posts here but I can’t seem to find a solution for this problem… just setting my background to a color won’t work for me, because my background-image is a part of my concept… this table-background-image contains my actual background, logo’s, photographs, shadows, heads etc. The only content added in Dreamweaver is the white text and my links… so this mailing is giving quite an odd view if you can’t see the background…
you can view the webversion of my mailing when you clik here: http://www.stolly.be/opmaakbasis.html

Is there anyone with a good solution on how to display these kinds of mails on outlook the way they are intended?
Thanks a lot,
Kristof

]]> By: Adam Covati http://blog.bronto.com/2007/01/31/the-scoop-on-outlook-2007/comment-page-1/#comment-46 Adam Covati Tue, 29 May 2007 15:46:31 +0000 http://blog.bronto.com/2007/01/31/the-scoop-on-outlook-2007/#comment-46 Rizvan, It’s good that you are testing in outlook 2007, that’s the first step. As Eric said in the blog post, background images aren’t going to work in tables or divs. But that doesn’t mean you can’t do some similar things. You should consider setting an appropriate background color for those tables or divs to ensure that the design degrades well within Outlook 2007. The email may look a little less colorful, but it should still be able to get your point across. The long and short of it is that you need to stop using images as backgrounds for tables in your email designs. This may be hard for many companies who have relied heavily on that previously. Images can still be used within simple table layouts, so it’s not as if we have to ditch them altogether. In case you don’t know how, here is some sample code to put inside your table definition to make use of a background image and degrade to a background color: style="background: url(<a href="http://www.yoursite.com/images/background.gif);”" rel="nofollow">http://www.yoursite.com/images/background.gif);”</a> bgcolor="#DEF" I hope that helps, Adam Rizvan,
It’s good that you are testing in outlook 2007, that’s the first step. As Eric said in the blog post, background images aren’t going to work in tables or divs. But that doesn’t mean you can’t do some similar things. You should consider setting an appropriate background color for those tables or divs to ensure that the design degrades well within Outlook 2007. The email may look a little less colorful, but it should still be able to get your point across.
The long and short of it is that you need to stop using images as backgrounds for tables in your email designs. This may be hard for many companies who have relied heavily on that previously. Images can still be used within simple table layouts, so it’s not as if we have to ditch them altogether.

In case you don’t know how, here is some sample code to put inside your table definition to make use of a background image and degrade to a background color: style=”background: url(http://www.yoursite.com/images/background.gif);” bgcolor=”#DEF”

I hope that helps,
Adam

]]> By: Rizvan http://blog.bronto.com/2007/01/31/the-scoop-on-outlook-2007/comment-page-1/#comment-45 Rizvan Tue, 29 May 2007 10:04:17 +0000 http://blog.bronto.com/2007/01/31/the-scoop-on-outlook-2007/#comment-45 hello all, I am using outlook express 2007, I noticed the email template background images aren't showing up in a template I created. How can I solve this background images problem? I have made an email template, I tested in outlook 2003 and it's working, but in 2007 the background images are not there. Please help! hello all,
I am using outlook express 2007, I noticed the email template background images aren’t showing up in a template I created. How can I solve this background images problem?
I have made an email template, I tested in outlook 2003 and it’s working, but in 2007 the background images are not there. Please help!

]]> By: Eric http://blog.bronto.com/2007/01/31/the-scoop-on-outlook-2007/comment-page-1/#comment-44 Eric Mon, 12 Mar 2007 14:53:07 +0000 http://blog.bronto.com/2007/01/31/the-scoop-on-outlook-2007/#comment-44 Hello Unicorn. You are correct. As a result of these changes, background images will not work in TD cells. Keep in mind that this is only for mail received in the Outlook 2007 email client. Eric Hello Unicorn.

You are correct. As a result of these changes, background images will not work in TD cells.

Keep in mind that this is only for mail received in the Outlook 2007 email client.

Eric

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