Re: Creating HTML email newsletters

I think the only email client left out of the partial list is Outlook
Express, which is related to, but NOT the same as Outlook...& I agree that
Eudora is unreliable for HTML mail (also known as stationery) because that
has been a little project of mine for a while now...& everyone I know that
has Eudora complains about it (not that I know everyone who uses Eudora by a
long shot).  Most lists I belong to that offer HTML mail also offer
plain-text, the exceptions being lists that by sending plain-text would
defeat their purpose (graphics/stationery lists).
Also, in my research for that same email site, I found very few (not "most"
as the article stated) that render HTML mail, what they do is give you the
email body's content in plain text & then below it you see the graphics that
were used.
Mailing list sites that offer lists for stationery all recommend daily
mailings as their digest versions are plain text & will not support
HTML...besides, they are generally large, especially those with sound can be
well over 100KB, I saw one today that was 300KB!
If ,as with intranets, you know exactly what your audience uses (it always
boils down to knowing your audience doesn't it?) & you know they can support
stationery, go for it, it is a more pleasant experience for the user to see
all the pretty graphics etc., even if it means much more work for you.  If
not, offer the choice of either plain or "fancy".  Of course, anyone with
internet access & any email program on the planet can create & send plain
text.

My 2 centavos on this (& probably worth that much anyway <S>)
Lady Wistfulee
----- Original Message -----
From: Christopher Higgs
To: webkat
Cc: Hwg-Techniques(at)hwg.org
Sent: Saturday, May 20, 2000 5:57 PM
Subject: Re: Creating HTML email newsletters


The article you refer to states:

"Here's a partial list of email clients that can read HTML mail:
iVillage Free Email
Netscape Communicator
Eudora Pro 4.0
Microsoft Outlook
most free Web-based email accounts such as Hotmail.com and
Mail.yahoo.com "

I place a BIG doubt on the usefulness of Eudora for HTML email - that's the
email client I use and it often screws up letters.

"And now, a partial list of email clients that cannot read HTML mail:
AOL
CompuServe
Eudora Pro 3.0 "

Eudora 3 had GREAT support for HTML mail, but it gave the user the choice
of turning it off!! Fancy that!  A program giving the USER control over
what they see :P

This list neglects to mention the large proportion of users using Pine - a
text based email client.  I guess I'm not surprised it wasn't included!  I
also use Pine, but only for accessing my email from another computer - the
majority of the time I use Eudora.  Pine has a greater following than
expected and won't tolerate HTML mail.

I'd recommend sending your newsletter out in plain text format (like the
HWG Newsletter) and including URIs that link to HTML versions of the same
(or greater) information.  Most of the email clients in the top list will
interpret simple http: references as links anyway, so there is no need for
redundant HTML coding.

JMHO :-)


Chris Higgs <c.higgs(at)landfood.unimelb.edu.au>
Institute of Land and Food Resources
University of Melbourne http://www.landfood.unimelb.edu.au

HWG hwg-techniques mailing list archives, maintained by Webmasters @ IWA