Options for sending HTML emails

Hi all,

I'm trying to send out some newsletter type things, and have been having problems with the formatting.

Specifically, I'm writing transcripts of talks and including the slides from these talks. Not the actual slides, but hanky-janky 'text' versions of them using lots of spacebar, underline, etc. kind of like-

(lots of text)

Slide 1-
Subject 1 Subject 2 Subject 3
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
-532% -233% -435%
-HHV -EBV -CMV
-symptomatic -asymptomatic -unsure

(lots of text)

(Slide 2, etc)

As you can see(don't pay attention to the content, it's just an example), I'm just screwing around trying to simulate what the slide said. However, when I send the email, it looks like someone took a shotgun to my carefully drawn out slide!

So my question to you all is this- what are my options for sending out these emails? I read a quick tutorial on HTML emails, but then it said that if someone's email account won't let them read HTML then it comes out looking like a bunch of HTML junk. Are there any WYSIWYG HTML email clients or programs? I don't even really know what to ask for, just looking for ideas that would allow me to send out these email bulletins where people can read them.

Thanks a bunch,
j

EDIT- Whoops, that's a perfect example of what I'm talking about. When I wrote this post, I had the Slide 1 formatted where it spread out across the screen so it actually looked like something, now it looks like a bunch of junk. Multiply that times 50 with some of the slides I try to do, and you get what I'm talking about.

Thanks a bunch!

 

What email client (Outlook, Outlook Express, etc.) do you use? Are you creating the HTML document in the message composition panel of your email client, or creating outside, perhaps based on some type of template, and then importing or copy/pasting it into your email message? Exactly how what is your procedure for creating these email newsletters?

Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Live Mail, and probably most or all other email clients can accommodate composing and sending email in HTML format. So, I don't see how a WYSIWYG editor is going to change anything here.

I presume you understand that your email recipients must have their email client set to read HTML email in HTML format. If they do not, there's nothing you can do except perhaps create a separate HTML file that you send as an attachment, or put the HTML document on a website and provide a link to it in your emails.

 

I just use Hotmail, Yahoo and Google pretty much. This computer is shared with my pops and I don't want to constantly mess around with logging in and out of Outlook Express.

That's kind of what I'm trying to ask, because I really don't have a procedure. I'm just writing text and trying to format it to look presentable, which gets skewed when it gets sent. I would be interested in creating an HTML file and inserting it as the body of the email, but I'm not sure if I could handle actual HTML, since it's already kind of a chore to transcribe the videos and whatnot. So that's what I meant about a WYSIWYG program. I'd like to just format the email in an editor and insert it into the email and bam!, you're done. I didn't even know they were called HTML editors though.

So that's all I need? Just a free WYSIWYG HTML editor which will give me an output that I can then insert as a picture or something in the email?

I could probably start the emails with something like "You need to have HTML enabled to see this message. If you don't have HTML enabled or can't see this message, a .pdf has also been attached."

I guess I'll go try and dl some free HTML editors, any suggestions on particularly good vs. bad ones or anything else I need to know? Are there any free ones?

Thanks for the help,
j

 

I see no need for an external editor of any type. I have a Yahoo account and it definitely creates and views email in HTML format, and I know Hotmail and Gmail do likewise. So, I see no reason you can't create your HTML email document with any of those email services. Indeed, to reiterate, these email services work with email in HTML format by default. In fact, I don't believe they even offer the option to view mail as a text file only. That's really not necessary with such webmail services. I don't know what else to tell you.

 

Thanks for your help.

The main problem I'm having is with tables- If you can see the examples below, the before picture is what it looks like when I make it. The after pics are what it turns into when the email is sent. The first after pic(middle) is unreadable. The second after pic looks ok at first glance, but is supposed to look different. I'm looking for anything that's relatively easy to do that will allow me to send text and tables that remain intact when sent, whether it involves HTML or otherwise.

 

What software were your screen shots taken from? I've looked at my Yahoo email account and my Gmail account and neither accommodates coding HTML tables into your message. You might ask your "pops" if you could install Thunderbird and use it for your email. I'm assuming it will accommodate tables, but I could be wrong since I haven't actually used it.

Alternatively, you might talk to your father about creating a separate Identify in OE for you. This way, you and he could keep your email completely separated. I just tested coding a table into an OE message and that worked.

 

Thanks, it might work to make a new OE identity, what did you code the table with?

 

I coded it directly in OE, using keyboard. To do this, you need to know some HTML. And, when composing the message in OE, select the Source view; it's one of the three tabs (Edit, Source, and Preview) at bottom of the panel.

Here's a reference on HTML tables: http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_tables.asp