Dreamweaver - help with css & html e-mails

Author

help with css & html e-mails

robbie

2004-06-09, 6:05 pm

I've created a page that I'm getting ready to use as an e-mail, however I'm
running into a snag. Some of the classes in my style sheet are not working
and I don't know why. When I open up the html file in ie it looks just like
it's supposed to, however, when I send the e-mail to myself, a few of the
styles dont work. (this is based on me viewing the e-mail from OE, Outlook
xp, and hotmail.com)
http://www.wowcentral.com/random/wce.htm (this is the file I'm pasting code
from into my e-mail) As you can see from that page, everything looks fine,
so I don't know why it doesn't work when you receive the e-mail.

..content {BACKGROUND: none; COLOR: #F0E7BE; FONT-SIZE: 12px; FONT-FAMILY:
Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif}
..title {BACKGROUND: none; COLOR: #FFFFFF; FONT-SIZE: 13px; FONT-WEIGHT:
bold; FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif; TEXT-DECORATION: none}
..floatleft {FLOAT: left}

these three primarily, but most importantly is the float since even if I did
decide to use font tag instead of CSS, the image that begins my paragraph
would make things look a little funky without the float.

I tried in the MS OE forums but they don't seem to understand css.

jojo

2004-06-09, 7:14 pm

Hi

Dump your CSS in the page body instead of the head, you may think this a
little unorthodox but your mail clients will see it no problem. Leaving
the CSS in the head is problematic with html emails.

--
Cheers jojo
Team Macromedia Member Volunteer for Dreamweaver MX
http://www.webade.co.uk
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darrel

2004-06-09, 7:14 pm

> I tried in the MS OE forums but they don't seem to understand css.

Not a lot of email clients fully understand HTML, let alone CSS.

Your best bet is to use NO css for your HTML emails.

A better bet is to not send HTML email to begin with, but that's a different
debate. ;o)

-Darrel

robbie

2004-06-09, 7:14 pm

Yeah, not trying to be rude, but I didn't come here to debate the do's and
don'ts of sending html e-mails either. (it's just that anytime someone asks
a question about this subject, people like yourself generally say not to
send html e-mails, rather than actually trying to help.) @_^

I almost added a line to the original e-mail asking to hold off on those
comments, but I guess this is a subject people can never NOT leave alone.

Thanks anyway

robbie

2004-06-09, 7:14 pm

Thanks for the reply jojo, sounded like a good idea but it didn't work out
for me (well, it did but only one 1 of 2 hotmail accounts. I guess I'll just
have to nix the opening paragraph letter and just use plain text, and font
tags instead of css.

darrel

2004-06-09, 7:14 pm

> send html e-mails, rather than actually trying to help.) @_^

I did try to help. Don't use CSS in HTML emails. It will make your life
easier if you just style your HTML email the old fashioned pre-css ways.

-Darrel

darrel

2004-06-09, 7:14 pm

> Thanks for the reply jojo, sounded like a good idea but it didn't work out
> for me (well, it did but only one 1 of 2 hotmail accounts. I guess I'll
just
> have to nix the opening paragraph letter and just use plain text, and font
> tags instead of css.

You don't need to use plain text...just don't try to use CSS. There are way
to many variances in email html rendering. Treat HTML emails as if they were
web pages being views in NN3...the simpler the layout, the better, the more
old-fashioned the HTML, the better (better being defined as 'consistent
display')

-Darrel

jojo

2004-06-10, 7:14 am

robbie wrote:
> Thanks for the reply jojo, sounded like a good idea but it didn't work out
> for me (well, it did but only one 1 of 2 hotmail accounts. I guess I'll just
> have to nix the opening paragraph letter and just use plain text, and font
> tags instead of css.

That's strange Robbie. I've not seen that fail in any web mail account,
we use this technique for our newsletter at CMX and did quite a bit of
testing as you can imagine.

--
Cheers jojo
Team Macromedia Member Volunteer for Dreamweaver MX
http://www.webade.co.uk
----------------------------------------------------
Extending Knowledge, Daily.
http://www.communityMX.com/
Free 10 day trial
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robbie

2004-06-10, 7:14 pm

A person I met figured out part of the problem, and that is the periods
before my class names are being stripped from the code after sending the
e-mail. It's the craziest thing. Even if I add 2 periods like
...content { color : #FFFFFF;}

The periods are still gone.

Les Matthews

2004-06-10, 7:14 pm

Xref: kermit macromedia.dreamweaver:914787

"robbie" <no@spam.com> wrote in message
news:ca7rq9$fh2$1@forums.macromedia.com...
> I tried in the MS OE forums but they don't seem to understand css.

(o_o)