Castwide Developer's Resource

HTML Email and Outlook 2007

I just got another kick in the face from Microsoft.  One of my current web projects involves sending HTML emails in response to form submissions.  A simple enough feature to implement, especially since we're using PHP Mailer, which is already integrated into our framework.  This afternoon, however, I got a call from one of my contacts, telling me that the automated email looks wrong in Outlook.

The email uses a layout that the client provided.  It's a fairly complicated design with patterned backgrounds and rounded borders.  I had tested it in Thunderbird and Outlook before passing it along for review.  Unfortunately, I'm running Outlook 2000, which I haven't bothered to update because I never use it.

An article on SitePoint explains the likely cause of the problem: Microsoft has crippled its HTML support in Outlook 2007.  Among the issues:

• no support for background images (HTML or CSS)
• no support for forms
• no support for Flash, or other plugins
• no support for CSS floats
• no support for replacing bullets with images in unordered lists
• no support for CSS positioning
• no support for animated GIFs

The sticking point in my project is the lack of support for background images, which are how I displayed the fancy borders and frames they built around their copy.  Now I need to rewrite the HTML, half-blindly because I don't have a copy of Outlook to test it.

I just hope they don't start looking at it in Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, Lycos, Hotmail...

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