[Helpdesk] question: creating html email messages

Tue Apr 4 09:23:35 MST 2006

Thanks to Vint and Andrew for discussing the issues related to html in 
emails.
I will probably just send this email out with a PDF attachment, as I 
have in the past. The html emails just look so good, and as an artist, 
I appreciate maintaining fonts, colors, and formatting---so I would 
like to be able to use this option. It is also much easier and faster 
to send emails to a large group without attachments---just one step.
Andrew, are you saying near the end of your message that Tiger's Mail 
gives you the choice to convert emails to html that does maintain 
fonts, colors, and formatting, regardless of what email application the 
receiver has? Please let me know. I have 10.3.9, which doesn't do this.
I tried sending the email with a Word doc converted to html: my friend 
who received it said it did not maintain the colors, fonts, and 
formatting, although the one I sent to myself did.
Sherri

On Apr 4, 2006, at 8:59 AM, Andrew Main wrote:

> I've never done HTML mail myself; it's generally advised against 
> because there's really no way to be certain the recipient will see 
> what you sent -- for one thing, they have to have the same fonts on 
> their computer that you have on yours, and if you use any trans-ASCII 
> characters (such as "curly" printer's quote marks) they're likely to 
> appear as something quite different on a Windoze computer, which 
> encodes such characters differently. For these and other reasons, I've 
> always strictly used plain text for email, and stayed within the ASCII 
> character set.
>
> See some comments on email:
> <http://www.google.com/search?q=html%20in%20email>
> <http://www.google.com/search?q=email%20etiquette>.
>
> (Oh, and BTW, it's a good idea, when including URLs in email, to 
> always enclose them in angle brackets < >, so they won't get broken 
> when email systems add line breaks.)
>
> But if you want to do it, go to Mail's Preferences: Composing: Message 
> Format: and select Rich Text; then you can use different fonts via the 
> Font palette (cmd-T in the Format menu, or use the View menu to 
> customize the Toolbar and add a Fonts button) and do other formatting 
> using commands in the Format menu.
>
> I expect you can also compose a message in another application, such 
> as Word or TextEdit, and copy and paste the text into Mail.
>
> And as Vint suggests, if you really want to send a fancy message with 
> type formatting, etc., and make sure the recipient sees exactly what 
> you created, you can compose it in another app and make a PDF, which 
> will include everything you've put in it, including subsets of any 
> fonts you've used. Be aware, however, that a PDF can get pretty big; 
> one rule of email etiquette is not to send a large file to someone 
> unless you know it won't be a hassle for them (e.g. if they're on 
> dialup).
>
> Mail Help has some information, and for a thorough exploration of 
> Mail's capabilities you can look into "Take Control of Apple Mail in 
> Tiger" <http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/tiger-apple-mail.html>. You 
> can use SFMUG's discount code for a 10% discount: CPN31208MUG.
>
> From "Take Control of Apple Mail in Tiger":
>
> NETIQUETTE: USE PLAIN TEXT WHENEVER POSSIBLE
> Tempted to use HTML? In most cases, you can convey your message just 
> as well using plain text. Consider whether your aesthetic desires 
> outweigh the simplicity and universality of plain text. To this day, 
> every time I get a message written entirely in, say, green, 10-point 
> Copperplate Oblique—and believe me, it happens—I just cringe. However 
> nice the sender may have felt the text looked, it takes so much effort 
> to read it that I wonder if I should bother. I know what fonts, 
> styles, and sizes are easiest to read on my computer, and I dislike 
> receiving messages that override those choices. As you might have 
> guessed, I strongly believe that plain text is the path to world 
> peace!
>
> Rich Text: In contrast to plain text, which stores just the characters 
> you type but no formatting, rich text also stores formatting such as 
> type style, colors, and paragraph alignment. Behind the scenes, 
> formatting tags are inserted into the text and decoded automatically 
> by the recipient’s email client. A properly composed rich-text message 
> includes a plain-text version, so that it also appears correctly on 
> clients without rich-text support. If you view the source of a rich 
> text message by choosing View: Message: Raw Source, you will see a 
> MIME Content-Type of "text/enriched".
>
> Despite the similar name, rich text in email is not the same as Rich 
> Text Format (RTF), a file format invented by Microsoft and used by 
> applications such as TextEdit. However, some email clients, including 
> Microsoft Outlook, use RTF for outgoing email (Content-Type: 
> "text/rtf") and call it “Rich Text.”
>
> In Panther (Mac OS X 10.3) and earlier versions of Mac OS X, Apple 
> Mail offered a choice between Rich Text and Plain Text for outgoing 
> messages. The Tiger version of Mail still uses the term “Rich Text” to 
> refer to styled messages—the default setting for outgoing mail—but 
> this is now a misnomer; Mail 2 uses HTML (Content-Type: "text/html"), 
> rather than rich text, to encode the styles.
>
> HTML: HTML, or Hypertext Markup Language, is a tag-based system of 
> formatting text for display in a Web browser. For example, the HTML 
> code bMail/b would cause “Mail” to appear in bold on a Web page. Most 
> ads—and a lot of spam messages—use HTML, but HTML is also the default 
> format for several email clients, includ- ing the Tiger version of 
> Mail. You do not see the HTML code when you compose mail, but Mail 
> converts font, size, style, and color settings (among other things) to 
> HTML when it sends the message.
>
> Andrew Main
>
> On Apr 3, 2006, at 9:15 PM, Sherri Silverman wrote:
>
>> Does anyone know an easy way to create and send html email messages? 
>> I want to send an email but maintain the colors, fonts, and 
>> formatting in a Word document. I receive emails like this all the 
>> time but can't figure out how to send them. Thanks!
>> Sherri
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