HTML in Email questions

[Tea_J]

Got some HTML in Email questions

I have a online quoatation form which when filled up and submitted sends an email to me and the applicant.. The email is a copy of the form he/she submitted.

This form is definitely in HTML format in order to be easily read. Colors for labels, plain black for inputs.. etc.. perhaps tables also for organization of the submitted data..

Some questions come into play.

1) What are the statistics of Emails clients being set to read HTML emails instead of plain text? I dont wana send emails to clients displaying in HTML source codes..

2) Somehow related to the above, is it ok to use complicated tables and cells in my email?

What i wanted to do was format the form so it would look neat, with blue backgrounds for the title/labels and a lighter shade for the backgrounds of the user inputs.. to distinguish inputs from labels ofcourse.

What are your suggestions?

Thanks people.

tea

[bpat1434]

Nearly all clients can view HTML emails, but the number of people who do is a different story.

I know that MS Outlook 2003 junk-email filters don't enable HTML image download in the first place. So if you're using images, there's a drawback. As for statistics, not sure. It's probably the same # of users that use *nix based systems versus windows, or IE vs. Firefox/other browsers.

What advantage would the HTML email give you? Are you using the HTML to "beautify" the document, or is the table in the email a necessity.

If you're not using HTML in the user input form, and thinking that it gets transferred to the email, you're wrong.

I think that Plain text emails get the point across. You can format them as you see fit and use "\t" to input tab spacings, and "\n" for breaks. I haven't used HTML emails, ever, and everyone says they like the layout of my emails. Normally they look like:

***** This is a message from XXX website. *****
***** DO NOT REPLY TO THIS *****
---------------------------------------------------
User Supplied Information:
    Full Name: Brett Patterson
    Email Address: [email][e-mail][/email]
---------------------------------------------------
    Subject: [Site_Name] User_Defined_Subject

Comments:
        User comments go on from here.
        I wrap the text at 78 characters
        and indent each line.
---------------------------------------------------
Message sent on date() at time().

~Brett

[Tea_J]

Hi bpat1434

Thanks so much for your reply!

No I dont plan to use any linked images.. I know email clients and spam filters are extremely tight on these things... don't wana get filtered out too.

I guess the question is, how many email clients are "set to display in html"? Statistic wise..

I've always been using plain text just to be sure it displays properly all throughtout.. but this is an exception..

The client requested that it be neatly formatted like the input form so that it will be most easy to read.

I was actually thinking somehting like a table with 2 columns and x number rows. different colored background.. then most important, font control like size and weight (bold)..

What do you think mate?

I am also thinking of just attaching the html document to a plain text email..

[bpat1434]

I think attaching the html file would be best. It would offer the most options. If they want to view it in html format (cuz they can't read plain text) then they can download and open the file. If they don't want to, then they can read the plain-text.

But I know what your client is gonna say:
Well, now I have to take 2 extra steps to read it in HTML, why can't you just format the email in html?

My answer to that is:
The world is lazy, and I'm coding for the lazier world by keeping with plain-text. You don't like it? Then you will have to click 3 more times to view it the way you want. Why should I conform to what ONE customer wants? Microsoft didn't do that? Hell, they don't conform to what EVERY USER wants: a bug-free operating system (wait... that's Mac...).

Just my $0.02

~Brett

[Weedpacket]

Originally posted by bpat1434
If they want to view it in html format (cuz they can't read plain text)

Although that would only happen in one of two cases: (1) The sender didn't supply a plain-text version of the email (MIME type multipart/alternative, with alternatives text/html and text/plain within), or (2) The user's client defaults to HTML and the user hasn't a clue about how to set it to render plain text. Every email client is capable of rendering plain text: it's part of the job description.