Outlook 07

[Marc]

Ok, I'm one unhappy chap!
I spent the backend of last week re-coding our clients email newsletters because of Microsoft's idiotic decision to use 'Micrsoft words' html rendering system rather than IE's! wtf. Due to the lack of support for background images a few of them are going to need to be redesigned as well! Grrrrr

Outlook 07 now doesn't support the following:

* 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
* etc etc etc

What does everyone else think?

[James Jones]

Typical Microsoft!

[Diablos]

I didn't actually notice this at all :(
But then 99% of emails we send are interoffice text based ones anyway, does suck though, are you sure there is no patch or setting to combat it?

[misterm]

Ouch.. been there! Me and a friend thought up a nice e-stationary tool, untill we hit the walls of microsoft. It even got worse, they took the HTML posibillities for email back 5 years. It's important to me since i also do newsletters for my clients. I know that some are pro and some con towards HTML-mailings, still.. considering xHTML and CSS it shouldn't be this bad!

If you can, consider Thunderbird. I love using it. I know some clients still use the microsoft junk for reasons i can't really comprehend.

[tommylogic]

Originally Posted by misterm

.... I know some clients still use the microsoft junk for reasons i can't really comprehend.

Sadly there is no real alternative that bundles all the options that MS Office provides, even though the average workplace only uses about 10% of it's capabilities.

The problem is, once you get your office set up around Microsoft Office.. it's almost impossible to get out of. It's a nasty trap, and even worse if they are using IIS and / or Exchange.

They're managing client email newsletters with MSOffice '07? I'd use an online service through a company website or something. Export their .csv client list to the newsletter handler & give recipients the option to opt out, etc. MUCH easier to manage.

[Ron McBride]

I spend a lot of time doing R&D with html emails I fact thats all I do is html emails to all my clients I know that most have 2007 Billy Bob's email client and to tell you the truth that they have set themselves back 5 years with this move. I have a simple solution I make all my email on the web so I biuld it online then I give them a very simple link in their mail box and push them on line, yes this opens up the browser, but I have no problem with coding I even have a click-to-call set up.