Posted by The New Webmaster in Use inline CSS, not linked files. Unlike images, linking to a server-hosted CSS file isn’t that reliable.
Background colors. Remember how we said that most browser based email applications (like HotMail) strip out your BODY tag? That’s why assigning background colors to your BODY won’t always work. The most reliable way of giving a background color to your email is to wrap it all inside a big, 100% wide table, and give the table cell a bgcolor. We warned you, HTML email is “old school.”
Don’t forget your plain-text version. When web designers create HTML email, they often neglect the plain-text versions (they treat it like image ALT text, or META tags—always a pesky afterthought). But plain-text emails are very important. If you neglect them, some spam filters will even think you’re a sloppy coder, and throw your mail into the junk folder.
Web designers will like this one: some spam filters will punish you for using FrontPage (or other WYSIWYG tools) to code your HTML email. So strip out any of that useless META stuff that those applications produce
Be careful to not include any special symbols, odd characters, or Microsoft Word smart quotes. These will often show up distorted in various email programs. Replace with standard quotes or apostrophe’s. It’s best to edit your HTML ezine in a plain text editor such as EditPlus, Notepad, UltraEdit, etc.
