extra blank lines in html email

[melisa]

We need to be able to create html mail merges from Word to Outlook 2002 so
that recipients who read only plain text email do not visualize extra Hard
Returns (blank lines) not included in the html text.

For ex, currently what happens is: a single spaced paragraph followed by a
Hard Return and followed with an additional Hard Return (blank line between
paragraphs) shows up on the receiving end with 3 blank lines between
paragraphs instead of 1.

Ideas on how we can resolve? Email must be "readable"/"attractive" for both
html and plain text recipients. ...help... this "simple" problem is killing
us.

 

[Peter Jamieson]

I don't think there are any simple facilities within Word that will help you
with this. If I were doing it, I'd probably just maintain two versions of
the mail merge main document, one for plain text, and one for HTML.

The only other approach I'd even consider is doing a version for HTML where
I used { IF } fields to include/exclude material that I wanted in HTML but
not the text version, using the value of a bookmark to decide what to
include/exclude. Just some untested thoughts:

e.g. you might have something like the following, where <PM> means
"paragraph mark"

{ SET htmlversion "Y" }

sample paragraph of text followed by a paragraph mark.<PM>
{ IF "{ REF htmlversion \*upper }" = "N" "<PM><PM>" "" }

and so on...

When doing the HTML version, you use { SET htmlversion "Y" }
When doing the plaintext version, you use { SET htmlversion "N" }

Or you use an ASK field to do the same.

Peter Jamieson

 

[melisa]

2 versions of the message is an impossibility, since we do not know who
receives in plain text and who receives html. It needs to be one format that
is "readable" to all. Do you know if this is an OFFICE problem, or something
relative to any/all mailmerge-email programs? Certainly, beautiful were the
days when we could simply choose to mail merge in plain text without being
blocked by security measures we had no control of. I almost (almost) want to
go back to Office 2000...

thanks for any comments/other suggestions...

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

Have you tried just formatting the paragraphs so that they have space after
them. IMHO, using two paragraph returns to get space between paragraphs is
not acceptable and people who do it that way should go back way before 2000,
to the days of the typewriter.

As for the security issue that you mention, try the Express Click Yes
utility that is referred to in the article "Mail Merge to E-mail with
Attachments" at:

http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/MailMerge/MergeWithAttachments.htm

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Peter Jamieson]

OK, I had made a different set of assumptions.

<<

Do you know if this is an OFFICE problem, or something
relative to any/all mailmerge-email programs?

The reality is that you cannot rely on either a plain text or HTML
communication being displayed as you would like by your recipient's e-mail
client software, for reasons we can discuss if you really want to. The best
you can do is to try to target the e-mail clients and settings most used by
your recipients.

For my part, I can't offer good experience in this area, but...

As far as I know, when you merge to e-mail using HTML format in Word, you
have very little control over the MIME-format message that is eventually
sent. If you need more control, you probably need to look for 3rd-party
solutions, and I can't help you there (you may be able to find one or two
such solutions by using google groups to search this group, or simply by
searching the web).

You /might/ be able to do slightly better by merging to an output document
then e-mailing the result using Outlook. However, even in that case, as far
as I can tell you have little control over what Outlook puts in its
MIME-format messages.

Incidentally, as far as I can tell, even Word 2003's "plain text" e-mails
are actually sent as "HTML" e-mails, which may well cause additional
problems if your recipients have older e-mail clients.

Sorry I can't give you more definitive answers.

Peter Jamieson

 

[melisa]

Interesting your comments and we actually have played with various formatting
options - but since we are dealing with an approx 40% audience that reads
only in plain text and which is accostomed to and prefers a blank space
between paragraphs, our hands are tied to a certain extent. As for the
Express Click mentioned, it looked promissing, but googling it (and here in
these community pages) there are instances of incompatibility that I don't
really want to have to face either. It is also worth noting that as a press
office for numerous companies world wide, we are dealing with an audience
(press and mass media) to whose preferences we must satisfy - otherwise they
won't read our news, will they?