HTML rendering in OE2007

[Sean Curtis]

Ok - I've read many of the posts about the huge steps back for HTML email
design caused by OE2007 using the Word engine to render HTML emails, however
I'm at a loss as to how bad the rendering actually is.

I was having some issues with a very basic layout and kept dumbing it down
to it's most basic format. Take the following example:

<table cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" border="0">
<tr>
<td width="180">Cell 1 - 200px</td>
<td wiidth="280">Cell 2 - 300px</td>
</tr>
</table>

I sent this code to two email accounts - one that is checked using OE2003
and one using OE2007 - the tables looked different. The first one was 180
wide, the other 280. How on earth are we supposed to create HTML email
templates if even the most basic HTML elements display inconsistently?

Adding another step in here is borders. If you put a border on it the way
OE2007 calculates the width of the table differs from all the other email
readers.

I'm really annoyed - I finally got my template displaying identically
between Hotmail, Gmail and OE2003 only to have it utterly butchered in OE2007.

Also - why on earth is there no background image support? I can't see any
logical reason why that wouldn't be included ...

If anyone has any tips on how to get this stuff displaying identically I'm
open to any suggestions...

 

[Sean Curtis]

In addition - I tried a simple:

<div style="padding: 10px;">Hello!</div>

However no padding was applied to the div at all. I've checked the MSDN
documentation and it lists the CSS support of the DIV element as CORE
EXTENDED which says it supports padding. I am even more confused and
frustrated now ...

 

[Brian Tillman]

Ok - I've read many of the posts about the huge steps back for HTML
email design caused by OE2007 using the Word engine to render HTML
emails, however I'm at a loss as to how bad the rendering actually is.

What's "OE2007"? You have either Outlook 2007 or Outlook Express. Which?

I was having some issues with a very basic layout and kept dumbing it
down
to it's most basic format. Take the following example:

<table cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" border="0">
<tr>
<td width="180">Cell 1 - 200px</td>
<td wiidth="280">Cell 2 - 300px</td>
</tr>
</table>

I sent this code to two email accounts - one that is checked using
OE2003
and one using OE2007 - the tables looked different. The first one
was 180 wide, the other 280. How on earth are we supposed to create
HTML email templates if even the most basic HTML elements display
inconsistently?

Adding another step in here is borders. If you put a border on it
the way OE2007 calculates the width of the table differs from all the
other email readers.

I'm really annoyed - I finally got my template displaying identically
between Hotmail, Gmail and OE2003 only to have it utterly butchered
in OE2007.

Also - why on earth is there no background image support? I can't
see any logical reason why that wouldn't be included ...

The MSDN documents on Word's rendering state that while "div style" is part
of Core Extended. "padding" is part of Full, and so is not covered in
Word's rendering. The td's width parameter, however, should be covered.
Have you tried adding an explicit unit to the width value?

 

[Sean Curtis]

What's "OE2007"? You have either Outlook 2007 or Outlook Express. Which?

Apologies - It's just Outlook 2007 - so used to having issues with OE

The MSDN documents on Word's rendering state that while "div style" is part
of Core Extended. "padding" is part of Full, and so is not covered in
Word's rendering. The td's width parameter, however, should be covered.

I must have misread this - apologies - quite annoying that something as
simple as padding is not supported for DIVs...

Have you tried adding an explicit unit to the width value?

I've tried:

Table with explicit widths...
<table width="300" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" border="0">
<tr>
<td width="100">TD 1</td>
<td width="200>TD 2</td>
</tr>
</table>

Table with width set by the cells...
<table cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" border="0">
<tr>
<td width="80">TD 1</td>
<td width="180>TD 2</td>
</tr>
</table>

Table using CSS style widths...
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" style="width: 300px;">
<tr>
<td style="padding: 10px; width: 80px;">TD 1</td>
<td style="padding: 10px; width: 180px;">TD 2</td>
</tr>
</table>

There's just no consistency between them...

 

[Brian Tillman]

I've tried:

Table with explicit widths...
<table width="300" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" border="0">
<tr>
<td width="100">TD 1</td>
<td width="200>TD 2</td>
</tr>
</table>

I said "explicit units on the width value":

<td width="100px">