Outlook 07 not rendering 'background' images

[Spuddie]

My Outlook 2007 will not render any images defined in the 'background' HTML
attribute, e.g. background=http://www.whatever.com/images/redborder.gif --
either incoming or outgoing.

And, yes, I have already in Options/Trust Centre chosen to automatically
download and display pictures.

I'm using Vista; I wonder whether this is another 'imcompatibility issue'.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Paul

 

[Brian Tillman]

My Outlook 2007 will not render any images defined in the
'background' HTML attribute, e.g.
background=http://www.whatever.com/images/redborder.gif -- either
incoming or outgoing.

Outlook 2007 uses an internal Word engine to render HTML and I don't believe
background is supported, at least from reading this:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa338201.aspx#Word2007MailHTMLandCSS_Full

Here's a quote from that article:

Unsupported HTML Attributes Compared with the HTML 4.01 Specification

The following is a list of top-level HTML attributes that the HTML 4.01
specification supports, but that Word 2007 does not support. Note that Word
2007 considers unsupported HTML attributes to be unknown attributes.

Word 2007 does not support:

accept-charset
accept
accesskey
archive
background (only when there is a URL)
....snip...

 

[Spuddie]

Thanks for that, Brian.

It's utterly perplexing why the (one would suppose) less sophisticated
Outlook 2003 and Outlook Express / Windows Mail DO support the 'background'
images attribute.

The other perplexing thing is why there is support in Express/Mail for
composing messages in HTML but not in Outlook.

What WERE Microsoft's Office Developers thinking?

I guess you don't so much UPgrade from '03 to '07 as RETROgrade? ;-)

Cheers

Paul

 

[Brian Tillman]

Thanks for that, Brian.

It's utterly perplexing why the (one would suppose) less sophisticated
Outlook 2003 and Outlook Express / Windows Mail DO support the
'background' images attribute.

Priobably because those programs still use IE for their rendering.

 

[rllngriver]

At one time, my outlook 2007 showed html emails without any problem, but now,
they all come out as blank squares. Was there an update, I can uninstall?

The only way I can see most of my emails is to open them in a IE. That is
ridiculous.

 

[Brian Tillman]

At one time, my outlook 2007 showed html emails without any problem,
but now, they all come out as blank squares. Was there an update, I
can uninstall?

The only way I can see most of my emails is to open them in a IE.
That is ridiculous.

Are you allowing web references to download?

 

[rllngriver]

Can you be more specific? Do you mean have I unchecked the necessary boxes
in the Trust Center, the answer is Yes. Nothing seems to work.

 

[rllngriver]

I opened outlook in safe mode and the email message (with html) looked fine.
How can I figure out what is the exact cause of the problem? It must be an
add in.

Why aren't the MVPs giving answers to this problem besides stating the
common AVG response. This seems to be a very popular question. People have
tried check and rechecking the advised fields in the Trust center, but no one
is offering an actual solution.

 

[Doug Hewitt]

I am with you. Why does Microsoft have to make everything so difficult. If
they give you all the trusted account options why cant you use them? The
options are good, They just don't work. Everybody must be asking the same
question. What is the big secrete.

 

[Marci]

OK - so we all agree that the help topic for Outlook 2007 does not solve the
problem. Has anyone found a solution? I am using Constant Contact which uses
background images and templates. What I recieve (test to myself) does not
look like what I sent myself.