Sending HTML Emails (To Denmark)

C

CJM

Apologies for corss-posting to such varied groups, but I suspect all may be
able to contribute in one way or another.

I'm preparing to send a mailshot to existing customers (and those that have
expressed an interest) in Denmark - we are based in the UK. I've created a
mailing program (.NET) which takes a HTML template, and after a bit of
tweaking, emails it to a group of customers listed in a database. No
problems so far....

The first problem I have is that the Danish text is displaying correctly in
some email clients (e.g. Outlook 2003 and 2007) but not in others
(Thunderbird, Gmail, and another webmail client). I'm fairly new working in
different locales - what do I need to do to get the text to display
correctly? I can obviously change the text to use the nearest English
equivalent characters, but it would be somewhat discourtious considering
that all recipients will be Danish. Is it simply to specify a character set
in a Meta tag; if so, which? Is it the codepage?

The second problem I have is that the start and end of the email consists of
two images, both of which are 800px wide. I want the text between the two to
also be restricted to 800px, so I've set the width of the outer DIV
accordingly. This appears to work in some clients (Thunderbird, webmail,
etc) but not in others (Outlook), where the text flows as far as the window
allows. Is this an IE rendering issue, perhaps? More importantly, what can I
do to achieve the desired result - the majority of the recipients are likely
to be using an Outlook version of some sort, so I can't ignore them.

The html for the email is as follows:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
<title>Dansk Miljøzoner</title>
</head>
<body>
<div style="width:805px;font-family:Arial;">
<img src="cid:CID1" width="800" height="207" style="border-style:none;">
<h2>Så er det nu, du skal bestille for at være klar til miljøzonen</h2>
<p>Hvis du vil være klar til at overholde reglerne for miljøzoner i
København og
på Frederiksberg fra september 2008, er det <strong>PÅ HØJE TID</strong>,
du får givet din bestilling.
Vi får mange forespørgsler og ønsker at sikre <strong>DIG</strong> levering
til tiden.</p>
<p>Eminox' systemer er godkendt til opdatering af alle Euro 1 køretøjer til
Euro 4
partikelnormen. Med vores systemer er dine køretøjer forberedt til
miljøzonerne frem
til år 2010. og endnu længere ud i fremtiden!</p>
<h3>Husk det nu! Bestil i dag!</h3>
<img src="cid:CID2" width="800" height="207" style="border-style:none;">

</div>
</body>
</html>

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance

Chris
 
D

David E. Ross

Apologies for corss-posting to such varied groups, but I suspect all may be
able to contribute in one way or another.

I'm preparing to send a mailshot to existing customers (and those that have
expressed an interest) in Denmark - we are based in the UK. I've created a
mailing program (.NET) which takes a HTML template, and after a bit of
tweaking, emails it to a group of customers listed in a database. No
problems so far....

The first problem I have is that the Danish text is displaying correctly in
some email clients (e.g. Outlook 2003 and 2007) but not in others
(Thunderbird, Gmail, and another webmail client). I'm fairly new working in
different locales - what do I need to do to get the text to display
correctly? I can obviously change the text to use the nearest English
equivalent characters, but it would be somewhat discourtious considering
that all recipients will be Danish. Is it simply to specify a character set
in a Meta tag; if so, which? Is it the codepage?

The second problem I have is that the start and end of the email consists of
two images, both of which are 800px wide. I want the text between the two to
also be restricted to 800px, so I've set the width of the outer DIV
accordingly. This appears to work in some clients (Thunderbird, webmail,
etc) but not in others (Outlook), where the text flows as far as the window
allows. Is this an IE rendering issue, perhaps? More importantly, what can I
do to achieve the desired result - the majority of the recipients are likely
to be using an Outlook version of some sort, so I can't ignore them.

The html for the email is as follows:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
<title>Dansk Miljøzoner</title>
</head>
<body>
<div style="width:805px;font-family:Arial;">
<img src="cid:CID1" width="800" height="207" style="border-style:none;">
<h2>Så er det nu, du skal bestille for at være klar til miljøzonen</h2>
<p>Hvis du vil være klar til at overholde reglerne for miljøzoner i
København og
på Frederiksberg fra september 2008, er det <strong>PÅ HØJE TID</strong>,
du får givet din bestilling.
Vi får mange forespørgsler og ønsker at sikre <strong>DIG</strong> levering
til tiden.</p>
<p>Eminox' systemer er godkendt til opdatering af alle Euro 1 køretøjer til
Euro 4
partikelnormen. Med vores systemer er dine køretøjer forberedt til
miljøzonerne frem
til år 2010. og endnu længere ud i fremtiden!</p>
<h3>Husk det nu! Bestil i dag!</h3>
<img src="cid:CID2" width="800" height="207" style="border-style:none;">

</div>
</body>
</html>

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance

Chris
Click to expand...

Because the HTML generators for E-mail often fail to create valid HTML,
different E-mail clients display the results differently. Sometimes,
this causes displays to be totally corrupted.

If you are trying to distribute a newsletter, I suggest you instead
create the newsletter as a Web page. Validate the HTML at
<http://validator.w3.org/>. Then, send an ASCII message to your
subscription list, announcing the newsletter with the link to that page.
If you do this, then all recipients of the announcement message should
be able to view the newsletter properly.

Note that some spam filters treat HTML-formatted messages as more likely
to be spam. Of course, HTML formatting is not the only criterion; but
when added to certain words in the message text -- words that might be
quite innocent -- HTML formatting might be enough to make a filter
reject your message. Your message might not reach its intended addressee.

The issue of HTML-formatted E-mail messages generates endless debate in
this and other newsgroups. See my
<http://www.seamonkey-project.org/ASCII_mail.html> to read why I'm in
the group that opposes the use of HTML-formatting for E-mail. (One of
my reasons is in the third paragraph of this message.)

--
David Ross
<http://www.rossde.com/>

Have you been using Netscape and now feel abandoned by AOL?
Then use SeaMonkey. Go to <http://www.seamonkey-project.org/>.
 
D

Diane Poremsky {MVP}

"Page Not Found" for the link of the reasons to oppose HTML. Frankly, the
debate is dead. HTML mail is here to stay. HTML makes for easier-to-read
newsletters.

My suggestions: simple HTML is best - don't get too fancy with the code. see
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa338201.aspx for more info about
the rendering capabilities in outlook 2007.

If the fonts aren't displaying correctly, it could be a Unicode or charset
issue.
 
C

CJM

David,

Thanks for the reply.

Responses inline:

David E. Ross said:
Because the HTML generators for E-mail often fail to create valid HTML,
different E-mail clients display the results differently. Sometimes,
this causes displays to be totally corrupted.

If you are trying to distribute a newsletter, I suggest you instead
create the newsletter as a Web page. Validate the HTML at
<http://validator.w3.org/>. Then, send an ASCII message to your
subscription list, announcing the newsletter with the link to that page.
If you do this, then all recipients of the announcement message should
be able to view the newsletter properly.
Click to expand...

This is a promotional mailshot so image is important. I understand what you
are saying here, however, the powers that be want something above plaintext
for this project.
Note that some spam filters treat HTML-formatted messages as more likely
to be spam. Of course, HTML formatting is not the only criterion; but
when added to certain words in the message text -- words that might be
quite innocent -- HTML formatting might be enough to make a filter
reject your message. Your message might not reach its intended addressee.
Click to expand...

Agreed. However, as you can see, the HTML is minimal and our testing so far
indicates that it isn't going to fall foul of most spam filters (e.g.
MessageLabs, SpamAssassin etc).
The issue of HTML-formatted E-mail messages generates endless debate in
this and other newsgroups. See my
<http://www.seamonkey-project.org/ASCII_mail.html> to read why I'm in
the group that opposes the use of HTML-formatting for E-mail. (One of
my reasons is in the third paragraph of this message.)
Click to expand...

Yes, I'm aware of (and sympathetic to) the debate. This is one of the
occasions where I think html emails can have a benefit, however, there is a
proper plaintext version in the multi-part email that we are going to send,
should anyone prefer that version.


Since posting, I've 'fixed' the layout issue by regressing to
tables-for-layout, so that no longer is a problem.

However, the issue regarding character sets/codepages and Danish characters
is still the principle concern. This problem is (obviously) a problem with
both html and plaintext version, so currently it is a show-stopper.

Any thoughts on this issue?
 
S

Sherman Pendley

CJM said:
However, the issue regarding character sets/codepages and Danish
characters is still the principle concern. This problem is (obviously)
a problem with both html and plaintext version, so currently it is a
show-stopper.

Any thoughts on this issue?
Click to expand...

You're sending multiple parts, right? I.e. both plain text and HTML? If so,
just add the charset to the content-type.

.... More headers
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="section_boundary"; charset=utf8
.... More headers

--section_boundary
Content-Disposition: inline
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf8

Text contents goes here...
--section_boundary
Content-Disposition: inline
Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf8

HTML goes here
--section_boundary

sherm--
 
D

David E. Ross

On 5/7/2008 4:03 AM, CJM wrote:
--
David Ross
<http://www.rossde.com/>

Have you been using Netscape and now feel abandoned by AOL?
Then use SeaMonkey. Go to said:
Thanks for the reply.

Responses inline:



This is a promotional mailshot so image is important. I understand what you
are saying here, however, the powers that be want something above plaintext
for this project.


Agreed. However, as you can see, the HTML is minimal and our testing so far
indicates that it isn't going to fall foul of most spam filters (e.g.
MessageLabs, SpamAssassin etc).


Yes, I'm aware of (and sympathetic to) the debate. This is one of the
occasions where I think html emails can have a benefit, however, there is a
proper plaintext version in the multi-part email that we are going to send,
should anyone prefer that version.


Since posting, I've 'fixed' the layout issue by regressing to
tables-for-layout, so that no longer is a problem.

However, the issue regarding character sets/codepages and Danish characters
is still the principle concern. This problem is (obviously) a problem with
both html and plaintext version, so currently it is a show-stopper.

Any thoughts on this issue?
Click to expand...

That's why I suggested a Web page for the newsletter. You can then
specify the language to be Danish ("da" is the code) in the <!DOCTYPE>
declaration. The problem is that many E-mail composers fail to include
a <!DOCTYPE> when formatting for HTML.
 
S

Stan Brown

Tue, 06 May 2008 17:47:46 -0700 from David E. Ross
See my
<http://www.seamonkey-project.org/ASCII_mail.html> to read why I'm in
the group that opposes the use of HTML-formatting for E-mail.
Click to expand...

Could you repost with the correct URL, please?

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com/
HTML 4.01 spec: http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/
validator: http://validator.w3.org/
CSS 2.1 spec: http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/
validator: http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/
Why We Won't Help You:
http://diveintomark.org/archives/2003/05/05/why_we_wont_help_you
 
C

CJM

David E. Ross said:
That's why I suggested a Web page for the newsletter. You can then
specify the language to be Danish ("da" is the code) in the <!DOCTYPE>
declaration. The problem is that many E-mail composers fail to include
a <!DOCTYPE> when formatting for HTML.
Click to expand...

David,

It is a promotional email and not a newsletter. The information we want to
convey must be in the email whether it me html or not.

Also, you will see from the listing in my OP, the html includes a DOCTYPE
and the HTML tag include a lang=da attribute. Since I've written the email
software, I can assure that the email contains precisely the html I listed.

Since my OP, if had improved results after I change the codepage to unicode
and the charset to UTF-8, but it still doesn't display correctly in some
email clients.

Chris
 
S

Stan Brown

Wed, 07 May 2008 20:33:44 -0700 from David E. Ross
As I replied to Ex_OWM earlier in this thread:
Click to expand...

Thanks!

Unfortunately, I saw your corrected link after I had already sent my
article, and though I sent an immediate cancel we know how much good
that does.

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com/
HTML 4.01 spec: http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/
validator: http://validator.w3.org/
CSS 2.1 spec: http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/
validator: http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/
Why We Won't Help You:
http://diveintomark.org/archives/2003/05/05/why_we_wont_help_you
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Similar Threads

ude fra havet 0
forslag 0
merve 0
Hilsen fra Bf 0
Denmark Et spørgsmål om afkrydsningsfelter 0
Problem seeing some characters when sending email to Outlook client 60
Printing from MS IE 7.0 5
Problem sending HTML Email 1

Top