Hi Russell,
On Tue, 25 May 2004, at 23:39:22 [GMT -0500] (which was 10:39 PM where
I live) you wrote:
RLF> 1. It cannot be done if you set your editor preferences to use
RLF> the html editor.
I kinda figured on that after a while when you said you were doing
what I asked, but it still was going south.
RLF> 4. The process is not intuitive, because after you have created
RLF> the message, you see the html codes and only through the
RLF> intervention of this list would I have seen this through. It
RLF> didn't make sense to me that you could have an html (and
RLF> template) editor that you couldn't use for creating html.
I can agree here. It's not intuitive. When people want to do HTML
mail, they want to be able to create it "WYSIWYG" and be done with it.
Just as an aside, I personally use PSPAD to write all of my code and
then I used to use TB's %PUT macro to bring it into TB when I needed
to send a templated HTML message
RLF> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
RLF> <HTML><HEAD><TITLE></TITLE>
RLF> <STYLE type="text/css"><!--
RLF> BODY {
RLF> margin: 5px 5px 5px 5px;
RLF> background-color: #FFFFFF;
RLF> }
I know why they do it that way, but it can be confusing and
disconcerting. Like I said when I sent you the HTML code for the
simple test, that it wasn't to HTML spec (W3C standards), and TB has
always been one for doing their level best to stick to standards even
when the rest of the world does not.
RLF> 6. In my particular case, when I saved and reopened, the font
RLF> became one point larger and the paragraph returns </p>
RLF> disappeared. I could have changed the message format to microed
RLF> and re inserted the html code, but elected not to.
Now that, IMHO should not have happened. If you define a font size, it
should stay that size.
RLF> 7. That's about it. I would add that I think more thought needs
RLF> to be given to the template editor by The Bat programmers. If you
RLF> are going to provide the ability to edit in html, then you should
RLF> be able to write templates in html without having to hard code. I
RLF> would also think that losing the formatting and html code when
RLF> you reopen a draft and change it is a bug. Of course, if the
RLF> reply address had not lost its url when I used a template, I
RLF> wouldn't have had to go through this process.
I agree in principle, but in RITLabs defense, TB was never meant to do
anything with HTML. It was a power user e-mail client, and the lack of
HTML support was what the vast majority of us really liked. However,
times change, and RITLabs is doing this as a commercial venture, so
they've added things (like HTML support) over time. While the HTML
support is lacking in many regards, there's one overpowering positive
to the slow/stalled development of it. TB wrote their HTML rendering
engine from scratch in accordance with HTML spec. They didn't take the
easy way and just hook into Internet Explorer to do the rendering.
They did this because they didn't want something that was vulnerable
to all these worms/viruses that exploit HTML e-mail.
IMHO, this is a good thing.
RLF> The good news is I will be able to accomplish my goal. I was just
RLF> getting ready to spring for PocoMail, when this finally clicked
RLF> and I was able to make it work.
I kept you from going to the dark side! <grin> My work here is done!
;-)
RLF> Ok, I'm rattling, but this has taken most of my day and I'm punch
RLF> drunk. In retrospect, I can see why some of the more experienced
RLF> users probably thought I was playing with half a deck.
Playing with a half-deck always makes the game more challenging!
<grin>
RLF> Thanks again to all and especially to Leif, who had the patience
RLF> to stay with me.
No problem... That's why we're here.
--
Cheers,
Leif Gregory
List Moderator (and fellow registered end-user)
PCWize Editor / ICQ 216395 / PGP Key ID 0x7CD4926F
Web Site <http://www.PCWize.com>
TB FAQ <http://www.silverstones.com/thebat/FAQ.html>
Using The Bat! 2.11 Beta/6 under Windows 2000 5.0 Build 2195 Service Pack 4
on a P4 1.6Ghz OC'd to 2.32Ghz with 512MB.
Tagline of the day:
I always wanted to be a procrastinator, never got around to it.
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