Hi Ian Webmail services have to be very strict about the HTML they display in their pages. Basically a webmail service can be an attack vector for all kinds of nasties - the actual box that displays the email contains code unknown to the developers when they develop the site. You may also find that they are removing styles that may cause "branding" problems for the hotmail interface. Something akin to a hotmail "wardrobe failure".
When I'm dealing with displaying emails I strip every tag out that is not presentation. Admittedly 100% of the emails I display are malicious in some way (I work for an anti-spam co) but this gives a nice clean, readable email based on a stylesheet of my own. Some emails then have no content at all :D I still think the best way to send an email is in plain text. If you want the coloured, brochure version, attach a PDF to it as that won't change as its being forwarded around the internet. Outlook for instance rewrites HTML in emails to it's own "standard" with all that mso rubbish. If you are sending emails in quantity in plain text you'll save on bandwidth and have no compatibility problems. Of course that is very difficult to sell a client. HTH James On Wed, 10 Nov 2004 22:38:04 -0000, Ian Fenn <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Kenneth, > > I use the following technique, which works in every e-mail client that I > > have tried. > > Thanks indeed - that's very useful! > > Looking into this more, I don't think there's a solution but here's what's > happening just in case you - or any of the other gurus - have any thoughts. > > Essentially the global navigation uses a sequence of li's styled with > background images. This is the technique used at zeldman.com and some other > websites. > > Unfortunately Hotmail is stripping out the background styling regardless of > whether it is inline or within an embedded stylesheet. In other words, > hotmail is taking this: > > <ul id="menu" style="background:transparent url(images/menu.gif) top left > no-repeat;"><li><a href="#">Homepage</a></li></ul> > > ...and producing: > > <ul id=menu style=""><li><a href="#">Homepage</a></li></ul> > > Great, isn't it? > > So, it looks as though I am going to have to cut out menu buttons and do > things the old-fashioned way just because of a tremendously popular and > well-resourced web-base email service that should really know better. Oh > well, I dare say I shouldn't be surprised. :-/ > > All the best, > > -- > Ian Fenn > Chopstix Media > http://www.chopstixmedia.com/ ****************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ******************************************************
