v4.01 © Fantoosh Software 1998-2001
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v4.01 © Fantoosh Software 1998-2001 |
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HTML or Plain? |
Early email clients (i.e. the software you use to read your email) could only handle Plain Text - the sender had no control over text size, colo(u)r, or typeface, and there was no way to embed graphics or sounds. A typical email would look like this:
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Plain Text |
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| Dear Bob,
I am writing to tell you about this fantastic piece of software called Dynamic Mailer (ODBC). You've got to check it out! Yours sincerely, Dave |
However, over the years email software that can handle HTML (HyperText Markup Language) - the same code that is used to create web pages appeared. And so formatting such as the following became possible:
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HTML |
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Dear Bob, I am writing to tell you about this fantastic piece of software called Dynamic Mailer (ODBC). You've got to check it out! Yours sincerely, Dave |
Ok, that particular sample isn't going to win any design awards, but you get the idea - you can incorporate graphics, change the background colo(u)r, change font size, colo(u)r and typeface, do underline, bold, italics and so on.
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How do I know whether my customer uses Plain Text or HTML email software? |
Good question - unfortunately without asking them you can't! Well unless they use an obvious webmail address such as hotmail.com, lycosmail.com yahoomail.com .... and so on (think about it - these accounts are normally viewed through browsers - whose language is HTML!) However that doesn't help where your users are using non-web email addresses.
So if you ask people to sign up to your mailing list via your website then be sure to ask whether they want Plain Text or HTML email!
If you already have a list of email addresses and don't know what type of email software they use then you have a couple of options:
Normally, if you send someone an HTML email but their mail program can't handle it then they will see something like this:
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How HTML appears on a Plain Text mailer |
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| <HTML><HEAD></HEAD><BODY>Hello<br>check out <a href="a1000.co.ab">my new website</A></BODY></HTML> |
Although you can pretty much understand what its about, most people will just delete it without trying! However, don't worry - Dynamic Mailer (ODBC) has a trick up its sleeve. If you create a Plain Text template then it will automatically add it to the top of the HTML email. The beauty of this method is that HTML mailers automatically hide this extra information, and Plain text mailers will at least show something human readable at the top of the email, even if it still has the HTML code tacked on the bottom.
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How Dynamic Mailer (ODBC)
HTML |
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| Hello
check out my new website |
Most people these days have HTML compatible mail software (e.g. Microsoft (r) outlook express) since it is often free of charge. However, there is no point in alienating your customers who don't want or do not know how to upgrade their email software!