Microsoft goes backward in HTML email support

[David Segall]

I thought some readers who send commercial HTML emails might be
interested in this
<http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2007/01/10/microsoft-breaks-html-email-rendering-in-outlook/>.
I know that such persons are evil and should be sending text-only
emails but they have to earn a living

It seems that Microsoft are now using the Word HTML renderer in the
latest version of Outlook instead of the current Internet Explorer
renderer. That means that instead of following IE7's path of enhanced
standards compatibility Outlook has gone backwards and many emails
that would render correctly in Outlook versions prior to 2007 will not
work with the new version.

 

[Andy Dingley]

I thought some readers who send commercial HTML emails might be
interested in this
<http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2007/01/10/microsoft-breaks-html-email-rendering-in-outlook/>.

Interesting news, thanks.

I'm not surprised they've done this. M$oft has always suffered from its
Balkanization and the fierce and hostile competition between groups.
As the main target for Outhouse has always been the corporate market
and Word users, then there's probably a lot to be said (from their
narrow selfish aims) for them in using Word throughout.

I don't think it makes much difference for HTML email authors though.
HTML has never been intended for email and was never particularly
well-suited for it. Producing effective HTML email has always depended
on using a well-chosen subset of what was potentially possible. The
features that have been "dropped" here aren't any particularly great
loss -- animated GIFs probably being the most useful and even those
were prone to being mis-used by authors who didn't watch their file
sizes.

What this news certainly doesn't mean is that you have to write
horrible "Office style" HTML in an email, just because it's going to a
client that likes to produce that garbage itself.

 

[Dan]

It seems that Microsoft are now using the Word HTML renderer in the
latest version of Outlook instead of the current Internet Explorer
renderer. That means that instead of following IE7's path of enhanced
standards compatibility Outlook has gone backwards and many emails
that would render correctly in Outlook versions prior to 2007 will not
work with the new version.

The most logical response to this:

SENDERS: Send plain-text e-mail as the Good Lord intended; it even
works in a crappy program like Outhouse!

RECEPIENTS: Get a decent mail program like Thunderbird, which has a
better chance of correctly rendering complex mail.