BlueHornet Whitepaper
HTML Rendering in Outlook 2007:
Top 10 Questions & Answers
Executive SummaryMicrosoft Office Outlook has traditionally relied on the Internet Explorer HTML rendering engine to convert HTML code into graphically enhanced email messages. This year, with the move from Outlook 2003 to Outlook 2007, Microsoft has replaced the Internet Explorer rendering engine with the engine used for Word 2007.
This change provides Outlook 2007 end users with greater editing tools and enhanced email creation capabilities. However, the change impacts email marketing stakeholders in several ways:
. Strategic stakeholders, including c-level email marketers, should be aware of how this change may affect competitive advantages and impact operational efficiencies within their organizations.. User stakeholders, including email marketing managers and quality assurance (QA) teams, should understand how the change may affect email campaign generation strategy, processes, and end-user experience.. Technical stakeholders, including graphic designers who code and create HTML email templates, should know how to accommodate Outlook 2007-specific changes to support certain HTML tags and Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) properties.
This whitepaper considers each of these issues, with specific emphasis on how to code and design HTML email templates that render effectively in Microsoft Outlook 2007. For comparison purposes, it expands the analysis to include HTML rendering differences across other major email programs. It identifies 10 key rendering issues that email marketers and designers should be aware of and provides recommendation s PPaaggee ©B20l0u7 BelueHHoornert nNeetwto.rkcs, oIncm and best practices for those issues. The whitepaper concludes by examining options that can ease the . A wholly oiwmnpead cstusb stihdiaary of Digital River, Inc. | (619) 295-1856 | 2150 W. Washington Street #110 | San Diego, CA 92110 | www.BlueHornet.com©2007 BlueHornet Networks, Inc. A wt haofflelyct okweyn eemd asilu mbsairdkieatrinyg o sft aDkieghitoaldl eRrisv.er, Inc. | (619) 295-1856 | www.BlueHornet.comTable of Contents
4 . . . . Overview and Introduction4 . . . . . . . . What Happened to Outlook 2007?4 . . . . . . . . Who is Affected?4 . . . . . . . . Outlook 2007 Adoption Rates4 . . . . . . . . Addressing Common Misconceptions
5 . . . . Methodology5 . . . . . . . . Secondary Sources5 . . . . . . . . Primary Research
5 . . . . Top 10 Questions Regarding Outlook 2007
6 . . . . The Test Template
8 . . . . Test Results8 . . . . . . . . 1) Do Animated GIFs Work?9 . . . . . . . . 2) Can I Use Background Images?10 . . . . . . . 3) Can I Use Forms in My Email?11 . . . . . . . 4) Does the CSS "position" property work?12 . . . . . . . 5) Does the CSS "float" property work?13 . . . . . . . 6) Did I lose CSS support? How much should I rely on CSS?14 . . . . . . . 7) Can I use and tags?14 . . . . . . . 8) Can I still use
tags? 14 . . . . . . . 9) Are JavaScript or Flash supported?15 . . . . . . . 10) Is there a spec I can reference?15 . . . . . . . One Final Quirk We Discovered: Adjacent
Padding Values16 . . . . . . . Bonus Question: Can I get my template to render correctly in Outlook 2007?16 . . . . . . . Summary of Recommendations for Successful Rendering
17 . . . . Additional Recommendations17 . . . . . . . Available HTML Rendering Solutions17 . . . . . . . BlueHornet SureSendT HTML Design Consultant18 . . . . . . . BlueHornet SureSend Message Rendering Report18 . . . . . . . Dreamweaver Validation Plug-Ins (Free Microsoft tool)
19 . . . . Conclusion
Page ©2007 BlueHornet Networks, Inc. A wholly owned subsidiary of Digital River, Inc. | (619) 295-1856 | 2150 W. Washington Street #110 | San Diego, CA 92110 | www.BlueHornet.comOverview and Introduction
What Happened to Outlook 2007?In previous versions of Outlook, two different rendering engines were used: The Internet Exporer (IE) engine was used for viewing emails in Outlook, while the Microsoft Word rendering engine was used for composing them. For end users, this created some discrepancies between how emails looked when they were created and how they appeared when read. So, with the release of Outlook 2007 in February 2007, Microsoft reconciled those discrepancies by switching to the Word rendering engine for both reading and composing ... [download for more]
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