[charley]

How do you create and send an html e-mail? (I'm presuming this is the term for mail that looks like a web page) I'm more used to stuff destined for print so any help on this would be much appreciated.
Charley

[car1son]

Using what program for your eMail?
With OS X Mail, you really can't.
With Outlook Express (and Entourage) you can send a very limited subset of HTML (bold/italic/color text - and with Entourage images), though I know some of scripts that allow any HTML.
I think the simplest way is to use Netscape or Mozilla , both of which come with Mail programs that can generate fairly complete HTML messages with a pretty fair built-in WYSIWYG HTML editor.

[Nobody]

If what you want is to make text effects like color and font changes, Eudora will do that for you. Otherwise use the programs the others have mentioned.
Let me tell you a secret. I have Eudora (my e-mail client application) set so that all HTML formatted e-mail gets tossed in the junk pile with all of my other spam. Furthermore I have my computer set so that Eudora can never have an outgoing HTML connection unless I specifically permit it.
One trick spammers use is to format e-mail with HTML so that when you look at the message (or even just preview it) your e-mail client application has to go and fetch an image or some text link from the place that sent it. That way, even if you trash your spam, "they" know that you received it. Once they know that, they know they have a "live" e-mail address and you will get even MORE spam. That's the reason I keep my e-mail client locked down... an anti-spam measure. Thus, if you sent HTML formatted e-mail to me I probably would never read it.
Two other things: First, e-mail with lots of formatting and images takes more time to download. People with slow internet connections will not like to get e-mail from you because it always takes a long time before they can read your messages. Second, there's no guarantee that e-mail with intricately formatted HTML will display the way you intended it when the other person reads it. If you specify a funky font in a message and the other person doesn't have that font in their computer they won't see it.
If you want to send people HTML the best thing to do is to make a page on your web site and send the URL link to your friends in a regular, old fashioned e-mail. If your friend doesn't have a fast internet connection they can still read your message without waiting 9,000,000 hours for it to download. Then, when YOUR FRIEND wants to they can click onto your web page and see what you wanted to send them.
As far as I am concerned, HTML formatted e-mail = Spam.

[pdrayton]

It's funny that you can seperate the "men" from the "boys" by looking at the email they send.
"Men" send plain-text email, or at least give you the option of plain-text or html.
"Boys" send html email and don't care if you don't like it.
I have Apple Mail set so that it won't display html email images. That way I can keep the spammers at bay. It seems to be standard good-business practice (and courtesy to friends) to get permission to send html email.

[car1son]

You read that eMail on a TTY-33, do you?

[charley]

Just to clarify a little, at work one of our suppliers (the one that does our computer equipment) sends e-mail that when opened looks like a web page - logo, background image, etc. My boss quite likes the look of it and asked me to look into how its done.
Charley

[pdrayton]

In reply to:

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My boss quite likes the look of it and asked me to look into how its done.

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Good opportunity to share with your boss more than just information on how it can be done. Already a couple of posters have indicated they either have such emails automatically trashed or have the email app set to not display it. And, you can tell him why people are doing this, and what options there are.
Telling your boss how to create html email without telling him the drawbacks won't make you look very good in the long run. Eventually, someone will tell him that his emails look funny, or started getting trashed.
A couple of us here are just trying to give you extra information so that you can exceed your boss' expectations. Do more than answer your boss' question /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Nobody]

My boss always send e-mails with an attached background image. Every time I get an e-mail from him Eudora displays a message at the bottom of the screen:

In reply to:

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The following document was sent as an embedded object but not referenced by the email above. Microsoft Exchange is likely the culprit:
TECH3.GIF

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When I'm at work, on a fast network, it takes about 15 seconds to download. When I receive mail from him at home via dial-up it takes anywhere from several minutes to 15 minutes to receive his e-mails.
My defense of this tactic is to set Eudora to never download any file attachments, etc. until I ask for them. Again, I never see those background images my boss thinks make his e-mail look so pretty.
For instance, if you attach a background picture of your cat to all of your e-mails it may look good to you but how do you know that your intended recipient even LIKES cats?! How do you know he/she isn't a DOG lover?! Boy! That person is going to think you're stupid, isn't he? /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
I'm okay with text formatting inside e-mail messages. I'll often use italics or bold face to stress a point. On occasion, when I'm in the mood for it, I'll specify an effect like colored text or a fun font.
Still, when you do those things you must remember that the display of such things is dependant on the computer at the other end of the line which receives it. If I put a font like "Tally-Ho" or "Apple Garamond" into an e-mail they will ONLY show up if the guy who gets my message has those fonts installed in his computer. Otherwise, your message stands a good chance of coming out all crummy-looking on the ohter end.
If you ask me the BEST way to impress people who receive your e-mail is to send plain text messages with URL references to the pictures and web pages you want them to see. Another way to impress people is to use correct spelling and grammar in your e-mails. (Off-line editing with spelling/grammar check.)
If you want to peeve people off, go ahead and send them messages with thousands of pictures and intricate text formatting. It'll take them a long time to download. They'll be peeved off when they finally get to see your message and it's all garbled and full of pictures that THEY think are stupid. After a while, they'll see a message coming from "ABC Company" and add it to their spam blocking list or even simply cancel the download.
Simply put, business communications should be business-like... Clean-looking. Well-worded. To-the-Point. Good grammar and spelling... and NOT full of pretty pictures.

[charley]

Thanks for the input guys, I can appreciate what you're saying, especially giving the recipient the choice of plain text or html e-mail. However, my initial question seems to remain unanswered, how is it done please?
Charley

[d00d]

I thought car1son answered the question very well.

[charley]

Sorry chaps, I must have got a bit carried away by reading about all the dos and don'ts. I think I've sorted it.
charley

[Nobody]

Sorry to seem like I rant instead of inform but the truth is that I have never had the interest to learn more than the basics.
I occasionally use text formatting in HTML and, once in a blue moon, I make full HTML pages just for kicks but that's it. So my knowledge of the subject is only very general.