HTML standards in email clients: Oh, the horror!

A new HTML standards for email clients advocacy site has sprung up. It’s called Email Standards Project. I sincerely hope that it is able to make a difference. I’ve personally had issues with the major discrepancies in email clients at my job. I’ve heard that Microsoft Outlook 2007 is unfortunately using the Word HTML engine instead of the Internet Explorer Engine. The full list of clients that are on the Average or Poor list are:

• Apple .Mac
• Google Gmail
• Lotus Notes 8
• Outlook 2007
• Windows Live

This is based on their acid test. If you are involved in developing internet applications or sites and aren’t familiar with acid tests (and you should be!), visit WebStandards.org for the web browser acid test.

So what’s a person to due in the mean time–structural tables and inline CSS, of course! That’s what! So barbaric and so 1999! Here is a tutorial on what HTML/CSS you can use across multiple email clients.

-Stephen M. James
www.smjdesign.com

You may view the latest post at
http://www.smjdesign.com/designwell/archives/html-standards-email-clients-outlook-2007-gmail/