[duoikari]

Hi all,

I am working at a company atm and we thinking of redesigning our newsletters. I have a very basic html knowledge but was wondering what software i could use to creat something like this

I currently create the emails in illustrator, slice them and then place them in a table set up in our cms system but it is a very rigid and I have to place my slices in a very crude table.

Anyone got any advice?

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by duoikari 

Hi all,

I am working at a company atm and we thinking of redesigning our newsletters. I have a very basic html knowledge but was wondering what software i could use to creat something like this

I currently create the emails in illustrator, slice them and then place them in a table set up in our cms system but it is a very rigid and I have to place my slices in a very crude table.

Anyone got any advice?

Not only is it rigid, but you might run into some compatibility issues relying on tables for layout that way. That is pretty old school...

Mailchimp and ConstantContact and tools like it provide editors to create pretty sophisticated looking layouts using their web based application, although their services are subscription based and these subscription prices are based on the size of your list.

If you want something free, getting somebody to create an email template for you might be a good idea, and then sending your mailings to your list via mailing list software such as Mailman could work, I've done this for some clients, particularly one whose list has over 10,000 members in it.

[andi*pandi]

An occasion where besson is wrong. Tables are still used in email, very frequently.

However, creating in Illustrator and slicing may not be the best route. You should use background color etc whereever possible, as most users will not have images turned on by default.

If you want it to look good in Outlook or any Microsoft product, trust me, tables are a necessary evil. Background images are not supported, unless you use a byzantine and clumsy hack. Modern CSS is not supported. Heck, even margin and padding have issues.

Gmail has different quirks. Yahoo and mac have pretty good support, but still, you have to code by hand, use inline CSS, and test test test.

This page:
http://www.campaignmonitor.com/css/
will be your bible.

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by andi*pandi 

An occasion where besson is wrong. Tables are still used in email, very frequently.

If you want it to look good in Outlook or any Microsoft product, trust me, tables are a necessary evil. Background images are not supported. Modern CSS is not supported. Heck, even margin and padding have issues.

Gmail has different quirks. Yahoo and mac have pretty good support, but still, you have to code by hand, use inline CSS, and test test test.

This page:
Guide to CSS support in email | Campaign Monitor
will be your bible.

Tables are most definitely used, I was referring to using tables with a bunch of slices (I was thinking Adobe products when I thought of slices), and for layout, although there are probably some layouts that would still require tables.

Otherwise, yeah, great advice here... Crafting email templates is not easy given all of the little tricks you have to respect. You can use inline stylesheets defined in your head (in addition to attached to elements via a "style" tag) though, just as a footnote to the suggestions here.

[andi*pandi]

ah, there we go, we're on the same page.