Preparing and Sending an HTML Email

Preparing and sending an HTML email

v1.2.1
March 2009

Carl Harris
Website Manager

Before you do anything!!!

You MUST configure Outlook to send the HTML email correctly.

1. From the file menu click on Tools and then Options.

2. Go to the Mail Format tab.

3. If you have "Use Microsoft Office Word 2003 to edit e-mail messages" option ticked, untick it. If you have changed this setting then please click on the "Apply" button to save your changes.

4. Click the "Internet Format" button

5. If you have the "When an HTML message contains pictures located on the Internet, ...etc" option ticked, please untick the box.
Once unticked click on "OK" and when the "Internet Format" window closes click on the "OK" button in the "Options" window.

If you do not follow these steps the final email may not display the images contained within the HTML email.

Note: After sending the HTML email you may wish to revert back to these settings if you use Office to edit your email messages.

Step 1 – email format

Make sure the email is in HTML format and the email is blank.

Step 2a – insert the html email

Make sure the cursor is at the very beginning of the email.
Then go to Insert from the file menu and choose the File option.

Step 2b – insert the html email

Browse to the location of the html file, select it and from the insert drop down menu choose “Insert as Text” (see screenshot below).
Important: Inserting via any other method will result in the email displaying incorrectly.

Step 3 – setup the subject line

Set a subject line for the email.
You may notice that the HTML doesn’t look correct – e.g. line breaks, strange formatting, gaps between images etc

you can ignore these – they will fix themselves when the email is sent.
(Outlook doesn’t always preview the HTML correctly)

It’s also very important that you don’t edit anything in the email. If you need to edit any of the text it must be done in the original HTML file.

Step 4 – send a test email to yourself

Send the email to yourself to make sure it appears correctly.

If you have an account external to BCS (such as a hotmail account), you might like to use this for a test too.

Step 5 – send the email for real

If the test email turns out fine it can be sent for real. Simply repeat the first 3 steps and send it to the real distribution list.
Note: If sending via the listserver, or if sending using bulk data, always consult with the IT department before sending. It is generally recommended that anything with a large distribution is configured to send overnight.

If you are not using the listserver then send the email to yourself and Blind Carbon Copy (BCC) the recipients to the email. Failure to do this would result in the recipients being able to see each other's email addresses.