>Subsequently, if my client wants HTML email, and they aren't swayed by >advice to the contrary, then I have to deliver it, and deliver it within a >sufficient timeframe, with minimal bugs and hiccups. > >Hence I (he/she) need to know how it's done.
If your pointy-haired-boss or equally clue-challenged client *INSISTS* on HTML email, then you clearly haven't explained to them: Many of your recipients will delete it without reading. But, if they still insist on it, one answer, as I already said, lies here: http://phpclasses.org/ I'm sure there are a zillion other solutions, that just happens to be one I know of. Why it takes a few thousand people on this list to search this out for you, when it's readily find-able in Google, or at least in a very brief search starting at http://php.net/links.php is also beyond my comprehension. Actually, though, when my clients insist on HTML email, I just tell them: "No. If you want that feature, you'll have to hire somebody else to do it. I've already explained why." I don't think I've lost a single client that way -- Every one of them has re-considered my advice, and outright refusal, and decided maybe I *do* know what the hell I'm talking about. YMMV. >> It also doesn't add anything. Pretty colours and flashing lights make >> it harder to read email, and even if you just restrict yourself to basic >> document formatting, well, is it *that* important that your text is >> shown as <strong>strong emphasis</strong> rather than *strong emphasis*? > > >Following this same logic, should we all just use <PRE> formatted green text >on a black background? Following your logic, should we install HUDs (Heads Up Display) *right* *now* in cars rolling off the manufacturing line of Detroit? No, of course not. Your average driver isn't trained to use them, and probably won't be trained to use them in any reasonable time frame. Similarly, your average email client, and average email user, are clearly *NOT* ready for HTML email. You only have to look at the spread of stupid email viruses to understand this *FACT*. Maybe, some day, with some reasonable effort on the part of an organization/company that actually understands email, HTML and *SECURITY*, there might actually *BE* a decent email client that can handle HTML-email, and we might even have an "information superhighway" (LOL) capable of handling the load that imposes across the board. Today is not that day. >If formatting doesn't add anything, and if pretty colours make things harder >to read, and plain text-isms like *emphasis* are okay, then why have you >bothered to learn HTML to a "high standard", and chosen to use colors, bold >text, and other *simple* GUI tricks on your own webpage? A web-page is *NOT* an email. More importantly, an email is *NOT* a web-page. If you want me to look at your damn pretty colors and junky graphics, send me an email with the link. If I want to waste my time downloading all that crap, I'll click. If not, buh-bye. If you want to insist on sending me inappropriate content for the selected medium, you'll get what you deserve -- I will delete your email without even looking at it, much less with a chance that I'll be interested enough to visit your web-site. I am not alone in this behaviour. -- Like Music? http://l-i-e.com/artists.htm -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
