HTML email gap in outlook 2013 - html

I wrote a simple html email template that seems to render fine in all email clients EXCEPT outlook 2013. I've simplified the code to illustrate the problem below:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
<title>K</title>
<style type="text/css">
table {border-collapse: collapse;}
</style>
</head>
<body style="margin:0; background-color:#70b9b9; -webkit-text-size-adjust:none;">
<table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="background:black;padding:0;"><img src="http://jl.evermight.net/outlook2013/pic.jpg" alt="" border="0" style="display:block; border:none;" /></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
</body>
</html>
The problem with this code is that there's a black gap between the green and the image, which I can show here:
So how i get rid of this black gap? Again, this is only a problem in outlook2013

You need to zero out the padding and margin in the image. You should probably set at least the width of the image too, even if it is width="100%".
Here is my basic image setup:
<td>
<img alt="" src="" width="" height="" style="margin: 0; border: 0; padding: 0; display: block;">
</td>
Also, Outlook has issues with cells shorter than 19px, so make sure your image is tall enough.
Other unrelated notes:
Get rid of <tbody> it does nothing in html email
change background:black; to background-color:#000000;, html email needs the 6-digit hex color

Related

How can I remove all white space surrounding HTML email?

I've got the following html and css to be used as a template for generating e-mail messages.
But when it comes to receiving the e-mail on my postal programme I have a few pixels of white margins every side.
Is it possible to remove it while using divs or is there another way to avoid these annoying white spaces?
<html lang="en" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8" />
<title>Lack of title</title>
<link href='https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=PT+Mono&subset=latin,latin-ext' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'>
<style>
body, html {
margin: 0!important;
padding: 0!important;
background-color: gray;
}
#nav {
height: 60px;
width: 100%;
background-color: #0078d7;
}
#content {
width: 1160px;
height: 800px;
background-color: #6f6767;
margin-left: auto;
margin-right: auto;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div id="nav">
{title}
</div>
<div id="content">
{content}
</div>
</body>
Different e-mail clients render HTML e-mails differently. But there are a few basic practices you should adhere to (see references below).
In looking at your code, there's a good chance your problem stems from the use of embedded styles. Here's what MailChimp has to say about that:
Because browser-based email applications, such as Gmail, strip out
<head> and <body> tags by default, always use inline CSS over embedded
CSS.
So, the padding: 0 and margin: 0 in your head section are possibly being ignored or overridden.
Designing HTML e-mails is not like designing HTML websites. There's a huge technology gap between e-mail clients and web browsers. It's as if browsers keep evolving, but e-mail clients are stuck in 1998.
In the world of HTML e-mail, embedded and external styles are bad, inline styles are good, javascript is bad, tables for layout are good. In this world, old-school coding methods are alive and well.
More information:
CSS in HTML Email
Best practices for styling HTML emails
Best Practices & Considerations when writing HTML Emails
Because of the way e-mail clients render HTML - and many of them render the same HTML differently, you're better off building your e-mail with tables. Tables seem to be recognised across all clients.
Also, always use inline styles as internal and external stylesheets can cause problems. This code seems to get rid of whitespace accross most clients:
<html lang="en" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8" />
<title>Lack of title</title>
<link href='https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=PT+Mono&subset=latin,latin-ext' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'>
<style>
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div>
<table width="100%" bgcolor="#333333" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tr>
<td width="100%">
<table width="100%" height="60" bgcolor="#0078d7" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tr>
<td width="100%" height="60">
{nav}
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<table width="1160" height="800" bgcolor="#6f6767" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center">
<tr>
<td width="1160" height="800">
{content}
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
</body>
</html>

Overriding inliner code for responsive email template

I am coding a responsive email template using media queries and I have a specific issue.
I am using MailChimps guidelines and therefore I got into using their CSS Inliner , but I find an issue where the inlined css somehow overrides and breaks my previously working CSS above in the styles.
So for example here is what I am talking about, here is my not inlined code:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
<title></title>
<style>
#desktop {display: block;}
#mobi {display: none !important;}
#media only screen and (max-width: 720px) {
#desktop {display: none !important}
#mobi {display: block !important}
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" height="100%" width="100%" id="bodyTable">
<tr>
<td align="center" valign="top">
<table border="0" cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0" width="600" id="emailContainer">
<tr>
<td align="center" valign="top" id="desktop">
This is where my content goes.
</td>
<td align="center" valign="top" id="mobi">
This is where my content goes.
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</body>
This is just for reference, this is not my actual code, but I hope You get the point.
So my problem with this is, after I use the CSS Inliner from MailChimp, I get this:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<title></title>
<style>
#desktop {display: block;}
#mobi {display: none !important;}
#media only screen and (max-width: 720px) {
#desktop {display: none !important}
#mobi {display: block !important}
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" height="100%" width="100%" id="bodyTable">
<tr>
<td align="center" valign="top">
<table border="0" cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0" width="600" id="emailContainer">
<tr>
<td align="center" valign="top" id="desktop" style="display: block;">
This is where my content goes.
</td>
<td align="center" valign="top" id="mobi" style="display: none !important;">
This is where my content goes.
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</body>
And after I send test emails, in the mail clients, most importantly Gmail, everything is wrong, either both of the objects show or the #mobi one is hidden on mobile and vice versa.The !important statement in my upper css in the style section is due to the fact that the #mobi object will always be visible in Gmail unless it has an !important for the display:none property.
I tried deleting the inlined important statements but nothing worked so far. What is the problem here and how can I bypass it?
According to the rules of CSS Specificity:
Inline styles added to an element (e.g., style="font-weight:bold") always overwrite any styles in external stylesheets and thus can be thought of as having the highest specificity.
You could use !important in your stylesheet to increase the specificity of the relevant styles, forcing them to override the inline styles. However, it should be noted that GMail, among other clients, does not support media queries nor the display property.

HTML email BG color issues

I want to send the following page as an html email. It displays fine on the web but in the email the red background doesnt display for the body or the button at the bottom of the page. What am I missing here?
HTML email has been giving me so much trouble!
Thanks for any help i can get!
http://www.americanvineyardmagazine.com/emails/AVvid14email.html
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
<title>American Vineyard</title>
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0"/>
</head>
<style type="text/css">
th td tr {
text-align: center;
}
</style>
<body style="padding: 0;background-color:#800000">
<table align="center" style="background-image:url(../images/intro.png); max-width:650px;background-color:#800000" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<th style="color:#800000; width:650px;"><h1>New Video On American Vineyard Website!</h1></th>
<tr>
<td style="text-align:center;">
<a href="http://www.americanvineyardmagazine.com/index.html#modal-video14">
<img src="http://americanvineyardmagazine.com/images/video.play.png" alt="http://americanvineyardmagazine.com/images/featvideos/featvideo14.jpg" width="300px" style="background:URL(http://www.americanvineyardmagazine.com/images/featvideos/featvideo14.jpg) center center no-repeat;">
</a>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align:center; color:#800000; ">
<h2><em>El Niño Amplifies Risk for Vine Canker Disease </em></h2>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align:center; color:#800000; ">
<h5>With El Niño coming strong for the next few months, grape growers are grateful for the drought relief; however, pruning is going to be a difficult task this winter with increased disease pressure. Doug Gubler, UC Davis Plant Pathologist addressed this at the SJV Grape Symposium.</h5>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align:center;padding-bottom:35px;">
Watch Now!
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</body>
</html>
The problem is in your table's background path.
You are using a relative path here..
<table align="center" style="background-image:url(../images/intro.png); max-width:650px;background-color:#800000" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
It will display correctly on the web because browser will be able to resolve that.
But when you use it in an email, Email client won't be able to resolve that.
Use absolute path here instead.
<table align="center" style="background-image:url(http://www.americanvineyardmagazine.com/images/intro.png); max-width:650px;background-color:#800000" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
Use parent class under body tag .wrapper {background-color: #800000;}

HTML design problem with alignment

Please consider the following code:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>Sign In</title>
</head>
<body bgcolor="#DDDDDD">
<img src="images/logo.png" style="float:right; margin: 0 0 15px 15px;"/>
<div align="center">
<table border="0" width="500" style="border:groove;background:#DCD5F9">
<tr><td width="50%">User Name:</td> <td width="55%"><input type="text" size="35"/></td></tr>
<tr><td width="50%">Password:</td> <td width="55%"><input type="text" size="35"/></td></tr>
<tr><td width="50%"> </td> <td align="left" width="55%"> <input type="submit" value="Login"/></td></tr>
</table>
</div>
</body>
</html>
In browser I see that the <div> is not under the logo.png. Why? And how I can make it to be under the logo.png?
P.S. I would like to add that problem occured when I added the style="float:right; margin: 0 0 15px 15px;" or align="right" in <img> tag.
It's because you've added the float:right on your img which changes how the img will behave in the page flow. Forcing the div to clear content will fix your issue.
change this:
<div align="center">
to:
<div align="center" style="clear:right;">
From Wikipedia:
"A floated item is taken out of the normal flow and shifted to the left or right as far as possible in the space available. Other content then flows alongside the floated item."

Fix height of a table row in HTML Table

Kindly look at the following code:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
</head>
<body>
<table id="content" height="525" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tr style="height:9px"><td height="9" bgcolor="#990000">Upper</td></tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#990099">Lower</td></tr>
</table>
</body>
</html>
IE ignores the "height:9px" and I can't get what I want.
Also, without the DOCTYPE, it works. But I have to follow the standard so that DOCTYPE cannot be removed.
Does anyone how to fix the height of the upper row?
Some clarifications:
1. The height of second row may vary according to users' action and cannot be fixed.
2. The height of the table is set to 525px so the table has a minimum height of 525px
the bottom cell will grow as you enter more text ... setting the table width will help too
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
</head>
<body>
<table id="content" style="min-height:525px; height:525px; width:100%; border:0px; margin:0; padding:0; border-collapse:collapse;">
<tr><td style="height:10px; background-color:#900;">Upper</td></tr>
<tr><td style="min-height:515px; height:515px; background-color:#909;">lower<br/>
</td></tr>
</table>
</body>
</html>
my css
TR.gray-t {background:#949494;}
h3{
padding-top:3px;
font:bold 12px/2px Arial;
}
my html
<TR class='gray-t'>
<TD colspan='3'><h3>KAJANG</h3>
I decrease the 2nd size in font.
padding-top is used to fix the size in IE7.
This works, as long as you remove the height attribute from the table.
<table id="content" border="0px" cellspacing="0px" cellpadding="0px">
<tr><td height='9px' bgcolor="#990000">Upper</td></tr>
<tr><td height='100px' bgcolor="#990099">Lower</td></tr>
</table>