Outlook 2010 email rendering - html

Question

i am trying to set a global font in an email. The Mail is built using tables to keep compatibility but there is one table that just does not accept my styles. What I have done:
{literal}
<style>
*,table, div, p, td, tr, #tabledetails, .tabledetails {
margin: 0;
font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif !important;
color: #000000;
font-size: 12px;
}
</style>
{/literal}
...
<table id="tabledetails" class="tabledetails" width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif !important; font-size: 12px !important;">...
<td class="left" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif !important; font-size: 12px !important;">{$order_values.products_quantity} x</td>
So as you see I tried about everything i could to set the font (and not use Times New Roman like Outlook loves to do) but it still doesnt work. What else can i possibly do?
---- edit ----- complete email ----
<link href="{$_system_mail_css}" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet">
{literal}
<style>
*,table, div, p, td, tr, #tabledetails, .tabledetails {
margin: 0;
font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif !important;
color: #000000;
font-size: 12px;
}
</style>
{/literal}
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="email_container" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">
<tr>
<td colspan="3" class="email_toplogo">
<div class="email_toplogo"><img src="{$_system_logo_url}" /></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="email_table_left_bg" valign="top">
<div class="email_table_left"></div>
</td>
<td class="email_table_center_bg" valign="top">
<div class="email_content">
<h1>Hallo {$order_data.delivery_firstname} {$order_data.delivery_lastname},</h1>
<p>vielen Dank für Ihre Bestellung im Onlineshop von super cool company name i shouldnt tell anyone ;).
Wir werden Ihre Bestellung schnellstmöglich ausführen. Sie bekommen bei jeder Statusänderung Ihrer Bestellung eine automatisch generierte Email.</p>
<hr>
<P>Nachfolgend finden Sie Ihre Bestelldetails zur Kontrolle:</p>
<p>{txt key=TEXT_ORDER_NUMBER}: {$order_data.orders_id}</p>
<p>{txt key=TEXT_ORDER_DATE}: {$order_data.date_purchased}</p>
<p>E-Mail: {$order_data.customers_email_address}</p>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
<tr>
<td style="width: 250px;">
<div class="shippingaddress">
<h2>{txt key=TEXT_SHIPPING_ADDRESS}</h2>
<p>{if $order_data.delivery_company}
{$order_data.delivery_company}<br />
{/if} {$order_data.delivery_firstname} {$order_data.delivery_lastname}<br />
{$order_data.delivery_street_address}<br />
{if $order_data.delivery_suburb} {$order_data.delivery_suburb}<br />
{/if} {$order_data.delivery_postcode} {$order_data.delivery_city}<br />
{if $order_data.delivery_state}{$order_data.delivery_state}
{/if}{$order_data.delivery_country}<br />
</p>
</div>
</td>
<td>
<div class="paymentaddress">
<h2>{txt key=TEXT_PAYMENT_ADDRESS}</h2>
<p>{if $order_data.billing_company} {$order_data.billing_company}<br />
{/if} {$order_data.billing_firstname} {$order_data.billing_lastname}<br />
{$order_data.billing_street_address}<br />
{if $order_data.billing_suburb} {$order_data.billing_suburb}<br />
{/if} {$order_data.billing_postcode} {$order_data.billing_city}<br />
{if $order_data.billing_state}{$order_data.billing_state}
{/if}{$order_data.billing_country}<br />
</p>
</div>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
{if $payment_info}<hr><h2>{txt key=TEXT_PAYMENT_INFOS}</h2>
<p>{$payment_info}</p>{/if}
<hr>
<table id="tabledetails" class="tabledetails" width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif !important; font-size: 12px !important;">
<tr class="headerrow">
<td class="left">{txt key=TEXT_QTY}</td>
<td class="left">{txt key=TEXT_ARTICLE}</td>
<td class="left">{txt key=TEXT_PRODUCTS_MODEL}</td>
<td class="right">{txt key=TEXT_SINGLE_PRICE}</td>
<td class="right">{txt key=TEXT_TOTAL_PRICE}</td>
</tr>
{foreach name=aussen item=order_values from=$order_products}
<tr class="{cycle values="contentrow1,contentrow2"}">
<td class="left" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif !important; font-size: 12px !important;">{$order_values.products_quantity} x</td>
<td class="left" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif !important; font-size: 12px !important;">{$order_values.products_name}</strong></td>
<td class="left" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif !important; font-size: 12px !important;">{$order_values.products_model}</td>
<td class="right" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif !important; font-size: 12px !important;">{$order_values.products_price.formated}</td>
<td class="right" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif !important; font-size: 12px !important;">{$order_values.products_final_price.formated}</td>
</tr>
{$order_values.products_information.html_content}
{/foreach}
<tr>
<td colspan="5" align="right" class="subtotal">
<div align="right">
<p>{txt key=TEXT_SUB_TOTAL}: {$total.product_total.formated}</p>
{foreach name=aussen item=order_total_values from=$order_total_data}
<p>{$order_total_values.orders_total_name}:
{$order_total_values.orders_total_price.formated}</p>
{/foreach} {foreach name=aussen item=tax_data from=$total.total_tax}
<p>{txt key=TEXT_TAX} {$tax_data.tax_key}%:
{$tax_data.tax_value.formated}</p>
{/foreach}
<p><span class="doubleline">{txt key=TEXT_TOTAL}: {$total.total.formated}</span></p>
</div>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<hr>
<div class="email_footer">{$_system_footer_html}</div>
</td>
<td class="email_table_right_bg" valign="top">
<div class="email_table_right"></div>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
---- edit 2 ---- the produced code for the product listing part
<table id="tabledetails" class="tabledetails" width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif !important; font-size: 12px !important;">
<tr class="headerrow">
<td class="left">Anzahl</td>
<td class="left">Artikel</td>
<td class="left">Art.Nr.</td>
<td class="right">Einzelpreis</td>
<td class="right">Gesamtpreis</td>
</tr>
<tr class="contentrow1">
<td class="left" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif !important; font-size: 12px !important;">1.00 x</td>
<td class="left" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif !important; font-size: 12px !important;">Mavic Rennradschuh Zxellium 2011 black / white / yellow mavic</strong></td>
<td class="left" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif !important; font-size: 12px !important;">14207</td>
<td class="right" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif !important; font-size: 12px !important;"><span class="price"> 220,00 EUR</span></td>
<td class="right" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif !important; font-size: 12px !important;"><span class="price"> 220,00 EUR</span></td>
</tr>
<tr class="contentrow1"> <td class="right" valign="top"></td> <td class="left" valign="top"> <h3> Schuhgröße: </h3> </td> <td class="right" valign="top"></td> <td class="right" valign="top"></td> <td class="right" valign="top"></td> </tr> <tr class="contentrow1"> <td class="right" valign="top"></td> <td class="left" valign="top"> 42 </td> <td class="right" valign="top"> </td> <td class="right" valign="top"> </td> <td class="right" valign="top"> </td> </tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="5" align="right" class="subtotal">
<div align="right">
<p>Zwischensumme: <span class="price"> 220,00 EUR</span></p>
<p>Nachnahme:
<span class="price"> 3,60 EUR</span></p>
<p>DHL - versichert:
<span class="price"> 0,00 EUR</span></p>
<p>inkl. MwSt. 19%:
<span class="price"> 35,70 EUR</span></p>
<p><span class="doubleline">Gesamtsumme: <span class="price"> 223,60 EUR</span></span></p>
</div>
</tr>
</table>

Answer 1

Outlook is a pain in the a** when it comes to email rendering.
The only safe thing to do is add a style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" to every paragraph and div. We all know it sucks - but tell this to Microsoft...

Answer 2

Only use inline styles on html emails. It will be stripped out in some email clients. Gmail is one example.
You'll need to add this to every td containing text.
style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"

Answer 3

As others have said, you need to flatten the style classes into inline styles on all the objects.
I had a similar problem and wrote a C# function to flatten the styles into the HTML.
Flatten CSS into HTML using C# w/ MVC