Filed under: Software, How-tos
Use CSS in your Mail signatures
I'll have to agree with Dvorak that mail apps that don't
allow HTML are lame lame lame. Apple's Mail will allow you to see HTML emails, but not compose them.
I guess that's supposed to be a security/annoyance feature, but sometimes I would really like to make an HTML email...
But at least we can have CSS for our signatures. CSS, for those who don't know, is a way of styling web pages. It's more precise than plain ol' HTML, and quite frankly, more powerful and better looking. My personal site uses CSS exclusively (much to the chagrin of Netscape Navigator 4.7). Anyway, Melvin Rivera has a step-by-step tutorial on using CSS in your Mail.app signatures. You may want to learn a little CSS first, if you've never tried it before. Just like using a Mac, you may never go back.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jakob van Santen said 6:25PM on 4-14-2006
Mail.app is protecting you from yourself. When you're stuck in plain text, you're forced to emphasize content over form. If you really, really think you need multicolored fonts, there's the rich text option.
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chris said 6:39PM on 4-14-2006
The only draw back in this is recipients have to all for CSS. Sites like Yahoo, Hotmail, etc. strip out CSS and STYLE tags.
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Rob Meyer said 6:50PM on 4-14-2006
Funny, I'd argue that apps that allow HTML composing or reading are lame lame lame.
I guess what I'd really say that apps that don't include a plaintext mime attachment of the email are the lame ones.
Let the receiver of the email choose the format they wish to read in, not you. Especially when reading in html opens the user up to so many extra security problems. Besides, as Jakob says, if your message doesn't make sense in plaintext, the body of an email is probably the wrong medium of expression.
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pg said 7:12PM on 4-14-2006
HTML email is evil. Mailsmith, baby.
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michel said 7:34PM on 4-14-2006
I totally don't care about html compositing in apple mail
(but I'm pretty sure someday apple will add html compositing "ala iweb" in apple mail because it will be "cool factor" for people)
but
html mail are just plain annoyance
and I forbid people _at work_ to send html email.
it causes many headaches (incompatibility and readability issues and we have _not_ time to argue about that at work)
it's not universal (no, html by commercial enterprises is not standard)
it's not useful to content (inline attachments ARE useful, html not)
when we will have good tools to emphasize email, when it will be universal
when it will think about readability and accessibility problems
when it will be useful to enterprises
that day, we will use something more rich than plain text
for the time forward, dvorak will just stay the moron he is. and _you_ will stay in your big question : "but whyy html email is not everywhere ?"
Because it's BROKEN !
not because bad developpers but simply because of DESIGN. because the idea itself is bad
html (or css) is NOT the good answers for email.
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Rafe said 11:01PM on 4-14-2006
For those of us that think HTML email is lame, lame, lame, we can ask Mail.app to show the plain text version of incoming emails, if permissible. Quit Mail, and from the Terminal:
defaults write com.apple.mail PreferPlainText true
To revert to the default settings:
defaults delete com.apple.mail PreferPlainText
Ahhh, much better. The way email should be.
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Apple-Discounts.com said 11:42PM on 4-14-2006
Actually, Mail WILL let you send HTML emails. I run a mailing list and use Mail exclusively to send my HTML-encoded emails.
What you need to do is first code up your page using a standard or WYSIWYG HTML editor. Once you're completed, load the page in Safari and hit COMMAND-I.
The coded page will immediately appear in a new document window within Mail. Then, simply input a "To:" e-mail address and send away!
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PML said 7:24AM on 4-15-2006
Hey #7! Thanks for the tip! I wanted to send a few html formatted emails a few days ago and ended up downloading Thunderbird just so I'd be able to. But I still prefer using Mail, and find that it's alot easier to use. So now I can just go back to using mail again. Great tip!
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south said 7:35AM on 4-15-2006
yeah, #7 thanks from me too! that's a nifty tip for forwarding any web page via email.
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goobimama said 2:13PM on 4-15-2006
'tis true. CSS is amazing....Don't use much of Apple Mail though...
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ToeKnee said 9:27AM on 4-16-2006
I think more attention should be paid to the design of the words, sentence structure, and style, and e-mail should be plain text only (plus attachments). Even with CSS, you cannot be sure how the recipient will see it. Eudora even now does a half-assed job of rendering styled e-mails, but it excels at so many other things. Like someone above mentioned, many common webmail clients will strip out all the formatting anyway, so better to pay attention to the words you use and not how they look.
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Don Perreault said 9:59AM on 4-16-2006
Great job!
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kelly said 12:17PM on 4-16-2006
html formatted email is perhaps one of the most annoying things ever. I don't need to see your pony themed network clogging stationary choice. if i get html formatted email from someone other than a mailing list that I opted into, their estimated IQ goes down 10% immediately.
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Bruce Anderson said 1:08PM on 4-21-2006
Using CSS/HTML is a good decision, but I do not recommend using images in an email. It gets security warning on some email readers.
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