Best practices while drafting your email content in an html editor for Outlook

Best practices while drafting your email content in an html editor for Outlook

Any email content developed in Zoho Campaigns' template editor renders properly for every email client. If you design content with HTML and CSS, some rendering issues may arise in a few desktop clients, especially Outlook. Newer versions of Outlook use Microsoft Word to render email which can result in blocked images and major formatting errors. However, if you write your HTML with a special focus on certain areas, you can avoid most formatting issues.

Here is a list of areas you should give special attention to when composing emails with HTML/CSS:

  1. Padding and width for <div> and <p> tags will be ignored by Outlook. You can use a table instead.
  2. Padding for <a> tags will be ignored by Outlook. Instead, design a table and apply all formatting.
  3. Padding and margins used for images will be ignored by Outlook. Use hspace and vspace on images.
  4. Avoid using a class, instead give all the properties inline.
  5. Specify a line height, otherwise Outlook will use its default height.
  6. Avoid using HTML5 and CSS3.
  7. Background images will not be displayed by Outlook.
  8. GIFs will not run on Outlook. Only the first frame of the GIF will be displayed. If you want to include a GIF, set the most important frame to play first so your information will be conveyed on Outlook and other clients will still run your GIF.
  9. <button> tag will not work properly on Outlook. Design your buttons using a table.
  10. Image width should be given both as attribute and style.
  11. Position style and float will not be supported by Outlook. If you need a two column structure, design it using a table.

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