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Author Topic: Injecting HTML into Outlook?  (Read 12248 times)

rjbull

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Injecting HTML into Outlook?
« on: July 02, 2008, 03:35 AM »
At work we have to use Outlook, the full version, not Express.  I have it set to plain-text e-mails but occasionally I need fancier formatting.  If I have a pre-existing HTML page, is there any way I can get it into Outlook as an HTML message?  All I seem to get is the plain text, or HTML as code that doesn't render.  I was somehow expecting to be able to drag and drop, or mark a piece and copy it into Outlook like you can from a browser into EverNote.

TIA...


Curt

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Re: Injecting HTML into Outlook?
« Reply #1 on: July 02, 2008, 06:04 AM »
From what I understand the problem could also be caused by your copy/paste clipboard transforming genuine HTML into some not-all-the-same code. My problem with this, using Firefox and Thunderbird, was solved by installing the Extended Copy Menu Auto Context add-on in Firefox. Of course you might need a different cure, but I uninstalled my Outlook 2003 maybe a year ago and am not sure how it was with this subject.

From my Firefox's context menu:

1c.gif
« Last Edit: July 02, 2008, 07:14 AM by Curt »

lanux128

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Re: Injecting HTML into Outlook?
« Reply #2 on: July 02, 2008, 06:20 AM »
i don't use Outlook on a daily basis so i'm not sure but one way to test is to 'Send Page by e-mail' from IE and see if that works.

Curt

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Re: Injecting HTML into Outlook?
« Reply #3 on: July 02, 2008, 07:35 AM »
-also, Thunderbird is showing the nature of the problem, because I can choose between seeing an emails' content as "Original HTML" or "Simpel HTML".

rjbull

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Re: Injecting HTML into Outlook?
« Reply #4 on: July 02, 2008, 08:45 AM »
i don't use Outlook on a daily basis so i'm not sure but one way to test is to 'Send Page by e-mail' from IE and see if that works.

That only seems to send it as an attachment.  I could do that, of course, but sometimes I'd rather send a prettified e-mail without people having to open an attachment.

Firefox 2.0.0.12 doesn't seem to have a "Send page by e-mail," only send link.

@curt:  thanks, will look at it, but I have to re-start Firefox and I'll do that later.

Curt

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Re: Injecting HTML into Outlook?
« Reply #5 on: July 02, 2008, 09:11 AM »
- my IE7 will send it as a nice HTML email, not attached.

While we're at it, you may want to install http://sendpagebyemail.mozdev.org/ for Firefox
- https://addons.mozil...a/firefox/addon/2343

rjbull

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Re: Injecting HTML into Outlook?
« Reply #6 on: July 02, 2008, 10:47 AM »
Curt, you're making suggestions faster than I can try them!  Thanks!   :D

The Auto Context add-on in Firefox partially works.  For the experiment, I set Outlook 2003 to send HTML by default, then copied the text via Auto Context.  What I got was most of the fonts, but no colours and (I think) no underlining.  I suspect that the problem there is with Outlook, not Firefox + Auto Context.  At least it's a small improvement, thanks.

Now I have to look at SendPageByMail too   :)

I thought IE might work, but use Firefox as my default browser.

Veign

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Re: Injecting HTML into Outlook?
« Reply #7 on: July 02, 2008, 11:02 AM »
When you copy and paste do you have the Email format set to RTF?  What is the default format for sending emails (menu -> Tools -> Options -> Mail Format)?

My default format is RTF and I get basic formatting when copying (ctrl-c) out of Firefox and pasting into a new email.

Carol Haynes

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Re: Injecting HTML into Outlook?
« Reply #8 on: July 02, 2008, 11:14 AM »
If you cut and paste HTML you probably won't have the CSS stylesheet (if any) which will alter the look of the email format too.

Curt

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Re: Injecting HTML into Outlook?
« Reply #9 on: July 02, 2008, 06:47 PM »
- my IE7 will send it as a nice HTML email, not attached.

While we're at it, you may want to install http://sendpagebyemail.mozdev.org/ for Firefox
- https://addons.mozil...a/firefox/addon/2343

- this extension is totally weird. In Internet Explorer I have never have had to answer a single question, when using Send Page, except of course for naming the receiver, but I have just spend half an hour to answer all sorts of different questions in order to take sendpagebyemail into use. And in the end I must have clicked some wrong button, because the page was merely attached.  :(

However, I must say the quality of the attached html page was sublime!  :up:

Armando

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Re: Injecting HTML into Outlook?
« Reply #10 on: July 02, 2008, 08:46 PM »
Could using MS Word or not as the email/html editor be the problem? I personally use word 2003. It's not the best with html, but...


- Tools > Options > click the Mail Format tab.
- Tick or untick "Use Microsoft Word to edit e-mail messages" check box


lanux128

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Re: Injecting HTML into Outlook?
« Reply #11 on: July 02, 2008, 08:49 PM »
That only seems to send it as an attachment.  I could do that, of course, but sometimes I'd rather send a prettified e-mail without people having to open an attachment.

maybe it's a 'feature' of Outlook. ;) but seriously, i found this tip that might be related to your situation.

Send Page By Email

rjbull

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Re: Injecting HTML into Outlook?
« Reply #12 on: July 03, 2008, 03:13 AM »
When you copy and paste do you have the Email format set to RTF?  What is the default format for sending emails (menu -> Tools -> Options -> Mail Format)?

My default format is RTF and I get basic formatting when copying (ctrl-c) out of Firefox and pasting into a new email.

My default is plain text, because I dislike fancy formats in e-mail.  This is the odd case where I might want something to impress managers.  I also found that if I put a UNC link to something on the network when replying to other people's fancy-formatted e-mails, the links didn't always seem to work, and it was safer to start from scratch with a plain-text e-mail.

For this test, though, I tried both plain text and re-setting the default to HTML.  I didn't think to try RTF, and indeed I wouldn't have thought of it, because I was under the impression that converting between HTML and RTF was difficult.

@lanux128: thanks for the tip - as seen above, I'd sort of got there, but that makes the intended behaviour clearer.
« Last Edit: July 03, 2008, 03:25 AM by rjbull »

rjbull

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Re: Injecting HTML into Outlook?
« Reply #13 on: July 03, 2008, 03:14 AM »
If you cut and paste HTML you probably won't have the CSS stylesheet (if any) which will alter the look of the email format too.
-Carol Haynes (July 02, 2008, 11:14 AM)

Good point.  The thing that generated the HTML gives you a choice of style sheets, so that clearly has a bearing.


rjbull

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Re: Injecting HTML into Outlook?
« Reply #14 on: July 03, 2008, 03:19 AM »
- my IE7 will send it as a nice HTML email, not attached.

While we're at it, you may want to install http://sendpagebyemail.mozdev.org/ for Firefox
- https://addons.mozil...a/firefox/addon/2343

- this extension is totally weird.

Maybe I'll skip that one, then  ;)

However, I must say the quality of the attached html page was sublime!  :up:

I really wanted it in-line...  Another annoyance; if I send Web pages as attachments, I sometimes use MHT files.  As far as I know, Firefox can't generate them or read them, so I have to use IE or EverNote, if I've saved the page in EverNote as well.