Injecting HTML into Outlook?

[rjbull]

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]

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:

[lanux128]

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]

-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]

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.

-lanux128 (July 02, 2008, 06:20 AM)

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]

- 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]

Curt, you're making suggestions faster than I can try them!  Thanks!   

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]

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]

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]

- 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

-Curt (July 02, 2008, 09:11 AM)

- 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! 

[Armando]

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]

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.

-rjbull (July 02, 2008, 08:45 AM)

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]

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.

-Veign (July 02, 2008, 11:02 AM)

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.

[rjbull]

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]

- 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

-Curt (July 02, 2008, 09:11 AM)

- this extension is totally weird.

-Curt (July 02, 2008, 06:47 PM)

Maybe I'll skip that one, then 

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

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.