How to Code HTML Email Newsletters

HTML email newsletters have become a long quite the in-thing for many corporate conglomerates and even mid sized companies today. HTML email is still a very successful communications medium for both publishers and readers. Publishers can track rates for email opens, forwards, and click throughs, and thereby can measure reader interest in products and topics; readers are presented with information that's laid out like a web page, in a way that's more visually appealing, and much easier to scan and navigate, than plain text email.
In some ways, coding HTML email has become easier -- several email software providers, such as Google Mail, have improved their support for CSS. However, at the same time, Outlook 2007 has taken HTML email backwards: last year Microsoft substituted the original HTML rendering engine used by Outlook for an engine that is inferior in terms of CSS support.
Other advances in HTML email in the last couple of years include the formation of the Email Standards Project, which aims to test the compliance of email software to HTML and CSS standards and to lobby for improvements; the emergence of services for testing how HTML email renders in various desktop and web-based email applications; and the availability of HTML email templates that you can either use "as is" or customize to your preferences. We'll look at some of these services and templates in this article.
Despite these advances, coding HTML email can be a mix of misery and pain for programmers. This article will bring you up to date on how to code HTML email so that it will display well in most email software.