Outlook (Word) 2007 HTML and CSS rendering capabilities

"Zeyad Rajabi (MS)" wrote:

> Question: Why does Outlook 2007 (WordMail) render HTML the way it
> does?
>
> The answers to these questions can be found in the following MSDN articles:
>
> *snip*
> If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me.
>
> Thanks,
> Zeyad Rajabi (MS)

The article does not explain the WHY question.
What is the motivation to drop support for so many CSS items?
Is it supposed to be a mitigation for phising emails?

All I know is that legit (X)HTML emails are not being correctly displayed in
Outlook 2007 whereas the (X)HTML itself renders fine in IE/Firefox.

-- A number of common CSS features are not supported (including float,
background-image!?)
--> I now have to resort to TABLEs to render otherwise simple things.

-- Setting the background-color on a DIV tag doesn't give the expected
result (there appears to be a margin, which cannot be disabled using "margin:
0")

-- Using multiple CSS class names in an HTML CLASS attribute doesn't work,
example:
<div class="box greenBackground">
content goes here
</div>

Only the first class is applied???

In the spec (MSDN), the CSS "display" element is first said to be present in
"CORE", only to claim it isn't supported in "Unsupported Cascading Style
Sheet Properties Compared with Cascading Style Sheets, Level 1" and
"Unsupported Cascading Style Sheet Properties Compared with Cascading Style
Sheets, Level 2.1".

The latter appears to be correct, "display" has no effect.

It isn't even possible to attach a "rich HTML file" as attachment in
Outlook2007 and preview it in the preview tab, because Outlook2007 has no
built-in previewer for HTML files ("full" HTML/CSS --> IE/Firefox).

I'm sorry, but creating good-looking e-mails for Outlook2007 is a hassle,
whereas Outlook2003 works great. Why should we upgrade to Outlook2007???

"Why should we upgrade to Outlook2007???" - unfortunately from a
developers point of view, its going to be a case of not upgrading...
we're trying to build emails for many thousands of corporate clients
who are all going to be automatically upgrading & expect their emails
to look great...... which equals - Microsoft screwing over the consumer
AGAIN.


John Doe wrote:
> "Zeyad Rajabi (MS)" wrote:
>
> > Question: Why does Outlook 2007 (WordMail) render HTML the way it
> > does?
> >
> > The answers to these questions can be found in the following MSDN articles:
> >
> > *snip*
> > If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Zeyad Rajabi (MS)
>
> The article does not explain the WHY question.
> What is the motivation to drop support for so many CSS items?
> Is it supposed to be a mitigation for phising emails?
>
> All I know is that legit (X)HTML emails are not being correctly displayed in
> Outlook 2007 whereas the (X)HTML itself renders fine in IE/Firefox.
>
> -- A number of common CSS features are not supported (including float,
> background-image!?)
> --> I now have to resort to TABLEs to render otherwise simple things.
>
> -- Setting the background-color on a DIV tag doesn't give the expected
> result (there appears to be a margin, which cannot be disabled using "margin:
> 0")
>
> -- Using multiple CSS class names in an HTML CLASS attribute doesn't work,
> example:
> <div class="box greenBackground">
> content goes here
> </div>
>
> Only the first class is applied???
>
> In the spec (MSDN), the CSS "display" element is first said to be present in
> "CORE", only to claim it isn't supported in "Unsupported Cascading Style
> Sheet Properties Compared with Cascading Style Sheets, Level 1" and
> "Unsupported Cascading Style Sheet Properties Compared with Cascading Style
> Sheets, Level 2.1".
>
> The latter appears to be correct, "display" has no effect.
>
> It isn't even possible to attach a "rich HTML file" as attachment in
> Outlook2007 and preview it in the preview tab, because Outlook2007 has no
> built-in previewer for HTML files ("full" HTML/CSS --> IE/Firefox).
>
> I'm sorry, but creating good-looking e-mails for Outlook2007 is a hassle,
> whereas Outlook2003 works great. Why should we upgrade to Outlook2007???

It's good to see that i wasnt alone in my strife.
I thought I was going insane when outlook 2007 wasnt rendering html as good
as a standard browser could. Absolutely rediculous...and to think, I helped
beta test this piece of software that microsoft has used to slap me in the
face with.

"pete.trainor@tequila-uk.com" wrote:

> "Why should we upgrade to Outlook2007???" - unfortunately from a
> developers point of view, its going to be a case of not upgrading...
> we're trying to build emails for many thousands of corporate clients
> who are all going to be automatically upgrading & expect their emails
> to look great...... which equals - Microsoft screwing over the consumer
> AGAIN.
>
>
> John Doe wrote:
> > "Zeyad Rajabi (MS)" wrote:
> >
> > > Question: Why does Outlook 2007 (WordMail) render HTML the way it
> > > does?
> > >
> > > The answers to these questions can be found in the following MSDN articles:
> > >
> > > *snip*
> > > If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me.
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > > Zeyad Rajabi (MS)
> >
> > The article does not explain the WHY question.
> > What is the motivation to drop support for so many CSS items?
> > Is it supposed to be a mitigation for phising emails?
> >
> > All I know is that legit (X)HTML emails are not being correctly displayed in
> > Outlook 2007 whereas the (X)HTML itself renders fine in IE/Firefox.
> >
> > -- A number of common CSS features are not supported (including float,
> > background-image!?)
> > --> I now have to resort to TABLEs to render otherwise simple things.
> >
> > -- Setting the background-color on a DIV tag doesn't give the expected
> > result (there appears to be a margin, which cannot be disabled using "margin:
> > 0")
> >
> > -- Using multiple CSS class names in an HTML CLASS attribute doesn't work,
> > example:
> > <div class="box greenBackground">
> > content goes here
> > </div>
> >
> > Only the first class is applied???
> >
> > In the spec (MSDN), the CSS "display" element is first said to be present in
> > "CORE", only to claim it isn't supported in "Unsupported Cascading Style
> > Sheet Properties Compared with Cascading Style Sheets, Level 1" and
> > "Unsupported Cascading Style Sheet Properties Compared with Cascading Style
> > Sheets, Level 2.1".
> >
> > The latter appears to be correct, "display" has no effect.
> >
> > It isn't even possible to attach a "rich HTML file" as attachment in
> > Outlook2007 and preview it in the preview tab, because Outlook2007 has no
> > built-in previewer for HTML files ("full" HTML/CSS --> IE/Firefox).
> >
> > I'm sorry, but creating good-looking e-mails for Outlook2007 is a hassle,
> > whereas Outlook2003 works great. Why should we upgrade to Outlook2007???
>
>

I downloaded the validator for Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 and installed it but
can find no documentation anywhere on how to run this. I also can see no new
icon or commands in Dreamweaver 8.

Please advise on how to use this.

Thanks for the help. After installing a couple of times and then reading
your reply I noticed that under "target browser" there is now a Word 2007
entry. Checking that gave me the report.

On a very basic email I had five errors:

* Title attribute not supported in any <a>
* Text attribute in the <body>
* The lang attribute not supported in the <html>
* Background attribute not supported in any <table>

Personally I find this insane! What is the point of "supporting" HTML
emails if you can't support the most basic of HTML4 attributes.

I installed it 2x and did not see it in the list either.

The set up depends on which version you have installed. I have only
Dreamweaver 8 installed but for some reason it is set up to automatically
install in DreamweaverMX2004 which I do not have installed.

The correct folder is:
C:\Program Files\Macromedia\Dreamweaver 8\Configuration\BrowserProfiles



"David Mead" wrote:

> I downloaded the validator for Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 and installed it but
> can find no documentation anywhere on how to run this. I also can see no new
> icon or commands in Dreamweaver 8.
>
> Please advise on how to use this.

Thanks GeraldDean. I was pulling my hair out until I found your post. Simple solution to a banal oversight by MSFT.

Hi there

I am probably having the same issue - I have installed the code validator but can't seem to find where to ensure that my 'Check browser' option is checking the code against Word 2007. Please can you assist.
I am using Dreamweaver MX

thanks!!

Not buying 2007 isn't an option if you are a developer, as pete.trainer has pointed out. However, the following macro in a word doc may ease testing:

Code:

Private m_sContentPath As String Private Function WordApplicationGetOpenFileName(FileFilter As String, ReturnPath As Boolean, ReturnFile As Boolean) As String     ' returns the folder and/or filename to a single user selected file     Dim strFileName As String, strPathName As String         If Not ReturnPath And Not ReturnFile Then Exit Function     If FileFilter = "" Then FileFilter = "*.*"         With Application.Dialogs(wdDialogFileOpen)         .Name = FileFilter         On Error GoTo MultipleFilesSelected         If .Display = -1 Then             strFileName = .Name         End If         On Error GoTo 0     End With         On Error GoTo 0     ' remove any "-characters     If InStr(1, strFileName, " ", vbTextCompare) > 0 Then         strFileName = Mid$(strFileName, 2, Len(strFileName) - 2)     End If         If ReturnPath Then         strPathName = CurDir & Application.PathSeparator     Else         strPathName = ""     End If         If Not ReturnFile Then strFileName = ""     WordApplicationGetOpenFileName = strPathName & strFileName     MultipleFilesSelected: End Function Public Function SetContentPath() As Boolean         SetContentPath = False     Dim sTmp As String     sTmp = WordApplicationGetOpenFileName("*.*", True, True)     If (StrPtr(sTmp) > 0) Then         m_sContentPath = sTmp         SetContentPath = True     End If     End Function Public Sub ReloadFromFile()     If (Len(m_sContentPath) = 0) Then         If (Not SetContentPath) Then             Exit Sub         End If     End If     ThisDocument.Content.Select     Selection.Delete     ThisDocument.Content.InsertFile m_sContentPath End Sub

If you don't see the "Developer" tab in Word 2007, click Menu->Word Options->Popular->Show Developer Tab In Ribbon. Then add a button for "ReloadFromFile()" (Right-click ribbon->Customize Quick Access->Select "Macros" instead of "Popular Commands" in the first drop-down, and select the subroutine from the list)

While I can recommend my clients not upgrade to Office 2007, I can't guarantee the whole world will abide by my wishes.

I develop HTML content in Visual Studio that is emailed, and, I, too, thought I was going nuts when the content was being totally munged in one recipient's email.

So, I Google only to find that this has been a frustration for developers since Office 2007 was released and absolutely nothing from MS but validators that tell me form, input, onload, and media aren't legal. Lessee, can we say...back to when the choice was between pica and elite?

What ever happened to Ballmer's mantra "Developers! Developers! Developers!" As in..."It's the developer's, stupid?"

Grrr. </ rant >