I’ve designed an HTML email (with no css, using tables, etc) that essentially consists of one outer table that contains 3 inner tables. The email renders fine in Outlook 2003 but when the user forwards it, only the top table is preserved in the forward.
I’ve tested this in:
- Outlook 2003 (11.8330.8341) SP3
- Outlook 2003 (11.5608.5606)
Any idea what could be going on here? I don’t really even know where to start. When I look at the HTML content of the forward, it is mangled beyond belief.
UPDATE:
There’s a setting in MS Outlook 2003 under Tools > Options > Mail Format that says “Use microsoft office word 2003 to edit email messages”. When the user does not have Outlook installed (and so the option is unchecked and grayed out) or when this is simply not checked, the forward appears correctly. However, checking this option brings up the composer in an instance of Word.
Word completely screws up the HTML – creating actual data loss, not just formatting problems.
UPDATE 2:
Found this question. Although the answer didn’t help me, anyone on this question might want to check it out:
HTML E-mail Layouts Breaking When Forwarded – Make it Survive the Word 2003 HTML Editor
QUESTION:
What is happening here? Is there any information about certain HTML that Word will strip? I’m using only the most basic elements and styles I can find.
What is happening here?
Word stripped everything inside divs. I didn’t do robust enough testing to determine whether or not this would be true of any div. I converted them to tables and everything now works.