In the past, the call usually came on Friday, around 12:30: "Hello, Mr. Vorwerk, my newsletter display in Outlook looks somehow...strange! Can you do something about it? I don't really have time, the nursery is about to finish for the day..."
How many Fridays have I spent trying to save the newsletters of desperate marketing staff at the last minute? Each time, the newsletter looked very good in principle - but not in Microsoft Outlook. A line was crooked, spacing had slipped or the text was suddenly formatted completely differently.
Of course, I was almost always able to help, but the problem is still very frustrating for everyone involved. After all, I am a software developer and not a newsletter rescuer.
The problem with the display of emails and newsletters in Microsoft Outlook began sometime in 2013, when Microsoft decided, for some unknown reason, to no longer display HTML emails using Internet Explorer. Microsoft Word is used instead.
Since then, there has been a large list of HTML commands that Microsoft Outlook no longer supports. These include, for example:
- Background images
- Modern DIV elements
- Outside spacing of tables and images (margin)
- Most commands for positioning elements
- Lists with picture elements
- Audio and video files
- Javascript (which is also quite good due to the risk of viruses)
- Images in the newsletter are not displayed correctly on high-resolution Retina displays
In addition, formatting commands must be specified in a very specific way. For example, a frame must be defined as "none" so that it is not displayed. A frame width of "0px" does not work. Similarly, it is not easy to design tables with differently framed cells.
The answer is quite simple: use mailfino.
mailfino has a drag & drop newsletter designer that you can use to create your newsletter from various elements. The special feature: your newsletter is automatically formatted so that it is also optimally displayed in Microsoft Outlook.
You don't need a programmer or a special template for an optimal newsletter display in Outlook and can take your time designing your newsletter. And your newsletter not only looks good in Outlook, but can also be automatically optimized for mobile devices.
Just take a look at https://www.mailfino.de and create a free test account. Then you can start creating your newsletter straight away and see for yourself.
Best regards,
Johannes Vorwerk
Inventor of mailfino