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Why Doesn't My HTML Message Display Correctly in Outlook?


Some versions of Microsoft Outlook, most notoriously 2007 and 2010, use Microsoft Word to render HTML email, rather than a web browser or other program which is compatible with current web standards.

What does this mean?

Basically, it means that people viewing email in Outlook may not be able to see your beautifully designed templates properly. Parts of these templates, including background images, bulleted lists, and many positioning elements, may not appear at all, or may be broken when viewed in these versions of Outlook.

What To Do About It

On the extreme end, you can send plain text email. Even without going that far, you can send HTML email, as long as you keep your formatting simple: as a rule, don't use any CSS elements (if you're not sure what those are, either ask your web designer or simply don't worry about it).

If you keep things simple, Outlook users shouldn't notice anything out of the ordinary.

Alternately, you can simply accept that Outlook users may have trouble, and provide them with a link to view your email as a web page. This allows you to use HTML email templates and other advanced styling features, while still giving users of mail clients that don't support those features an option to see your messages as they were meant to be seen.

Step By Step Instructions

  1. When you are editing your broadcast message, scroll down and check the "Enable Sharing / Social Media" box.

  2. Here, copy the URL provided next to "Direct Link."

  3. Nest, edit the body of your message by creating a hyperlink that will let viewers visit a web version of the message.



    Plug in the Direct Link URL, hit Insert, then save your message.



Still Have Questions?

If after reading this article you still have questions, contact us for a personal response from our Customer Solutions team.

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