[Tutor] Sending email as html

[Alan Gauld]

"Tim Johnson" <tim at johnsons-web.com> wrote

> I would appreciate examples, URLs to documentation or discussions of 
> the topic
> and even an argument to the contrary of sending email with embedded 
> html.

The argument to the contrary is simple enough - its not secure and
vulnerable to 'virus' type attack. For that reason many corporate 
firewalls
trap or even prevent its delivery. (This is due to the ability to 
embed
script tags with VBScript functions that on a suitably enabled PVC
can access the local hard drive,  etc)

OTOH if they insist I assume(I've never looked at the spec for HTML 
mail)
that its just a case of inserting a boilerplate header and then adding 
styling
tags to the message text. After that you should be able to send as
plain text...

However it might be easier (and is definitely safer) to send an HTML
file as a mime attachment which gives the recipient some control over
how/when it is opened. But if mime is OK you could use PDF which
is safer still and the best format for when accurate layout needs to
be transmitted in a portable format. Unfortunately there are now
programs which can edit PDFs which has somewhat destroyed
their value as a read-only document format for contracts, invoices 
etc...
But for portable layout they are still the best option.

Alan G.