h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I sometimes find when I want to formally write to people electronically, emails look a bit naff.

At the same time, I am sure sometimes people do not bother reading a letter attached to an email.

I quite regularly get from other people emails that are HTML formatted to look like a proper letter, but displayed in an email. I always think they are funky and I wondered how you go about making them.

Any ideas?

FB

well, you look through your inbox until you find an example you like, you open it in a browser and find "view source" in the menus. When you figure out how it was done, you make your own similar one.

This is how 9/10 of the internet is created.

'Tain't simple.

http://www.email-standards.org/

TRiG.

Maybe I am misunderstanding the question, but I regularly send HTML formatted emails. I am using the old Mozilla Suite (not Firefox, but the original, based on Netscape). When I open the email part and select "Compose", I get a blank screen. I can then "Insert ... Image" and drop a picture (JPG, GIF, etc.) into the screen at the cursor. The "Format" is set to "Auto Detect", and that will use HTML (rather than text) since there is an image. When I send the email, I get a quesetion regarding some users not accepting HTML, do I want to convert to text (colors, images will not convert). One of the options is "Send as Text and HTML", which is what I use.

So the HTML is created on the fly, no template used. FWIW.

It depends on your email client - if any. If you are using and outlook type client, one of the menu options is format > html and another is to use stationery. In Outlook Express the menu is tools > options > compose > stationery.

If you are using a web-based client like yahoo there may well still be either html options or stationery options.

B

Some folks set their email clients to ignore html formatting, and some even reject html formatted emails out of hand

However, if you like that sort of thing, most email client apps include basic html formatting tools, and you can find plenty of free html email templates on teh innertubes: http://www.campaignmonitor.com/templates/

There are even tutorials to help you roll your own: http://www.sitepoint.com/article/code-html-email-newsletters/