Tuesday, January 18, 2011

How to send HTML email using Microsoft Outlook or Windows Live Mail

Few days ago, I had to send an html email with a fairly complex structure and with few images and backgrounds. I composed the html of it but when I was about to send it, I came to know that Microsoft Outlook, Express or Windows Live Mail (that’s what I use) doesn’t give any facility to this. It was quite surprising for me. I didn’t find any easy solution to it by searching on internet. Wise men say that create a way if you don’t find any.

As you may know, Windows Live Mail supports including HTML signatures and we can import external html files as well. This is what I incorporated.

Please follow the steps below:

Step 1: Compose the email


Compose the email in html. Read more information and guidelines on composing html emails here.
  1. Create new html file and compose it according to your requirements
  2. Save it as an html file on your computer (emailtemplate.html in our case)

This is how our email looks in design view. I used few <p>, <strong> , <img> and <table> tags for instance.


Step 2: Create new Signature


In your Windows Live Mail(Or Outlook)
  1. Go to Tools > Options
  2. Go to Signatures tab
  3. Press New Button
  4. Select File
  5. And browse the HTML file that you just created.



Step 3:  Insert in your email

  1. Compose new email
  2. From Signatures drop down
  3. Select the latest signature that you just created (HTML Email in our case)

Feel free to comment if you need more help!

7 comments:

  1. I just tried html email on outlook express 6 and it worked fine with Stationery. Just select any existing stationery (I selected Nature) Go to View Menu >> Source Edit and now you can edit html source and preview the web page. In order to insert pics I placed the picture files here C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Stationery and then in the html source you can simply use IMG src="imagefilename.ext" tag to display the images. I emailed it to myself and it worked as expected.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That's another good way if you have outlook installed. Unfortunately there's no "Source Edit" option in Windows Live Mail. Thanks for your input.

    ReplyDelete
  3. it is easy with outlook 6 but what about with windows live mail? for this u need to click on blue button...now select option>>>select mail and add signature that you want to put with the mail. the issue will be resolved

    ReplyDelete
  4. Worked perfect for me, latest version 5-14-13

    ReplyDelete
  5. Didnt work at all.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks a lot for the tutorial. very helpful. good job keep it up... visit more info:- Windows live mail technical support also Call +1-800-231-4635 (Toll Free)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thank you so much. wlarp.exe repaired this very same error for me. I tried it after reading your post.!!! visit Windows live mail support also Call +1-800-231-4635 (Toll Free)

    ReplyDelete

You don't necessarily need to register to comment here.