Outlook 2007 Hoses HTML Email
Category: Design... Internet...
Posted Wednesday, January 10, 2007 at 08:30 AM [GMT-6]

SitePoint's current newsletter sheds some light on a move by Microsoft that will likely affect your incoming email, as soon as Outlook 2007 lands on computers around the world. It reports that Microsoft has switched the HTML rendering engine in Outlook from that used by Internet Explorer -- which in version 7 had become quite competent -- to that used by Word 2007, which, to put it in polite terms, is not fully CSS-compliant (in less polite terms, it reeks).

Here's a quick summary of the features that Outlook 2007 will no longer support, as provided by SitePoint (Microsoft's own summary is found here):

• no support for background images (HTML or CSS)
• no support for forms
• no support for Flash, or other plugins
• no support for CSS floats
• no support for replacing bullets with images in unordered lists
• no support for CSS positioning
• no support for animated GIFs

What does this mean to the average email recipient? Expect to see much simpler layouts, as email developers find that their previously complex designs don't work in the new program. And since they can't target their emails based on which email program the recipients use, everyone will see the change.

Now, lest you think this is more Microsoft bashing on my part -- to be honest, I applaud this change. When it comes to my email, simpler is better, and there's nothing in the preceding list I can't live without. I try to avoid sending HTML-formatted mail, and I prefer not to receive it, when I have the choice. If someone wants me to see a web page, they need only to send me the URL and I'll visit it at my convenience; I don't want it embedded in an email. HTML-formatted mail is often ponderous and bandwidth-sucking, makes phishing easier by allowing the disguise of URLs, and increases the potential for recipients to allow the introduction of malware onto their systems. In fact, according to the SitePoint article, this change by Microsoft implies that the company isn't as comfortable with IE 7's security as it has previously asserted.

In summary, how you view this move by Microsoft will depend on the extent you favor HTML-formatted email vs. text format. There may be much wailing and gnashing of teeth in the developer community (SitePoint's own email newsletter is broken under Outlook 2007), but the average email recipient may be better off (never having to see another animated GIF in an email is a blessing from my perspective) or at least neutral (I subscribed to the text version of SitePoint's newsletter so I don't care).