Mac Forum / Applications / Entourage / October 2007

Hi Kristi,

since Entourage's HTML creation engine is rather weak, it cannot create
masked hyperlinks, let alone assign a hyperlink to a picture. However, you
can create your message(s) and signature(s) in Word 2004 (save them as
templates if you need to access them on a regular basis), which allows
pictures to be turned into hyperlinks, then click on File>Send to>Mail
Recipient (as HTML) to get the desired result. Note that there are a couple
of downsides to that method: you cannot modify the message once it's been
passed on to Entourage, and you cannot add attachments to these messages,
either.

On 28/10/2007 20:01, in article
1193594462.915237.155150@k35g2000prh.googlegroups.com,

I can certainly see the attraction of being able to stylize email
messages like crazy, but have you ever considered that the people you
send email to may be on a slow dial-up connection and they might not
really *want* to have to download an image file every time they read an
email from you?  

Have you considered that, even without the image file, HTML email
messages are three or four times *larger* than plain text emails, and so
will naturally take longer to download?

And what if the people reading your messages would prefer to display
their email in *their own* preferred font, size, and style, rather than
the fonts you happen to like? What if their preferred fonts is easier on
their aging eyes?

HTML emails enforce your preferences on everyone else, which many
consider to be rude.

If you'd send plain text emails instead of these HTML monstrosities,
your readers would have the freedom to read your emails in *their own*
preferred font, size, and so on, and the messages would be small and
would download much faster for them.

On 10/28/07 11:01 AM, in article
1193594462.915237.155150@k35g2000prh.googlegroups.com,

Microsoft has some templates you can use, but consider the overhead for this
function that can be achieved with just a link in your signature instead.

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq_topic/html_msg.html#sigs>

I also understand that Apple's Leopard Mail has a lot of templates and fancy
stuff. You might like it better than Entourage.

Without going into pros and cons, the debate over HTML vs plain text email
is a hot topic. Since you are a business and your email is representing you,
beware of who you might be offending with your fancy signatures.