Border Problems in Email

Question

I am creating an Email newsletter, and when I go to send the page the background fill colors and the borders cut half way down the page. It looks nothing like what the previewer shows and the border has breaks in it . Any help would be great thanks.

Answer 1

There is no good Help documentation for Pub 2013 so reference: 

Tips and troubleshooting for sending a publication page as an e-mail message (2003):

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/publisher/HP010390591033.aspx?pid=CH062524821033

or

http://office.microsoft.com/en-ca/publisher/HP010390591033.aspx?pid=CH062524821033

You can go into File > Options > Advanced > Web Options and check "Send entire publication page as a single JPG...". This will increase the size of the email significantly and if the user has their email client set to not view images or text only, then they won't be able to read it.

You can deconstruct your newsletter to a simple text box of a web friendly text, no borders, no infill, no special formatting and test. If successful then add one level of formatting at a time testing as you go until you find what causes the problem. Follow the KISS principles. This is an older publication but still relevant to the conversation: http://www.sitepoint.com/principles-beautiful-html-email/

While you are at it, if you didn't choose an 'email template' you might want to resize your publication to be 5.818" or less in width which is the width of the Publisher 'email templates'. If you use the 'email template' it will automatically truncate the length of the publication after the last design element when you send as an Outlook email.

Now after you have done all this and think you have finally got your email looking good, then realize that there is a good chance it will not look good when viewed in other email clients or if the recipient has their email client set to read only plain text and no pictures for security reasons. Each email client renders HTML coding in a different way. So test using all the major email clients...

To avoid all that work and potential frustration, then simply convert your newsletter to a PDF file and attach it to each email message. IMHO the only way to get consistent results is to convert to a pdf and attach it.  If you write a simple but effective introduction in the body of your email message and your message is of interest and wanted by the recipient they will open the pdf. If it is spam, then it won't matter whether it is in the message body or a pdf...it will be deleted.

If you must send html formatted messages then consider using specialty software such as:

www.constantcontact.com or www.group-mail.com and a free version: http://www.group-mail.com/asp/common/downloads.aspor another popular one is http://mailchimp.com/ - some free services - Store up to 2,000 subscribers & send up to 12,000 emails per month.

DavidF

Answer 2

Hi,

Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft Office Community.

Before we proceed, I need some more information to help you better.

1. How are you trying to send the Publisher file?
2. Does this issue occur with particular Publisher file or any file?

You may provide us a screen shot of the issue to help you better.

You may refer to the following link for information on how to upload a screenshot.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wiki/windows\_other-windows\_programs/how-to-include-a-screenshot-in-your-post/2594b08e-32a3-476a-85a6-b021181be7e4

I kindly request you to reply with necessary information to help you further.

Thank you.