HTML formatted email

[Chuck]

This one really isn't a FileMaker issue, but it could come up in FileMaker, so I'm hoping that someone here might know the answer.

How can I email raw HTML in Outlook express and have the recipient see the formatted page rather than the HTML? I know this is possible, because I receive bulk emails that do this. I've taken a look at the source for these emails, and they have lines like this:

code:

---

Content-Type: multi-part/alternative;

boundary="----000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000"

---

Then a bit later in the source code of the email is a line like this:

code:

---

------000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

---

After that appears a plain text version of the email. Further down is this code:

code:

---

------000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1"

---

After this is the raw HTML that shows up as an embedded web page.

I can understand the logic behind this, but now how to do it manually. I can get an email to show HTML formatting by using the HTML editing tools within Outlook Express (for Mac, BTW), but I want to be able to paste in raw HTML that I build elsewhere into the email. But I have no way to manually set the Content-Type. In Outlook Express, if I use the HTML formatting tools, it does create a plain text and an HTML version of the email with the Content-Type: multipart/alternative line.

The reason I want to do this is that a spreadsheet is created in Excel and the client wants to be able to email the look of that spreadsheet embedded within an email, not as an enclosure. Well, Excel can save a spreadsheet as an HTML table, but how to I go from there?

Thanks,

Chuck

[Arin]

The easiest way might be to just get the SMTPit plug-in which is capable of sending HTML emails.

you can get a demo here: http://www.filemaker.comm-unity.net

[Chuck]

Thanks for the info, but like I said, this isn't really a FileMaker issue. It simply may have come up for FileMaker developers. The information is actually in Excel 2001, not FileMaker.

Thanks,

Chuck