Formatting HTML Email


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HTML (otherwise known as "Hypertext Markup Language") is a set of "tags" that can be applied to text to control how it is displayed.  MemberTies email can be sent as HTML, but it does not add any tags for you (except the <html> tag itself) rather, you are expected to understand enough about HTML to markup your own messages.

To help with this task, an HTML toolbar is provided whenever the "Send as HTML" checkbox is selected on the email message.  The toolbar appears at the bottom of the message area.

Sample Message with HTML

As you can see, the HTML tags surround the text being marked-up. For example, consider this line:

<H1>This is a BIG heading.</H1>
 

The <H1> tag indicates a very large first-level heading. The <H1> indicates the point where the big heading begins, and the </H1> tag indicates the point where it ends. This markup was created by highlighting the whole sentence, selecting "Heading 1 (H1)" in the heading selection field, and then clicking the arrow to the right of the field to apply it to the text.

Here is what the above example looks like when rendered as HTML:

Note: Unmarked white space (blank lines with no HTML tags) in the original message is ignored.  The paragraph spacing was created by using the Paragraph tag (<P>), not by leaving blank lines.

Toolbar Descriptions

The follow toolbar buttons are available, from left to right:

•Paragraph - (the paragraph symbol) select text first, then click to mark a paragraph. Note that a paragraph is implied whenever a Heading is used (see below)
•Bold - select text first, then click to mark it as bold
•Italic - select text first, then click to mark it as italic
•Underline - select text first, then click to mark it as underline
•Center - select text first, then click to mark as centered on the page
•Horizontal Line - this tag doesn't surround any text. Just put the cursor on a blank line, then click to mark the position of the line (the tag is "HR" which stands for Horizontal Rule)
•Heading Options - select text first, then choose the desired heading. To apply the heading, click the arrow button next to the field. The smaller the heading number, the larger the text, so H1 is much larger than H3. H5 is about the size of normal text. It is normally best to stay with H3 for headings, since H1 is quite large. Note that a Heading includes paragraph spacing automatically. There is no need to mark a heading as a paragraph.
•Font Options - these options let you adjust the size of text based on the "normal" size. You can't control what "normal" is, since that can vary based on the email client or browser used to read your message. Things like copyright notices are normally displayed in smaller fonts.  Font options are applied the same as Heading options.
•Email Link - click to add an email link to the message.  If you select an email address in your text, it will be put into the email link markup for you. If not, you'll have to fill in the appropriate text. For example, if no text is selected, the button will insert: <A HREF="mailto:YOUR_EMAIL_ADDRESS">YOUR_EMAIL_ADDRESS</A> and you can replace "YOUR_EMAIL_ADDRESS" with  a normal "john@myisp.com" address.
•URL Link - click to add a hyperlink to a webpage.  Like the email option, you can either select an existing URL (i.e., "http://www.mywebsite.com") before clicking this button, or you can add it in later.
•Preview in Browser - click to display the current message in the default web browser on your computer. This is different than using the "Preview" option when sending the message, which is for verifying embedded fields. This option is used for verifying the HTML layout only.

Of course, you are not limited to the HTML tags on the toolbar, those are just some basic tags to do what most people need. If you don't need to do more than bold and underline some things, and identify the start of paragraphs, it will probably be enough.  There are many resources on the Internet for learning basic HTML.  An Internet search for "basic HTML" will yield lots of results.