Using HTML in Outlook Express

The first thing to consider before starting with HTML in Outlook Express is to make sure that the program is configured to support HTML.  To do this, open the New Message window (called Create Mail in OE6) and click Format.  Select "Rich Text (HTML)."  Then click View.  Check "Source Edit."  When you check that entry, three tabs (Edit, Source, and Preview) will appear at the bottom of the screen.

The first part of the viewlet deals with placing a hyperlink in an email.  Users may want to do this rather than simply inserting a long URL because long URLs (two or more lines long) are not attractive and also because in some cases a URL which is broken may not link properly.

To do this, type the text preceding the hyperlink, then click the Source tab to view the HTML of the message.  At a point after the text, insert the HTML for the link.  (In the viewlet the form <a target=_new href="URL"><u>text</u></a> is used.  The alternate and preferred form <a href="URL" target="_blank"><u>text</u></a> will also work.)  When the Edit tab is clicked (and OE must be in Edit mode before the message can be sent) the user will see the text leading up to the link and the word text.

To store a graphic or applet to use as a signature, it must be included in an HTML file.  OE only accepts HTML files and text (.txt) files as signatures.  The HTML for a Java applet will already exist somewhere on the user's hard disk.  If it is in a word processing program as a .txt file it is strongly recommended that it be copied and pasted into Notepad then saved as an HTML file as some word processing programs (Word for Windows for example) add extraneous tags to a file when it is saved as HTML.  To save the file in Notepad, enter the filename with the extension in quotation marks, i.e. "Sigfile.html" or Notepad will automatically add a .txt extension.

Once the file is saved it can be added to the stored signatures by opening OE and clicking Tools|Options.  Click the Signature tab and since a new signature is to be added, click the New button.  A new signature number will be added to the existing list.  Now click the File radio button in the Edit Signature section and enter the location of the file on the hard disk.  Type the location directly or browse to the file using the Browse... button.  After it is entered click Apply, then OK.  Note that on the same window you can specify that a signature should be used on all outgoing messages and also set a new signature for use as a default.

The next section demonstrates how to add a graphic signature directly to the source code of the email message.  This may be useful for those who have a large number of graphical signature and choose not to store all of them as signature files.  The procedures used to insert a hyperlink will also be used in this case except that the HTML for the signature should be prefaced by a <DIV> tag and followed by a </DIV> tag.  For aesthetic reasons, it should be placed below the text of the message and must be placed above the </BODY> tag.  After it has been added, it may be previewed on the Preview tab.  OE must be returned to the Edit tab before the finished message can be transmitted.  In the Edit mode additional spaces can be added before the signature or existing spaces deleted if those changes are required for neat appearance.