Important Note: WebTV is optimized to display
HTML in e-mail, but many computer e-mail programs can't show your HTML in action.
Some computer users will have to click an attachment to see and hear what you've
written, and some may not be able to see it at all (AOL, for example); the message
may also appear completely blank, and often the HTML codes will appear as plain
text. For technical background on the problem, click here. For some helpful information regarding sending
HTML and pics to AOL subscribers, read this.
It's been reported that clicking Reply or Forward while viewing an HTML message
on a computer and scrolling down sometimes will make the message visible.
The latest versions e-mail programs included with Netscape Communicator and
MS Internet Explorer have the ability to display HTML e-mail, if they're configured
properly. Not every computer user wants to see HTML e-mail, however–if
a person you're writing to wants to take the time and trouble to learn how to
enable this function, they should be able to see most of the effects
you create in your messages using HTML.
I'd suggest you write to any unsuspecting computer user with your HTML signature
removed before sending them an HTML message for the first time (particularly
if they receive your message as an attachment, they may be less than happy–attachments
can contain viruses, they won't want to click it).
You should place all of your HTML codes in your e-mail signature. For
an explanation of why and how, click here.
To have HTML work in e-mail, the very first thing you type must be the HTML
tag <html>. Anything you type before this tag will render the message
as regular text, and the code won't be interpreted.
Many people want to learn how to put HTML in their e-mail. Since most
of the questions are identical, I'm going to try to answer many of these questions
on this page. If you have a question that isn't answered here, I will try to add
it, if you let me know what it is. For further HTML information in general, use
the HTML Resources Page.
Basic
Signatures are a great means of personalizing your e-mail, and the best place
for placing a graphic or sound file you want to send out with every e-mail message.
Important: Be aware that images and sounds in e-mail and newsgroup posts
increase the time it takes for the message to load and be readable. Some people
would rather skip a message that takes more than 10 seconds to come up than
wait for it.
These are the Netscape named colors available for WebTV
(type the color name in lowercase and as a single word with no spaces, for instance,
Dark Olive Green is typed in the code tag as darkolivegreen).
With the Summer upgrade of '98, it is now possible to change the font color
of the header and body text of e-mail and newsgroup posts with a code in the
signature. Use the code
Font Colors
Change the color of the font with the HTML tag <font color=colorname>,
where you would replace colorname with a Netscape colorname, or an RGB
hex number, to determine the color of the text following this tag. Resources for
colors are located on the Colors Resources Page.
<body text=colorname>
(using one of the Netscape colornames, or an RGB hex code).
Font Size
Change the size of the font with the HTML tag <font size=?>,
where you would replace the "?" with a number 1 through 7. This is what the sizes
look like:
Note: Font size in the body of the message can't be specified with
codes in the mail signature. If you want to change the size of the body text,
you'll have to write the body text as HTML, separately from the signature.
Just make sure <html> is the very first thing
in the message body text.
<i>, <s>,
<b>, <blackface>,
and <u>. When you want to stop using the
style, type the same code, but with a / before the text in the code, for instance
</i>. Some examples:
<font>
tag, for example <font effect="shadow">.
Examples:
| Shadow Emboss Relief |
Note: Font styles and effects in the body of the message
can't be specified with codes in the mail signature. If you want to change the
style or effect of the body text, you'll have to write the body text as
HTML, separately from the signature. Just make sure <html>
is the very first thing in the message body text.
Marquee
You will notice the marquees in these examples move very slowly. That's because I put more than one on one page. Try to keep yourself to one marquee, and they run much more quickly.
Note: <marquee> doesn't work with Netscape, so computer users who use Navigator/Communicator as their browser won't see the scroll.
To make text scroll across the screen, use the <marquee>
tag. The basic effect is created by typing in:
<marquee>This is a marquee!</marquee>
which makes this happen:
You can change the font color and size using the font color and size tags,
explained above, just make sure you change these attributes before the opening
<marquee> tag!
You can change the background color of the marquee text by adding the attribute
bgcolor=colorname just before the closing bracket in the
opening <marquee> tag (leaving a blank
space after the word "marquee" in the tag). Here's the same marquee with a blue
background:
You can also make the marquee smaller, and center it, by using the attribute
width=?%:, this is a marquee at 33%, centered:
direction=
(right or left), and behavior= (slide,
alternate). Remember, all of these attributes are typed in just
before the closing bracket on the opening marquee tag, separated by a single
space. Some examples:
direction="right"
behavior="slide"
behavior="slide" direction="right"
behavior="alternate"
<html>
tag. The syntax for this code is:
<body bgcolor="colorname" text="colorname">
where you substitute the name (or the RGB hex code) of the color you want as a background and text.
To link an image into an e-mail message, you use the HTML
code
where URL is the location of the image file on the Internet, and IMAGE.GIF
is the name of the image itself (images can be GIFs or JPEGs). Image file names
can be case-sensitive, so make sure you use capital letters in your link
if the original had capitals. This JPEG image:
is linked here with this code line:
The image is located at www.geocities.com, in the subdirectory "/ResearchTriangle/8795",
and the name of the JPEG is "33.jpg". You must know the entire location
URL, and the exact name of the image file, or the link won't work. To get the
correct URL, you may need to use an HTML validator. To find out about
validators, click here.
For more detailed information about using images, changing their size and
aligning them with text, in e-mail or on webpages, click here.
If you have a particular image you want to use in every message you send,
put it into your e-mail signature so you don't
have to write the code every time.
<img src="http://URL/IMAGE.GIF">
<img src="http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/8795/33.jpg">
Background Image in E-Mail
<body background="http://URL/bkgrnd.gif"
text="colorname">
URL would be the location of the GIF or JPG you are using for background, and bkgrnd.gif would be the name of the actual image file.
If you're changing the text color to dark one, you may want to also add bgcolor=colorname
within the <body> tag, using a light color for contrast
with your typed text.
<bgsound> to using <embed>.
<embed> seems to be more flexible.
You can now use any type of file in background sound that you can hear with the WebTV browser: MIDI, WAV, AU, AIFF, SWA, MPEG Audio, SND, etc. Don't use Real Audio for background music at all, because it's always bandwidth theft!
The general form for <embed> is:
<embed src="http://URL">
This will make a clickable speaker icon appear. To make the sound play automatically
when the e-mail is opened, add the autostart=true attribute:
<embed src="http://URL" autostart="true">
You can loop any sound file you want, either endlessly by using the loop=true
attribute, or a certain number of times using loop=#, replacing
# with the number of times you want to loop.
Getting the URL of music that you found with a clickable link on a page is now extremely easy. Click the sound link on the page, then hit GoTo, and click Show Last. What you see there in the text window of the GoTo box is the URL you need to make the sound work in e-mail.
There is another sound related WebTV-only HTML tag, a design element that looks like a stereo equalizer display...but which now (as of Nov '99) works only in a webpage, not mail: the audioscope...
Note: Unfortunately, I no longer have the time available to provide HTML help one-on-one. For further information on HTML in mail and for webpages, visit Draac.com, alt.discuss.webtv.html (WebTV-only newsgroup), and my HTML Resources page.