Questions Regarding HTML Emails

Owned by Ongage OngageConnect
Last updated: Nov 14, 2017

Table of Contents:

HTML Idiosyncrasies

Hotmail 

(warning) If your HTML Email contains a CSS comment and inside that comment is a tag (see tag below: <code _tmplitem="277" >) then the email will render empty in Hotmail ISP including Outlook.com!!

<style type="text/css">
    /* This most probably won\'t work in all email clients. Don\'t include <code _tmplitem="277" > blocks in email. */
</style>

How To Embed Videos in an HTML Email

Intro

It should be noted that nowadays most all webmail clients, like Gmail, it is enough to simply put a YouTube link in the body of the email, and Gmail will render that link as a playable video embedded directly within the body of the email. There are other email clients that do this as well. Another way to embed a video is using the HTML 5 video tag, as shown in the following section. 

Using the HTML 5 Video Tag

Following is a simple example of how to use the HTML 5 video tag that you would place anywhere within the <body> tag of your HTML email. 

(info) Note: this tag only has limited support, in a limited set of mail clients

<video controls=""
height="264”
width="640"
poster="http://url-to-cover-image/opening-image.png"
src="http://url-to-video/video-clip-n.mp4"
type="video/mp4" >
</video>

Where:

  • Poster – the opening image to display prior to playing the video
  • Src – the URL to the video
  • Type – indicates video format of the video you're using, for example: 
    • video/MP4
    • video/WebM
    • video/Ogg

Currently, there are 3 supported video formats types: MP4, WebM, and Ogg:

BrowserMP4WebMOgg
Internet ExplorerYESNONO
ChromeYESYESYES
FirefoxYES
from Firefox 21
from Firefox 30 for Linux		YESYES
SafariYESNONO
OperaYES
From Opera 25		YESYES
  • MP4 = MPEG 4 files with H264 video codec and AAC audio codec
  • WebM = WebM files with VP8 video codec and Vorbis audio codec
  • Ogg = Ogg files with Theora video codec and Vorbis audio codec