Developing HTML templates for Newsletter

WHat HTML editor would be best for HTML newsletter development

[Bluestreak]

Hi all,

After finding a solution for writing a professional looking newsletter in ascii text format, I now feed to find a solution for creating the newsletter in HTML format as well. Mostly it's going to be a matter of developing top notch-kick bootie looking templates that I can reuse, but I'm wondering what HTML editor would best suit me for this task. Some of the things to consider is the ability to conform as close as possible to the HTML specifications that would support a wide range of browsers and email clients, and developing HTML content that AOL users will be able to read without seeing any syntax errors due to AOL's proprietary annoyances.

If you write HTML based newsletters as well, what's your recommendation, or is it a matter of personal preference? If namebrands can't be mentioned publically please feel free to stickymail me. I appreciate any advice on the matter :D

[txbakers]

If it were me, I would use TextPad, my editor of choice and use ActiveServerPages and a database.

There would be one, maybe two templates, and everything else about the page would come from the database. All the content would be kept there so there would be no reason to have to worry about modifying HTML each time.

I actually have one site like that. I can stickymail the URL to you if you want to see it.

[emailtools]

Dreamweaver all the way for me. :)

If you're not familiar with HTML, and are using email broadcasting software that lets you cut and paste html, the easiest way to convert your text newsletter into HTML format is use MS Word (saving page as html). Unfortunately, Word inserts a load of junk code and makes it difficult to call an image from an online source.

If you're using Outlook Express to send the newsletter, it'll be dead easy to convert into Rich Text/HTML format and insert images.

Another option is to use something like text2html software.

[Bluestreak]

Funny, Textpad happens to be my choice for writing newsletter content in ascii format. :-D By all means stickymail me the URL so I can take a look see of your setup.

As for Dreamweaver, are you confident that the HTML output isn't skewed in favor of any one browser? I favor compatibility over rich flashy content that may get lost in the translation in the lesser used browsers or email clients. Seems like a lot of people like Dreamweaver though. For the most part a lot of my HTML coding has been done by hand and in Notepad. Call me a purist :-D

I've never trusted Microsoft to give me truly generic coding, so I'm avoiding using any of their products for this project.

[txbakers]

Dreamweaver does an excellent job of cross-browser coding.

I started with Dreamweaver and still load it occasionally. Their javascript tends to be a bit bloaty but it works for all users without explanation, which I think is the point.

I've stickied you the URL to my totally dynamic DB-driven site.

With this site, the only thing I have to is enter the new content in the database.

[Bluestreak]

Thanks for the URL, I wouldn't dream of using javascript in my HTML based newsletters because of its security issues, so Dreamweaver's cross browser capabilities seems ideal. Any idea if this is still the case in their MX version, otheriwse I'd invest in the older version 4.

[Chuma]

I was in a similar situation about a year ago for which I decided to use Notetab to edit the original templates.

Then I put the templates into an Access database that I use every week to generate the newsletters using content inserted from other files (I had already made the database so that the support people could send out HTML emails for software releases/announcements.)

Thanks.