HTML Newsletter - a specific question

how do I get the links on the newsletter to go where I want?

[Rusty]

hi there, i know many of you aren't too keen on html newsletters but "our's is not to reason why..." and i have to do it like this.
please forgive me if don't use the correct technical terms!

my problem is this:
on my own system it all works fine, as the links on the newsletter are coming from files etc in my C: drive, but when it gets sent to anyone else's machine, when they click the links it trys to open my C: drive which obviously doesn't work.

I've got my anchor tags set properly and if it's set to work on my machine it all goes fine. the links in DW are along the lines of #1-1, #1-2 linking to 'section 1, story one', and 'section one, story two' etc and this works fine.

does it need to be uploaded onto my site first, and the links go there or something?

Basically, what do i need to put the links as, so as to enable receipients to use the links at the top of the newsletter to navigate around it?

I'm struggling to get it to work, any help much appreciated :(

[Sinner_G]

The links have to be absolute, e.g. [websitename.com...]

[Mardi_Gras]

does it need to be uploaded onto my site first, and the links go there or something?

Yes. That is, any images or text you are not sending with the mail itself need to be on a server. Point the links in your e-mail there.

And keep it small - no one likes 100k e-mail.

[JuDDer]

Are you using the anchors to jump to a specific part of your newsletter such as:
<a href="#section1">Section 1</a>

Then at the top of the area that is section 1, you need to put your named anchor such as <a name="section1">

Is this what you mean?

[Rusty]

JuDDer,

i think my anchors are ok, I have for example <a href="#two-two"> linking to <a name="#two-two"> and this works in the f12 real world scenario but it must be because the page is in my machine. when i send it to a colleague, the links dont navigate down the page like they should, instead they look for it in my machine which he obviously can't access.

i must be missing something very obvious as the links need to work on every machine. i have a vague grasp about maybe needing to upload it but there's no real graphics on it and all the text etc is on the actual page (don't worry, all under 50k)

wha do i need to do to make the links work on another machine?

[JuDDer]

I believe these kind of links should work ok on any email client as long as html is enabled as the link will be pointing to something on the same page and nothing external.

Is your friend using a html capable email client?

[Rusty]

lets try a change of tack:

i'm pretty sure the links and the actual design of the page are ok.
am i sending it from the right place?

i'm currently sending it as 'stationery' in MS Outlook. it's designed in DW and sent as a normal email. do i need to save it as something specific in a different folder, or send it as something different?

[JuDDer]

Are you sure that the links in the one that you are sending to your colleague do not have 'C:\My Documents' or whatever in them and they are just plain <a href="#two-two"> type links?

[JuDDer]

Have you tried to just copy and paste the entire html out of the page you created in dreamweaver and pasted it into your email?

[Rusty]

ok, scrub that last one of mine.

i think you've got it JuDDer, how do i get rid of the C:\MyDocuments... etc and have as just "1-2" etc. that's all it says in DW but in f12 and other's screens the link is C:\mydoc etc

[JuDDer]

ahh ok.
That's going to be a 'feature' of dreamweaver then. When you save a file that's not in a 'defined site' then it will make all links relative to that document.

I guess you have two options:

1. Build your page then remove all the 'c:\ my documents type stuff.
or
2. In dreamweaver, define a new site in a folder such as my documents and you should be OK.

[Rusty]

ahh, the confidence of those in the know!

"Build your page then remove all the 'c:\ my documents type stuff."

please forgive my apparent ignorance, but how does one do that in DW??

I think that is the key as I am working from a defined site and saving to it. i need to make the links 'stand alone' and not be dependent on my C drive?

[JuDDer]

This is a bit strange.
If you have a site defined with the links relative to the document that you are working on, dreamweaver should leave the links as they are.

If however you create a page in dreamweaver but then save it to somewhere other than the 'defined site', dreamweaver will automatically change the links to point back to the page that's from the original location.