Graphics in HTML Email

[Clark Murray]

I'm not sure how this works technically. However, I know that if you insert graphics into an HTML email in Outlook, Outlook keeps a copy of the graphic to be referenced as a separate part of the message. The problem I am running into is that this happens even when the graphic is referenced as a link to a file on a server (as opposed to being pasted into the document). So, for example, if I have a statement in an HTML email like <img src=http://www.whatever.com/some.gif>, Outlook should not get that image and insert a copy into the email that it sends. Is there any way I can prevent Outlook from doing that?

 

[*Vanguard*]

"Clark Murray" said in news:OJ%[email protected]:

I'm not sure how this works technically. However, I know that if you
insert graphics into an HTML email in Outlook, Outlook keeps a copy
of the graphic to be referenced as a separate part of the message.
The problem I am running into is that this happens even when the
graphic is referenced as a link to a file on a server (as opposed to
being pasted into the document). So, for example, if I have a
statement in an HTML email like <img
src=http://www.whatever.com/some.gif>, Outlook should not get that
image and insert a copy into the email that it sends. Is there any
way I can prevent Outlook from doing that?

I use SpamPal (which is free) to eliminate spam. It has an HTMLModify
plug-in that will remove linked images, if the option is enabled, from
messages. Linked images are what get used for web bugs since your computer
has to then connect back to the specified server to get the image, the
server obviously then knows your IP address (and the e-mail address, too, if
a unique image was used for that message), and then sends the image file to
you. HTMLModify will not remove embedded images since they are part of the
message and cannot be used for web bugs.

HTMLModify will also detect spam based on common exploits employed by
spammers in writing the HTML-formatted spam crap. I did have to disable one
of these spam checks in HTMLModify. It would check if an HTML-formatted
message contained both a plain-text section of the message besides the HTML
section for the message. Both should be included so those that use e-mail
clients that don't support HTML can still read the message in plain-text
mode. However, Hotmail is stupid in that it omits the plain-text section
for HTML-formatted messages, so everything coming from Hotmail got marked as
spam. I have some friends sending from Hotmail so I had to disable this
check in HTMLModify.

Note that you should configure your e-mail client to use the Restricted
Sites security zone, and the Restricted Sites security zone should be
configured at its default setup of High. This will eliminate scripts from
running when viewing an HTML-formatted e-mail. HTMLModify will also remove
scripts (and put placeholder tags for them) but you should primarily let the
Restricted Sites security zone do that.

Another feature of HTMLModify is that it will change the extension of "bad"
attachments. If someone sends you an .exe file, HTMLModify will change it
to .txt. That way you cannot accidentally run it (if you are foolish enough
to do so) and will have to rename back to .exe or remove the .txt appended
extension before you can run the file. So it doesn't matter if you have OE
configured to block unsafe attachments (I think .txt attachments are okay)
or end up with it blocked by Outlook because it has the extension of a
Level1 filetype.

Other plugins for SpamPal are: Bayesian filter (uses statistical weighting
of words in good and spam e-mails to determine likelihood that a message is
spam; simple word lists are worthless), URL plug-in (to detect spam when a
URL is included in the message to a known spam site), RegEx plug-in (to
provide regular expression for more complicated detection rules that you can
define), and others. SpamPal and all plug-ins are free.

 

[*Vanguard*]

"Clark Murray" said in news:OJ%[email protected]:

I'm not sure how this works technically. However, I know that if you
insert graphics into an HTML email in Outlook, Outlook keeps a copy
of the graphic to be referenced as a separate part of the message.
The problem I am running into is that this happens even when the
graphic is referenced as a link to a file on a server (as opposed to
being pasted into the document). So, for example, if I have a
statement in an HTML email like <img
src=http://www.whatever.com/some.gif>, Outlook should not get that
image and insert a copy into the email that it sends. Is there any
way I can prevent Outlook from doing that?

Oops, might've misunderstand what you meant. "... if you insert graphics
....". I had assumed you wanted the linked graphics removed on *receiving*
e-mails. Perhaps you meant that you wanted the images not included when you
are *sending* e-mails.

In the later case, disable the option to include the picture so only the
link gets included:

Tools -> Options -> Mail Format -> Internet Format
Uncheck the "When an HTML message contains pictures ..."

 

[*Vanguard*]

"Clark Murray" said in news:OJ%[email protected]:

I'm not sure how this works technically. However, I know that if you
insert graphics into an HTML email in Outlook, Outlook keeps a copy
of the graphic to be referenced as a separate part of the message.
The problem I am running into is that this happens even when the
graphic is referenced as a link to a file on a server (as opposed to
being pasted into the document). So, for example, if I have a
statement in an HTML email like <img
src=http://www.whatever.com/some.gif>, Outlook should not get that
image and insert a copy into the email that it sends. Is there any
way I can prevent Outlook from doing that?

As a note regarding courtesy, do NOT post using HTML in the newsgroups.
Post using plain text format, please. Thanks. I never ever open any
attachments to any newsgroup post. You may find that you post is unreadable
or gets ignored if it has an attachment.

 

[Clark Murray]

Thanks. That's the checkbox I was looking for. Although you do have a good
point about spamblockers eliminating linked graphics. However, the
alternative issue is that while some email clients receive html email and
properly interpret linked graphics, they do not handle embedded graphics
correctly.

 

[Clark Murray]

I realize some people have that point of view. However, I do not think it
is universal. I am an instructor at the University of Phoenix which has
80,000 online students using newsgroups, and they REQUIRE the use of html
newsgroup posts. If a newsgroup administrator does not feel that html posts
are appropriate, they can always prohibit it on the server level.

 

[*Vanguard*]

"Clark Murray" said in news:[email protected]:

Thanks. That's the checkbox I was looking for. Although you do have
a good point about spamblockers eliminating linked graphics.
However, the alternative issue is that while some email clients
receive html email and properly interpret linked graphics, they do
not handle embedded graphics correctly.

I'd be interested to know when an embedded graphic file cannot display
correctly when the same graphic file as an attachment will display okay.
I'm actually curious to know what that would happen. Whether an embedded or
linked graphic, the MIME section is the same for both. It is a directive
included in the MIME header that dictates whether or not the image or
content is display in-line or not (as an attachment).

RFC 2112
(http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/cs/Services/rfc/rfc-text/rfc2112.txt),
section 4, "Handling Content-Disposition Headers", mentions that an included
content can be shown as either INLINE or ATTACHMENT. The included content
would still be encoded the same way (i.e., the same bunch of characters used
to encode the same content) and in raw mode you can see it within the body
of the message. I'm no wizard at e-mail encoding or MIME so there may be
other relevant RFCs dictating or describing the encoding of included content
(i.e., a graphic or file).

Got any examples? Know for which e-mail clients the examples would show an
embedded graphic cannot be displayed while a linked graphic can? The reason
that I ask is then I can open a discussion with the author of the
HTML-Modify plug-in to see how he might handle linked images if there was a
known defect in handling embedded images and still eliminate the use of web
bugs (aka beacons).

 

[Clark Murray]

I made that statement because I have had people reply to me with emails
which are in HTML format, but in which the graphics that I included in my
original email are missing. I don't know what email client they were using
or whether the graphics were displayed properly when they received the
email.

As far as unchecking the "HTML Options" box, while that certainly seems like
the solution from the description, in fact it did not work. I verified that
by both the email size and the html statement--the embedded graphics were
still being referenced. The only thing I can think of is that I sent the
email using Word mail merge, so that may have changed the way the graphics
were handled.

 

[*Vanguard*]

"Clark Murray" said in news:[email protected]:

I made that statement because I have had people reply to me with
emails which are in HTML format, but in which the graphics that I
included in my original email are missing. I don't know what email
client they were using or whether the graphics were displayed
properly when they received the email.

When replying, attachments in the original e-mail do not get included.
There's no point in enlarging the size of the reply message to return a file
(i.e., attachment) that the sender already has. It sounds like some
recipients were getting your messages with embedded graphics but using an
e-mail client where the graphics were instead treated as attachments. This
would be, for example, if the e-mail client did not honor the MIME
Content-Disposition directive of INLINE (and instead treated the MIME part
as an attachment).

As far as unchecking the "HTML Options" box, while that certainly
seems like the solution from the description, in fact it did not
work. I verified that by both the email size and the html
statement--the embedded graphics were still being referenced. The
only thing I can think of is that I sent the email using Word mail
merge, so that may have changed the way the graphics were handled.

Must be how you are using Word. I did the following:

- Disabled the "When an HTML message contains pictures ..." option under
Tools -> Options -> Mail Format -> Internet Options.

- In Word, I used the File -> New menu and picked "Blank web page" in the
selection pane that showed up on the right. This lets me switch to the HTML
edit mode by using the View -> HTML Source menu that opens another window
where I can edit the HTML code. I inserted the following tag (with text
surrounding it):

<img src="http://www.intel.com/homepage/pix/06_feature.gif">

- I use Word's File -> Send To -> Mail Recipient menu. The mail template
appeared with the image showing in the body, I addressed it to myself, and
sent it.

- Upon receipt of the e-mail, I opened it in its own window so I could then
right-click in the body and select the View Source context menu. In the
HTML code was:

<img width=391 height=258
src="http://www.intel.com/homepage/pix/06_feature.gif">

So the <img> tag remained intact, the image was actually an external link,
with the only change being that word picked the size of the image (so a
placeholder could be displayed until the image got retrieved so the rest of
the document gets positioned correctly until then).

If I then do the same procedure but enable the "When an HTML message
contains pictures ..." option in Outlook, the received message will have the
following <img> tag:

<img width=391 height=258 src="cid:[email protected]">

That's because the image was embedded within the message. Outlook's
proprietary .pst file format separates the "attachments" (whether INLINE or
ATTACHMENT for disposition) as separate content within the .pst file and
then uses a pointer to it in the e-mail message. So in the first case, the
recipient got a link to the image. In the second case, the recipient got an
embedded image.

So it must be how you are composing HTML formatted messages when using Word.
You might instead want to use an HTML editor (something that actually writes
in HTML), like HTML-Kit which is free, and then use its funtion to send that
HTML doc as an e-mail (or save it as an .htm[l] file, open it in IE, and use
IE's File -> Send -> Page by E-mail menu).

 

[Clark Murray]

I figured out that the difference is Mail Merge. If you use File > Send To,
images are not embedded. However, if you use Mail Merge, starting either
from Word or from Outlook (and I learned once before that different things
can happen depending on where you start), the images are embedded.

Since I started down this whole path because I was trying to send an HTML
newsletter to a number of people, looks like Microsoft has defeated me.

--
Best Regards,
Clark Murray

As far as unchecking the "HTML Options" box, while that certainly
seems like the solution from the description, in fact it did not
work. I verified that by both the email size and the html
statement--the embedded graphics were still being referenced. The
only thing I can think of is that I sent the email using Word mail
merge, so that may have changed the way the graphics were handled.

Must be how you are using Word. I did the following:

- Disabled the "When an HTML message contains pictures ..." option under
Tools -> Options -> Mail Format -> Internet Options.

- In Word, I used the File -> New menu and picked "Blank web page" in the
selection pane that showed up on the right. This lets me switch to the HTML
edit mode by using the View -> HTML Source menu that opens another window
where I can edit the HTML code. I inserted the following tag (with text
surrounding it):

<img src="http://www.intel.com/homepage/pix/06_feature.gif">

- I use Word's File -> Send To -> Mail Recipient menu. The mail template
appeared with the image showing in the body, I addressed it to myself, and
sent it.

- Upon receipt of the e-mail, I opened it in its own window so I could then
right-click in the body and select the View Source context menu. In the
HTML code was:

<img width=391 height=258
src="http://www.intel.com/homepage/pix/06_feature.gif">

So the <img> tag remained intact, the image was actually an external link,
with the only change being that word picked the size of the image (so a
placeholder could be displayed until the image got retrieved so the rest of
the document gets positioned correctly until then).

If I then do the same procedure but enable the "When an HTML message
contains pictures ..." option in Outlook, the received message will have the
following <img> tag:

<img width=391 height=258 src="cid:[email protected]">

That's because the image was embedded within the message. Outlook's
proprietary .pst file format separates the "attachments" (whether INLINE or
ATTACHMENT for disposition) as separate content within the .pst file and
then uses a pointer to it in the e-mail message. So in the first case, the
recipient got a link to the image. In the second case, the recipient got an
embedded image.

So it must be how you are composing HTML formatted messages when using Word.
You might instead want to use an HTML editor (something that actually writes
in HTML), like HTML-Kit which is free, and then use its funtion to send that
HTML doc as an e-mail (or save it as an .htm[l] file, open it in IE, and use
IE's File -> Send -> Page by E-mail menu).

 

[*Vanguard*]

"Clark Murray" said in news:[email protected]:

I figured out that the difference is Mail Merge. If you use File >
Send To, images are not embedded. However, if you use Mail Merge,
starting either from Word or from Outlook (and I learned once before
that different things can happen depending on where you start), the
images are embedded.

Since I started down this whole path because I was trying to send an
HTML newsletter to a number of people, looks like Microsoft has
defeated me.

You might find reference to mass mailing utilities at www.slipstick.com.
Using Word's Mail Merge has always, to me, appeared somewhat of a kludgy
workaround.

 

[James R. Hogan]

I have the same problem, but in reverse. When I get the e-mail I see the
hyperlinks but not the embedded images. Does anyone know what setting I am
missing

I figured out that the difference is Mail Merge. If you use File > Send To,
images are not embedded. However, if you use Mail Merge, starting either
from Word or from Outlook (and I learned once before that different things
can happen depending on where you start), the images are embedded.

Since I started down this whole path because I was trying to send an HTML
newsletter to a number of people, looks like Microsoft has defeated me.

--
Best Regards,
Clark Murray

Must be how you are using Word. I did the following:

- Disabled the "When an HTML message contains pictures ..." option under
Tools -> Options -> Mail Format -> Internet Options.

- In Word, I used the File -> New menu and picked "Blank web page" in the
selection pane that showed up on the right. This lets me switch to the HTML
edit mode by using the View -> HTML Source menu that opens another window
where I can edit the HTML code. I inserted the following tag (with text
surrounding it):

<img src="http://www.intel.com/homepage/pix/06_feature.gif">

- I use Word's File -> Send To -> Mail Recipient menu. The mail template
appeared with the image showing in the body, I addressed it to myself, and
sent it.

- Upon receipt of the e-mail, I opened it in its own window so I could then
right-click in the body and select the View Source context menu. In the
HTML code was:

<img width=391 height=258
src="http://www.intel.com/homepage/pix/06_feature.gif">

So the <img> tag remained intact, the image was actually an external link,
with the only change being that word picked the size of the image (so a
placeholder could be displayed until the image got retrieved so the rest of
the document gets positioned correctly until then).

If I then do the same procedure but enable the "When an HTML message
contains pictures ..." option in Outlook, the received message will have the
following <img> tag:

<img width=391 height=258 src="cid:[email protected]">

That's because the image was embedded within the message. Outlook's
proprietary .pst file format separates the "attachments" (whether INLINE or
ATTACHMENT for disposition) as separate content within the .pst file and
then uses a pointer to it in the e-mail message. So in the first case, the
recipient got a link to the image. In the second case, the recipient

got

an
embedded image.

So it must be how you are composing HTML formatted messages when using Word.
You might instead want to use an HTML editor (something that actually writes
in HTML), like HTML-Kit which is free, and then use its funtion to send that
HTML doc as an e-mail (or save it as an .htm[l] file, open it in IE, and use
IE's File -> Send -> Page by E-mail menu).

 

[Clark Murray]

Personally, I use Outlook/Word Mail Merge quite a bit and find it very
useful. It's a shame it doesn't handle HTML email properly. I have an old
(Win 95 era) HTML mailer that's no longer supported but which still works,
so I'll probably use that. I'll just have to export my Outlook contact
list.