Using web page as background for e-mail

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Guest

I want to create a custom e-mail where the background is a web page from our
website. I've tried to pull it in as stationary but it doesn't work
correctly. It needs to work like our web page (e.g., click a link and it
goes to the correct web page, the images would not be embedded in the e-mail
but would be downloaded from the directory on the server). Sort of like an
e-mail from a large company like amazon.com where the e-mail is similar to
their web page.

Can I do this in Outlook 2003? I'm using FrontPage 2003 for our website. I
do not code html (that's why I use FrontPage). Can someone refer me to a
tutorial, book, help section, etc. that would explain the process of creating
this type of custom e-mail? I've been looking for days but have had no
success with finding any help whatsoever. Thanks!
 
To use the page as stationery, you probably will need to edit the HTML that
FrontPage provides, which may be somewhat dependent on the page running on a
FrontPage server machine, making it potentially unsuitable for use in an
email message. Yes, this means you will need to study up on basic HTML
coding. Many web pages and books are available to help you with this.
 
It appears that even if I edit the HTML to include the proper links to our
website's server (which is using FrontPage Server Extensions) I may still
have problems. Do you think I am going about creating this type of e-mail in
the wrong way, i.e., using the stationary feature of Outlook? Do you know if
there is another way of creating an e-mail that uses a web page for the main
image in the same way an amazon.com e-mail (among others) uses a web page?
We need to be able to send an e-mail that has the images and links from and
to our website, so users can simply click a link and go to the correct
location.
I studied a book I have (Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003 Inside Out by Jim
Buyens) to see if there was a procedure set forth using FrontPage. I
couldn't find anything. Thus I concluded (hopefully not incorrectly) that I
would need to import the HTML code into Outlook so that when the e-mail is
sent and opened it would automatically download the images and links from the
web site and thus look like our web page. Am I perhaps trying to use Outlook
for something it was not intended for? What is the easiest way to do what
I'm trying to do? Do I need to enter this question in another discussion
group (and if so, which group would be appropriate)?
Thank you so much for your help!
 
There are a number of ways to incorporate a web page into an email message.
Stationery is the easiest for most people. See
http://www.slipstick.com/mail1/html.htm

In FrontPage, you may want to use the Tools | Page Options dialog, Authoring
tab, to restrict the features you use in creating the page to those that
work with the lowest version browsers, with no FrontPage or SharePoint
technologies and no ActiveX controls, scripting, or frames. Even then,
you'll probably need to edit the raw HTML that FrontPage produces, which
tends to be somewhat verbose. I don't think you should be even considering
this task without an understanding of basic HTML.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
 
Thanks so much for your help! The www.slipstick.com link is extremely
helpful. It's exactly the kind of detailed information I have been searching
for. I will take your advice and familiarize myself with basic HTML coding
before undertaking this project. Again, thank you.
 
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