How to Use an HTML Email Newsletter in Outlook

Microsoft Outlook is an all-purpose emailing solution even for businesses who want to send a mass newsletter email. Microsoft Outlook allows users to send email in plain text or HTML format. The HTML format is what gives users the capabilities of sending images and styled fonts in email. Users can also embed links into the email for business website marketing and sales. Sending a newsletter in Microsoft Outlook requires a few settings in the software to enable HTML in email documents.

Instructions

1. Open your favorite HTML editor. This can be any editor including Dreamweaver, Microsoft Visual Studio or Frontpage. Create the newsletter content. Once you've created the newsletter, save it to your desktop with the ".htm" extension.

2. Locate the newsletter file on your desktop and double-click it. This will automatically open the newsletter in your default browser. Highlight all the content in the browser window and pres "Ctrl+C" to copy the content including the HTML code and layout.

3. Open Microsoft Outlook. In the main menu bar, click the "File" menu option. From the list of menu items, select "Options." This opens a configuration dialog box. Click the "Mail Format" tab.

4. Scroll down to the section labeled "Compose in this message format." Select "HTML" from the list of email formats and then click the "OK" button to save the settings.

5. Click the "New" button on your Outlook main menu bar. This opens up a new email window that is now defaulted to the HTML format. Press "Ctrl+V" to paste the copied HTML newsletter into the new email window. You may need to format the newsletter to fit any spacing issues within the window.

6. Select the list of recipients. Enter a subject for the email. Click the "Send" button, and the HTML email is sent.

Tips & Warnings

• You can send the HTML email to yourself to test how the newsletter will display for the recipient.

References

• Microsoft