OSX-Mail formatting Issues

[mark.roemers]

Well I am about to give up on Apple's OS-X Mail program.
In my business am I converting from Windows laptop's to MacBooks. Everybody is really happy to start using OS-X and have the benefit of the improved stability and extended battery life. So far so good.

But now we have run in to a severe problem in the compatibility of Apple Mail and Outlook. If we send emails to Outlook clients (99% of the time) our signatures end up as and separate .HTML attachment in the Outlook client. We tried everything but the main problem is that Apple Mail does not generate HTML-mail, but RTF-mail. This RTF format is compliant with the standards but Outlook uses its own RTF specs (thanks Bill!!).

So now I am forced to use Entourage (that works) but I want to get away from anything Microsoft because of the excessive price and very limited support. For a full licence I would have to pay $339 per user, just to get this compatibility issues out of the way. For 28 users that is still a lot of money (9500 $).

Does anybody have an alternative, so I do not need to make Bill richer then he already is. I looked at Mozilla email client, does not work either.

Appreciate all the help, regards Mark

 

[Middling]

Is there any particular reason you need to send emails in HTML? To me businesses that send HTML email come off as less professional than those that use plain-text.

Both Thunderbird and Mail.app handle plain-text emails (well Mail.app seems to mess up quoting when using plain-text), and a quick Google search seems to indicate that Thunderbird does HTML email.

You say Thunderbird doesn't work either; are you experiencing the same sig-as-attachment problem?

You could try Postbox, but it's a kind of improved (and very expensive) Thunderbird, so you may get the same problems. Eudora is now based on Thunderbird too and i'm not familiar with any others.

You could always try sending emails as plain-text.

 

[miles01110]

Does anybody have an alternative, so I do not need to make Bill richer then he already is. I looked at Mozilla email client, does not work either.

Are you looking for an internal-only solution, or something that will display HTML signatures as signatures (and not attachments) to anyone you send a message to? The former is possible, the latter is not.

The best solution is to abandon HTML signatures altogether.

 

[mark.roemers]

Plain text

Thanks for your thoughts!!
But I do not want to send unformatted emails in plain-text.
That is why I have the problems in the first place.
I find plain-text emails unprofessional.

Regards Mark

 

[miles01110]

But I do not want to send unformatted emails in plain-text.
That is why I have the problems in the first place.

Err... it seems you're having problems because you're trying to send HTML signatures and they're showing up as attachments. Why wouldn't sending plain text emails solve this problem? Is that less "professional" than having no signature and a random "signature.html" attachment that isn't viewed?

 

[Middling]

But I do not want to send unformatted emails in plain-text.

As i understand it your problem is with HTML signatures. Why not simply drop the separate signature completely and build it into the body of your RTF/HTML template?

 

[mark.roemers]

Plain text vs RTF

Thanks again, but I do not WANT to use HTML, but I want to send formatted email. That includes a signature with a logo. Just what I had in Outlook.

As I learned (the hard way) RTF does not work. No matter what I try RTF[Apple] vs RTF[Windows] is just not compatibel. The same email is displayed differently depending on the email client used. In Apples Mail client it looks just fine. In Outlook I get all these ugly attachments. But if I send a formatted message in HTML format Outlook does display it correctly. But Apples Mail client does not support creating HTML emails. BUMMER!!

So now I am stuck with Entourage.... That is bad enough, but the cost to upgrade all my users is excessive.

Regards Mark

 

[miles01110]

Err... it seems you're having problems because you're trying to send HTML signatures and they're showing up as attachments. Why wouldn't sending plain text emails solve this problem? Is that less "professional" than having no signature and a random "signature.html" attachment that isn't viewed?

If you change "HTML" in my post above to "RTF", the concept still remains the same.

Thanks again, but I do not WANT to use HTML, but I want to send formatted email. That includes a signature with a logo. Just what I had in Outlook.

...

So now I am stuck with Entourage.... That is bad enough, but the cost to upgrade all my users is excessive.

The cost to "upgrade" your users is zero if you use a plain text signature. As you're finding out, occasionally trade-offs are required to get what you want. It's up to you to decide whether the marginal gains for using a logo/RTF signature are worth the financial cost of new software. If I were in your position I know what I'd do.

 

[MisterMe]

Well I am about to give up on Apple's OS-X Mail program.
In my business am I converting from Windows laptop's to MacBooks. Everybody is really happy to start using OS-X and have the benefit of the improved stability and extended battery life. So far so good.

But now we have run in to a severe problem in the compatibility of Apple Mail and Outlook. ...

You're on a fool's errand. Email formatting is handled by the recipient's email client. Your recipient's email client may or may not render the message like you sent it. The only real way to guarantee this is for everyone to have the same setup. Of course, that is not going to happen. You certainly can't force your clients to all use the same setup.

Funny you should mention Entourage. Although Entourage is a [defunct] Microsoft product, it does not render email identically to Outlook. That turns out to be a good thing.

But I digress. I will repeat the recommendation made by others: use plain text email. Many of your clients will appreciate it.

 

[mark.roemers]

Thanks for your thoughts

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and input.
I am stuck up the creek without the paddle.
I just have to figure out what to do next.
It seems that the only alternative is plain-text.

In this day-and-age that seems a bit "Jurassic" if everybody is talking about HTML5 taking over from flash. Maybe Apple can do something about it, by making its clients better compatible with the rendering of Outlook emails. It does have the Exchange mail server connection (that we use), but you cannot send formatted emails. BUMMER!!

Regards Mark

 

[paulyras]

Fwiw, it drives me crazy also. I've learned to deal with it, but I still think it's rediculous that apple would create a mail app that is compatible with an exchange server, but that handles outlook so incredibly poorly.

Honestly, I'm also really surprised that everyone is so quick to defend apple. There's some things that just plain stink on any os. This, my friends is one of them.

The good news is the beta of outlook seems to have decent potential. If only the beta weren't so wonky...

 

[miles01110]

Honestly, I'm also really surprised that everyone is so quick to defend apple. There's some things that just plain stink on any os. This, my friends is one of them.

It's not just Apple. "Compatibility" between Mail clients is a myth to begin with. I promise that there are inconsistencies between every major Mail client in the way each one of them handles one little thing that annoys the crap out of you. Why doesn't Mail default to showing attachments as icons instead of displaying the entire bleeping PDF? Why does Thunderbird have a massively inefficient button layout? In the end I said heck with it. Pine rules all.

 

[mark.roemers]

Humor me

Well at least we have all found that there is a huge market for a decent and not excessively expensive email client that IS compatible with Outlook.

So there Apple there is your challenge!! But I think all resources are tied up in iPad stores and iPhone stores, because that is where the real money is made.

Well, I will just have to deal with it!!!

 

[mark.roemers]

Google hosted email solution

Well, I think I will move all my email to Google's hosted email solution.
I don't need to bother with SPAM, formatting is no issue any more.
Everybody works in the could! Pity for Apple.

 

[cjseattle]

@OP

I've been doing some research with Mac Mail signatures, and I did come across a thread where people have suggestions that may help you.

Check out this link:

http://www.fluther.com/4222/why-wont-mail-app-in-leopard-send-htmlrich-email/

On that thread, there's a bunch of heated arguing about plain text vs. HTML, but read about 10 responses down and see if some of the suggestions apply to you.

The gist of it is you might need to employ a simple hack to force Mac Mail to send in RTF/HTML, even if you've set Rich Text Format as your sending format.