Friday, April 20, 2012

How to: Send HTML-formatted Emails with Gmail

I love Gmail. But sometimes, there's a feature that I *really* miss from desktop email applications.

Html-formatted emails is one of them. I'm not talking about bolded text or selecting my font. I want tables sometimes... and columns...

And so I was excited when I discovered a tool for designing and sending html-formatted emails with Gmail.

You can use the editor to design your email and then paste the html code to send or you can write the html manually. I used a template from Vertical Response to get started and customized it in their editor. Then, I pasted the code into the Google Docs sheet tool and sent.

It worked exactly as I expected! I used it to transform a bland text email to new users into a more professional welcome email.

It turned out like this:




Potential uses:

  • Company bulletins
  • Tip emails
  • Personal newsletters (no need to buy credits and use an email service!)
  • Pretty much anything...

Here's the link to the tutorial. Give it a try!



Jenna Baze is a rather geeky girl with average social skills and an affinity for: Google Apps, Salesforce.com, Pinterest, natural light photography and finding creative ways to avoid doing dishes (which includes updating a handful of blogs).
Email: rathergeeky@gmail.com | Twitter: @RatherGeeky | Facebook: Rather Geeky Tips

10 comments:

  1. Hello Jenna! Nice post here! I've got a question, the article says:

    "I have two easy solutions for this problem. The first is HTML Mail – here you can write an HTML message and send it yourself or anyone else with a click. The tool has a simple WYSIWYG editor but you can also switch to the code view and compose messages directly with HTML markup."

    I already composed the HTML message but how could I send it to myself with a click? I can't find any button.

    Please help! :-)

    Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Juan,

      I think the HTML Mail tool has changed a bit since I used it last. Now, you can use it just for designing the email. Then I copy the HTML from it and paste it into the other tool that was linked in the tutorial. From there, you can paste the HTML in and send it.

      Here's how:
      1. Go here: https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmxApiq9b5Q9dGpyNy1jMjhrUk0tUkVFcmpJYlF2d2c&newcopy=true
      2. Click on the 'create a copy' link
      3. Follow the instructions that appear on the Google Spreadsheet to authorize it
      4. Click on Gmail -> HTML Mail in the menu
      5. Paste the html and send it to yourself.

      Here's a tutorial to show you what to do after you've sent it to yourself: http://jbaze.clarify-it.com/d/hr647r. I often turn them into a Canned Response template that I can customize so that I don't have to start from scratch each time.

      I also save all of my raw HTML in Evernote for future 'recycling'.

      Let me know if there is anything else I can help with!

      And thanks for reaching out on Twitter. I hadn't received a notification of this comment yet.

      Delete
    2. Thank you! I forgot how to do this it really helped me out in creating a Thank you email for my clients. =)

      Delete
  2. My concern with this is that it asks for permission to view email and Google spreadsheets...is this safe??

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, it has to know your email so it can send the HTML formatted email to you. And it needs access to Google spreadsheets so it can create the spreadsheet.

      I haven't had any odd looking issues resulting from this. But, it's really up to you.

      Delete
  3. Never use your personal email id on internet and if you really want this then make fake email id and you will receive all emails on your real email ID. Just use this. 
    get anonymous email

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. @David, that's a good idea for those that are very concerned about online privacy. Thanks. (Although... you're really just giving your real email to another service... one that doesn't charge. And you know what they say about free software (eg: Facebook)..... if you're not paying for it, you're the product.)

      Delete
  4. I've made a chrome extension to help do this in a much simpler fashion. It overlays an HTML code editor on top of Gmail and injects your HTML email directly into the gmail compose window. You can even save your snippets and reuse them as you'd like!

    Give it a shot here: Google Chrome Web Store - HTML Gmail Plugin

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey Trever,

      I tried your HTML Inserter for Gmail extension for Chrome but it seems that it doesn't work.
      No HTML can be inserted into my mail drafts. In other words: no snippet is ever displayed in my mails.... I use the nevest Chrome version (32.0.1700.107).
      Is your plugin still supported??

      Thanks for your reply.
      Manuel

      Delete
    2. Hi Manuel,

      I recommend that you contact Trever on his website (which I found via the Chrome Extension). He probably won't get a notification of your reply here.

      Here's his website: https://engageinbox.com/

      Delete