On Sep 8, 2012, at 11:53 AM, Mary Ann Kelley wrote:

Is there a way to disable the WYSIWYG editor after install? We have it in our installation but after saving the source code in a scheduled mailing, it strips out the and tags This is a problem because often the mailings have styles in the body code that are critical to proper display of the mailing (like a background color other than white) Is there something I can comment out to remove the editor and go back to saving straight HTML without the editor?

Yeah - in your list control panel, go to:

Your List Control Panel » Options

and choose,

( ) Don't use a WYSIWYG Editor

The problem of using styles in your

http://mailchimp
blogs
com/blog/2006/01/background_imag
html

Background Images and colors in HTML Email

If you want to set a background image or color in your HTML email, you can set it in your BODY tag, where it usually goes That'll work ok for some desktop email applications, like Microsoft Outlook

But to make it work across more email applications, you need to "rig" your code so that your entire email is set inside a big TABLE WRAP Just set a big table that's 100% wide, then specify your background color and image there We recommend doing it the old-fashioned "bgcolor" or "background="" way If you prefer doing it with CSS, be sure to read the "CSS" tips below As with all images in HTML email, they need to be hosted on your server, and you need to point to them with absolute (not relative) paths

Once you've created the big TABLE WRAP with your background color or image, place your actual newsletter code inside, and you're good to go

If you're a very experienced web designer, this will no doubt make you feel dirty, and make you want to take a shower immediately afterwards But HTML email isn't as reliable as web pages are (yet) and there are way too many email apps out there that display HTML differently Until all the various email apps get a little more consistent, you're going to have to get used to "rigs" like this

CSS in HTML Email

There are all sorts of "CSS tips and tricks for HTML email " But the main thing to remember is that the and tags get stripped when HTML email is displayed in browser based applications So that means you can't link to an external CSS file from the portion of your email You'll need to use embedded or inline CSS in HTML email instead And, if you take the embedded approach, be sure to place all your code BELOW the tag Place it just above your content Feels dirty, I know But it's the only way to get CSS to work (reliably) in email

This also has some updated information, do a page search for, "Background Images"

http://mailchimp
com/resources/guides/html/mailchimp-for-designers/

I think it's fairly safe to use css for background stuff, rather than just, bgcolor="", etc