Since they control the source information, in the case of outlook-to-outlook, they can (and may already) decorate the message with a creator header, in which case that is their queue to use Word as the renderer.

In all other cases, why not just use IE, Webkit or Gecko, anything other than word !!!

After all, lets face it, its rubbish at displaying standards compliant HTML (full or subset)

Companies Such as Verticle Response have problems with outlook too, it’s one total shitter of a product.

There’s no real reason to support fonts. If the e-mail client has a nice default font, then using strong, em, and so on – the meaning can be conveyed.

Can’t really get rid of links, people need those – boy would it be nice if we could. Attachments are necessary – but inline images probably aren’t.

Inline images attract people to style their emails for marketing purposes, but people sharing photos can (and usually do) send them as attachments. Images are already restricted because they cause a visit to a particular URL, which can be identified for tracking purposes. I would like to see images removed from the “HTML Email Specification” – which apparently needs defining.

*wonders if the W3C already defined it, but can’t be bothered to look*

And I think I can even relate to that reasoning, apart from the fact it seriously screw us web developers over of course.

Still, I’m hoping for some kind of acknowledgement or commitment to resolving what is going to be a huge problem going forward, at least for Outlook users not restricted to intranet communication. Transparency about supporting standard features is good PR. Showing good judgement and leadership is good PR. I guess what we need is good PR.

We’d all probably be happier if Microsoft would publicly agree that email needs to be standardized even in it’s current state and at least explain that they can’t do it now, but will.

The “rich experience” spin offered does a better job of saying “please use someone else’s products” since they are doing a better job with web standards.

And I will. I’m a web professional, but I also oversee several networks that use Microsoft products. I’ve always tried to be platform agnostic as an admin, but my recommendations to my superiors are less and less favorable to Microsoft products due to their higher support costs and the simple fact that we don’t use 85% of the features we pay for. Office isn’t the only game in town and hasn’t been for years. We’re talking small companies here, so take this as in that context only.

Email as a standard is as mess as senders can be spoofed so easily and has no security hooks at all. Improving it in any way is long overdue. I’m not a fan of HTML formatted emails, but we use them for more than annoying marketing for things like invitations, sharing photos (inline viewing), etc.