by michal frackowiak
on 20 Dec 2011 18:31
At Wikidot we used to be a bit conservative when it came to emails. For years we have been sending plain-text emails to be sure they can be read by most email clients. But the time goes by and the support for HTML emails de facto became a standard. So… why not switch?
Recently we started converting the format of our emails from plain text to HTML (with alternative plain text for older email clients) where applicable. Yesterday we introduced a new HTML layout for emails, improved wording in several cases and made things like recovering a lost password a bit easier. Email notifications about activities, various confirmation emails — they all got a new look&feel.
We tried to make the email layout simple, clean. Take a look:
Now there might be still minor formatting issues with some less popular email clients. Creating HTML emails is much more difficult than HTML webpages, mostly because there is no clear standard. Actually there is only a set of guidelines that makes your email render properly in most clients, but most of them have their own quirks. And this is including GMail too!
Tell us what you think. If Wikidot emails do not render properly in your email client (and this includes the mobile clients) — let us know too! Thanks!
I noticed the new look this morning. Notifications are looking fine for me in Gmail. I like them. Haven't seen any problems.
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I saw this when showing a new user how to create their account. It looks so much better than the old plain text email. Well done.
Rob Elliott - Strathpeffer, Scotland - Wikidot first line support & community admin team.
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I like it too, although it's a bit too wide when viewing on my Android GMail client. Pinch zooming in and out is not supported in the GMail client and the body of the email exceeds the width of my phone in landscape mode. I can easily live with this, so unless others are annoyed by it, don't change it on my account.
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Works great for me and looks sleek and professional. Definitely like the simplistic look that you were aiming for.
Very well done.
If I have a chance to test on my Android phone like Ed, I'll post details here. But for the most part I usually deal with e-mails using a computer.
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The new emails look great. Job well done. One thing that I would like to see added is the actual page name; the title is not always enough to identify the specific page the email is relating to.
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Only the top heaer with the Links to facebook , twitter and wikidot is a little bit strange (high) on my phone. and the Links (images ?) are not viewable ( and useable! )…
The bottom link line is better! without images ?
Could be this is my phone setup not to show images in mails…
But the Mail content is shown even on portrait ( landscape is ok too) all in one window on the little smartphone screen.
On my PC's at home or laptops all is fine..!
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Thanks for the feedback! We will be looking into the stuff you mentioned: width, images and top bar. I am glad you like the change, this was long overdue :-)
Michał Frąckowiak @ Wikidot Inc.
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since the email it self is html now, shouldn't you parse the wikidot code into html instead of still just sending the wiki code?
I detest those emails that make my eyes bleed. My eyes thank you for making it simple :)
It would be nice if we can customize it to our sites. With the wikidot branding all over it kind of downgrades our sites a bit. Slightly better than regular text tho.
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