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Send raw HTML messages from Mail.app Apps

Those of us who have tried to email HTML for display in a recipient's email client know how futile the effort is. Generally, only custom or specialized apps can modify the MIME headers of outgoing messages in the precise way to make the body of the email the HTML source code, rather than just contents to be reformatted into HTML colors, sizes and entities. Now most people use MailPictures (referenced in a previous hint, but that download link is no longer valid) to add X-Faces and custom photos to their emails within Mail.app, but there is also a (new and slightly obscured) feature that allows you to send raw HTML emails -- gloriously welcome for those who need to test or send out such HTML newsletters for themselves.

Here's what to do:

  1. Install MailPictures 2.4
  2. Open the MailPictures settings under Mail -> Preferences -> MailPictures (this may be offscreen under the » toolbar icon)
  3. Check "Enable MailPictures" and select the Advanced tab
  4. Check "Show Options in Compose Window"

Next time you create a new mail message, you will see three checkboxes: Add Mailpicture, Add X-Face, and -- taadaa! -- Message is raw HTML. Enjoy!

[robg adds: Yes, I know we'll see some comments on the evils of HTML-encoded email, but if you have a legitimate need for HTML coded email, it's been quite difficult to do in Mail.app until now...]
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Send raw HTML messages from Mail.app | 20 comments | Create New Account
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Send raw HTML messages from Mail.app
Authored by: clabough on Sep 05, '03 02:33:31PM

I had to do the manual install for this to work



[ Reply to This | # ]
Send raw HTML messages from Mail.app
Authored by: david-bo on Sep 05, '03 02:49:59PM

Please don't send html-mails. Refer to a webpage instead.

---
http://www.google.com/search?as_q=%22Authored+by%3A+david-bo%22&num=10&hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&btnG=



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Send raw HTML messages from Mail.app
Authored by: bluehz on Sep 05, '03 05:51:59PM

Very cool!

Anyone know a way to alter mail pictures to default to NOT sending Mailpicture and XFace.. they seem to be set by default in ever message. Would prefer to turn them "on" on per msg basis that having to run them "off" for every message.



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Send raw HTML messages from Mail.app
Authored by: Bipp on Sep 07, '03 01:14:20AM

As long as I am able to remove (toggle to show-hide, maybe) X-Face and/or Mailpicture options from the pane, and have "Raw HTML" only available, I'll start liking it. Otherwise, I am sticking to Sendmail.



[ Reply to This | # ]
Send raw HTML messages from Mail.app
Authored by: samsprograms on Sep 05, '03 10:23:22PM

Great!
Now all I need to figure out how to do it stop Mail.app from wrapping the lines in the message before it sends it...



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Send raw HTML messages from Mail.app
Authored by: cwatts on Jan 11, '04 03:02:03AM

Have you figured that out? It's really rotting me out that it does this!
chris

---
sttaw rirhc



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Send raw HTML messages from Mail.app
Authored by: shiyinjia on Sep 06, '03 12:45:15AM

I followed this hint because I need to send html mail to clients and can't using Mail.app. I have tried to create an html page using Word and then dragged the file into the compose window and then sent the mail to myself. I just got an attatched file. I must be doing something wrong. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

---
jeff hargrove
photography
www.jeffhargrove.net



[ Reply to This | # ]
Send raw HTML messages from Mail.app
Authored by: Bipp on Sep 06, '03 09:34:02PM

all you need is to copy the HTML code into message pane (not the file itself!)



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Not a good idea
Authored by: nyarlathotep on Sep 06, '03 01:40:45AM

I can tell you that I would unsubscribe to *any* raw html newsletter faster then you could say "JavaScript security hole." Still, this hint has one very importent use: I can now send myself raw html email, see what they look like, and configure my .procmailrc to /dev/null them.. as opposed to just /dev/null-ing anything with html content.
Jeff



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A good idea
Authored by: julzmon on Sep 06, '03 06:41:06PM

I happen to like html emails. They look nice and presentable and much easier to read then a whole bunch of text just sitting there. I would also like to know how I go about sending html emails this way.
I have searched for ever for a way to do this. There seems to be very little documentation on this and very little applications that can do this.

thanks



[ Reply to This | # ]
Send raw HTML messages from Mail.app
Authored by: julzmon on Sep 06, '03 06:42:07PM

I happen to like html emails. They look nice and presentable and much easier to read then a whole bunch of text just sitting there. I would also like to know how I go about sending html emails this way.
I have searched for ever for a way to do this. There seems to be very little documentation on this and very little applications that can do this.



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Send raw HTML messages from Mail.app
Authored by: Bipp on Sep 06, '03 09:55:03PM
I use sendmail, so my instructions are to be viewed with that in mind. in order to send an HTML Mail, one need to add affitional header information - Content-Type: text/html - before the message content (HTML code). Also, there must be a space between header info and the message content. For example, I would save a file msg.html (extension here does not matter much, but for the sake of consistency, I use .html for all html files) with HTML code:
Content-Type: text/html

<html>
<body>
Some html mail message
</body>
</html>
Then go to terminal and type there:
sendmail -v someone@emailaddress.com < msg.html
and hit return (I like to see what happens during sendmail, so I add a flag -v which enables verbose mode)

[ Reply to This | # ]
Send raw HTML messages from Mail.app
Authored by: samsprograms on Sep 06, '03 11:54:19PM

How do I set up sendmaill so that I can send messages this way from my email address?



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Send raw HTML messages from Mail.app
Authored by: Bipp on Sep 07, '03 12:56:27AM
For the starters, try this place:

http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/mac/2002/09/10/sendmail.html

It may sound complicated, but it's really not, as long as you can survive very boring but essential details..

[ Reply to This | # ]

Sendmail Enabler
Authored by: pøbel on Sep 08, '03 07:44:27AM
Or you can download Sendmail Enabler, which provides a GUI to enabling sendmail. Dead easy!

[ Reply to This | # ]
Sendmail Enabler
Authored by: bluehz on Sep 08, '03 06:43:13PM

I have replaced my Sendmail with Postfix, which has its own Sendmail emulator - but I can not seem to get this work. Any ideas or tips?



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Send raw HTML messages from Mail.app
Authored by: samsprograms on Sep 06, '03 09:28:17PM

How do you think Apple sends their HTML newsletters?



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Bundle incompatible with Panther Mail
Authored by: Diggory on Dec 15, '03 10:14:20AM

The MailPictures bundle is incompatible with Panther's Mail. You get a message telling you this if you install it.

---
*****
monkeyfood software - http://www.monkeyfood.com



[ Reply to This | # ]
3.0 Beta for Panther
Authored by: Diggory on Dec 15, '03 10:18:52AM

Oops - didn't read the whole MailPictures page - there is a Beta for Panther.

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*****
monkeyfood software - http://www.monkeyfood.com



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Plain-text alterntive
Authored by: benison on Jan 11, '04 07:11:51PM

Now, how do you do a plain-text alternative?



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