Outlook Stationery
One of the really cool features of Outlook 2000 and Outlook Express is the ability to use stationery files. Using these, you can send emails with fancy graphics backgrounds, sound and special fonts.
Some people don't like email stationery for various reasons. Personally, I think the internet should be fun and is meant to be used, and email stationery is, in my humble opinion, an excellent way to send nice looking and sounding communications to friends and family. I know that my wife loves to get nicely formatted emails. (Note: Do not post stationery or HTML format emails to newsgroups or elists - this is very bad form).
What is stationery?
A stationery file is simply an HTML document. All of the elements of the stationery are stored in a common folder location which is not changeable. This is:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Shared\Stationery\
Both Outlook 2000 (and earlier versions of Outlook) and Outlook Express read their stationery from this directory. See "Changing Location Of Outlook Stationary" to change this location.
Typically stationery will be distributed in a ZIP file or an EXE file. Personally, I prefer ZIP files as they are generally safer (as related to viruses) than EXE files. I would recommend being very cautious about downloading any EXE files from any unknown sources, even if they contain wonderful stationery. You just never know where a virus will spring up.
The ZIP file (or EXE) will generally contain all of the elements needed by the stationery, including the graphics and sound files. Note that it is very bad form to create a stationery file which has external graphics or sound as this means it MUST be read while on-line.
You simply download the ZIP file and extracted all of the files contained within into the stationery directory (shown above). An EXE file will automatically extract the elements into the proper directory.
Creating email using stationery
To create an email using stationery, you must be using Outlook 2000, or Outlook Express. In Outlook 2000, choose the "Actions" menu and select "New Mail Message Using". This will give you a list of some stationery and a selection called "More Stationery". Choose the stationery file that you want to use. In Outlook 98 or Outlook Express, use the "Tools" menu and selection "Stationery".
What It All Looks Like
Your typical stationery will contain one HTML document, one or two graphics elements (although the number is not limited), and perhaps a sound file. The sound file will generally be a background sound and will play automatically when the email is displayed.
Suppose we send the following sample stationery (one simple graphic, no sound and a font).
This is the result of the following stationery file.
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<STYLE>
body {background-attachment:fixed;
background-color: #e5dbf8;
Background-repeat:repeat-y;
color: #000000;
Font: 11pt "Arial Bold";
MARGIN-LEFT: 8em;
MARGIN-TOP: 1; }
</Style>
</head>
<BODY background="3wolves.gif">
<DIV> </DIV>
</BODY>
</HTML>
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As you can see, this is a very simple HTML file. The most complex element is the style references, which set the font color, size and face, as well as the background color and margins.
When an email is created using stationery, Outlook or Outlook Express inserts whatever message is added into the HTML, packages it all into a single email (with attachments) and sends it off to the recipient.
For example, if the sample stationery shown above was sent, it would result in the following code.
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<STYLE>BODY {
BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: fixed; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #e5dbf8;
BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat-y; COLOR: #000000; FONT: 11pt
"Arial Bold"; MARGIN-LEFT: 8em; MARGIN-TOP: 1px
}
</STYLE>
<META content="MSHTML 5.00.3017.1000" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY background=cid:650054816@01062000-03b7>
<DIV><FONT face='"Arial Bold"' size=3><SPAN class=650054816-01062000>
Hello. This is a test.</SPAN></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>
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When this email is viewed, the elements (graphics and sound) are extracted into a temporary directory. The HTML file is then viewed using the web browser interface of the email client.
Creating Stationery
The only tool many people use to create stationery is the Notepad program. There is nothing complex about stationery files. You can, if you want, simply print out the sources for a few of them, then use that as a guide to create your own. Find some graphics, perhaps a sound file, and use Notepad to create the HTML code.
You can also use editors such as Frontpage, Dreamweaver or any other HTML tool. The thing to remember with these tools is the graphics, sound and any other elements included with the HTML file should be contained in the same folder as the HTML file.
Security Note
Security note: Since HTML email is displayed using your browser (typically Internet Explorer), any security vulnerabilities of your browser are also true for the email you read. For this reason it is very important to keep your system up to the highest revision, including security hotfixes (special emergency modifications released by Microsoft to fix severe problems). Also check "disable the setting "Script ActiveX controls marked safe for scripting" for information on how to correct a major security vulnerability.