Things You'll Need:
- HTML text editor
- Digital image (optional)
- Web host or image hosting provider (optional)
- Email application
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Step 1
Launch your HTML text editor and create a new file.
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Step 2
Create a table to contain your email message. If you have an advanced text editor like Dreamweaver or Microsoft Expression Web, you can automatically create this table and specify the desired number of rows and columns by clicking this option under a menu item like "Insert." Check your editor's "Help" file if you are unsure of how to do this. Otherwise, you can build a simple one-column, one-row table by entering the following HTML table code:
<table>
<tr>
<td></td>
</tr>
</table> -
Step 3
Add a background color to your table, if desired, by typing in the "bgcolor=" code within the opening "<table>" tag and then enter the name of the shade, such as "blue," that you want. Further, you can choose specific hues by using a six-digit code (hexadecimal) and then precede this with a number sign. Use your text editor's "color picker" tool to obtain these codes, or access an Internet resource (see Resources). To illustrate:
<table bgcolor="#666699"> -
Step 4
Type your message content between the "<td></td>" table data tags. For example:
<td>This is a sample HTML email message.</td> -
Step 5
Insert a digital image, if preferred, by entering the image source code, which indicates where this picture can be found. If you have your own Web host, place your image in the same folder or directory that you keep your other Web files and make a note of the location (for example, "http://www.yourdomain.com/image.jpg"). Alternately, if you have an image hosting account, such as Flickr or Photobucket, you can access your picture and get the image link from your page, which is typically found under a "share" option. Enter the "<img src=" code before or after your text. For instance:
<td><img src="http://www.yourdomain.com/image.jpg" /> This is a sample email message.</td> -
Step 6
Save your HTML file and place it on your Web host if you have any images included in the message. If your email simply contains the text and background colors, you do not need to do this.
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Step 7
Launch your email application and create a new message. For most applications, you can use your HTML email by clicking "Insert" and then select your file. If using Mac OS X Mail, bring up your Safari browser, locate your HTML file and simultaneously press the "Command" and "I" buttons on your keyboard.
