I just got a job with a company where I will be using HTML.

I used to know a little of it, but it's mostly escaped me at this point. I am good with computers though, and I don't foresee many problems. I just need some direction in figuring out what exactly I'll need to know.

Most of my work will involve taking paper documents (For political campaigns) and translating them into e-mail format. In other words, I have to make the e-mail look similar to what the actual paper document looks like, and I'll be using HTML to format them.

What should I be studying so I can make this happen? Any tips or links pointing me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

Help me make that money! :D

Most of my work will involve taking paper documents (For political campaigns) and translating them into e-mail format. In other words, I have to make the e-mail look similar to what the actual paper document looks like, and I'll be using HTML to format them.

Brush up on tables and inline CSS styling. Email HTML is a lot different than website HTML in terms of best practices. Here is a "best practices" article to start you off: (googled - email html best practices):

http://dennisdeacon.wordpress.com/2008/06/09/top-10-email-best-practices/

If you end up doing any HTML for a website I would recommend looking at:
XHTML
CSS
CSS Frameworks (i.e. Blueprint, 960)
Javascript
Javascript Frameworks (i.e. Jquery, etc)

Most importantly DO NOT use tables if you are working on website pages. Tables have fallen off the radar unless you need to display tabular data. Everything on a web page should be XHTML based, i.e. - DIVs.

Post any more questions you might have, web dev is what I spend most of my day working on.


Cheers,

I have a ton of books and shit you can borrow and if you ever need any questions answered gimme a call. I'm fairly adept (check out Prism's new website!)

Just scan the document and post it on imageshack. That should do more than please your superiors.

This tips free btw. :heart

Also Word has a pretty damn good "save as web page" feature that will get you most of the way there, I bet.

Also Word has a pretty damn good "save as web page" feature that will get you most of the way there, I bet.

That was the sound of your credibility flushing down the drain!

I'm assuming most of this stuff is going to be long blocks of text and a graphic at the top and some contact info at the bottom if its anything like the various political papers I've seen. Its a fairly easy way to make the formatting exactly as the word document. Its not like he's making anything complex.

The Edwards campaign used that just fine this past year. Maybe they didn't win the primary because of their use of the "save as html" feature though.

That was the sound of your credibility flushing down the drain!


LOL!


You can use one of those do it yourself online mass email services.

You can use one of those do it yourself online mass email services.

I sincerely doubt whomever Ainwein is working for would share their list of donors and the like with any outside organization. Hence them asking him to do it.

I'm assuming most of this stuff is going to be long blocks of text and a graphic at the top and some contact info at the bottom if its anything like the various political papers I've seen. Its a fairly easy way to make the formatting exactly as the word document. Its not like he's making anything complex.

The Edwards campaign used that just fine this past year. Maybe they didn't win the primary because of their use of the "save as html" feature though.

If it were that simple, it would be silly to compose it in Word. You could compose it directly in any modern email client just as fast, and skip the save as HTML step.

With all the cruft that Word adds to the markup and the cross-browser issues that its HTML has, it's suitable for granny sending out pictures of her cats maybe, but nothing serious.

I sincerely doubt whomever Ainwein is working for would share their list of donors and the like with any outside organization. Hence them asking him to do it.

Like... their ISP?

The notion of privacy on the Internet is mostly a hoax.

Also Word has a pretty damn good "save as web page" feature that will get you most of the way there, I bet.

Microsoft does NOTHING good when generating HTML from Word or Frontpage or Visual Studio, etc, etc, etc...

The HTML "like" crap that is spewed from these generators is pure, 100% garbage. As Sanchek said its good for Grandma to use to publish her photos of her 150 cats.

No professional though should even touch Microsoft generators. If I found out any of my team members were using one they would be fired on the spot.


Cheers,

Thanks for all the suggestions. I figured tables would be one of the biggest things. I'll pester Kelraz for some one on one tutoring soon. (IN A STRICTLY HETEROSEXUAL MANNER)