Solved Using a Rich Text textbox for the HTML body of an email.

[gemma-the-husky]

I thought I was going off topic with @isladogs thread about the Access conference, so I have added a new one.

What I was trying to do was using an Access rich text textbox to become the HTML body of an email.

So a function that produces plaintext from a formatted text box, doesn't really help. What you really need is a way to change the rich text codes into HTML, assuming you can do it as a simple replace operation. It sounds like handling tag pairs in this way is something that a JSON expert could knock up !

I'm sure I saw a MS note saying rich text WAS HTML, but I don't think that's true, is it? Maybe it is, and the trick is to handle the body text in an email message correctly. Maybe there's a technique to correctly using either the .body or .htmlbody property of a mail object correctly. I can't find any help though.

So, can you design a rich text box with colours and formatting, text only, no images, and use the rich text box coding directly to produce a similar formatted email. Maybe it's easy, and I'm just missing the point.

Can anyone help?

 

[cheekybuddha]

I'm sure I saw a MS note saying rich text WAS HTML, but I don't think that's true, is it?

What version of Acces are you using, Dave?

Access chaged its RichText from old style tags to a subset of HTML some time after Acc2K7.

 

[Minty]

I toyed around with this for word, and couldn't make it work, although I did discover that you can cut and paste it and it works:

So could you put the text into the clipboard and then paste it in the Email?
The stored text is

<div><strong>Testing <font color=red>RED </font><font color="#2F5496">BLUE <em>italic </em></font><font
color="#538135"><em>Green </em></font></strong><font color=black>normal</font></div>

 

[gemma-the-husky]

I'm using A365 for this, so it's the latest version. Thanks for the note about the current format @cheekybuddha

So at the moment I am doing something like

mymail.body = emailtext
mymail.send
(actually mymail.save for testing)

I'll try mymail.HTMLbody, and see if that makes a difference.

Maybe I need to set the email format to comply somehow.

I have to go out now, but I will have another play around later, now you have given me some ideas.

( can't cut and paste as I have a large number of emails to send, and I am iterating a collection of personal details, each email address getting a personalised version of the same email )

 

[cheekybuddha]

mymail.body = PlainText(emailtext)
mymail.HTMLbody = emailtext   ' rich text from Access
mymail.send

 

[gemma-the-husky]

mymail.body = PlainText(emailtext)
mymail.HTMLbody = emailtext   ' rich text from Access
mymail.send

Got it!

So do I populate either mymail.HTMLBody or mymail.Body but not both, and then outlook will use whichever is in the record?

I have this code effectively ..

If Len(HTMLString > 0 Then
            MyMail.HTMLBody = HTMLString
        Else
            MyMail.body = NormalString
        End If

 

[isladogs]

Dave
Thanks for starting a separate thread. I agree it was hijacking the original!

Anyway, my example CDO email app includes HTML which may be of use
Like @Minty, I would suggest using a table for the rich text (a subclass of HTML)

CDO EMail Tester

Used to test sending HTML or plain text emails directly from Access without using Outlook. Attachments can also be added. Attachments can also be added. EMail settings can optionally be included in the email body.

www.isladogs.co.uk

 

[cheekybuddha]

So do I populate either mymail.HTMLBody or mymail.Body but not both

IIRC, I think you can do both together, so it will display OK whatever the recipient has their HTML preferences set to.

But you will have to test for yourself.

 

[gemma-the-husky]

I've got it working, but

I had incorporated a merge code in my text {recipient} and I try to replace {recipient} with the recipient name, eg "Mr Smith" within the HTML and as soon as I do that, I no longer get an HTML formatting, just a plain text email.

I even tried to make sure I replace {recipient } 40 characters long, with a string of exactly the same length, but that replace process seems to break the HTML somehow. I first tried padding the {recipient} with a standard number of space characters, but it automatically deleted all the trailing spaces. I then tried a string of periods. It reproduced the correct number of periods, but it still dropped all of the formatting. So at the moment I only seem to be able to get a plaintext email.

 

[cheekybuddha]

Perhaps paste the 'pre' and 'post' html here so we can try and identify what's wrong.

At what stage in your code do you perform the Replace() ?

 

[gemma-the-husky]

Here you go

EMailTemplate shows my email design
EmailBody is plain text
EmailBody is HTML, with a larger font bold header, and a yellow recipient.

Recipient shoes the name David Bloggs, which will actually get shown as Mr Bloggs.

EMail_HTML(1)
So, if I generate the email without trying to replace the text, I get the email formatted correctly.

EMail_HTML(1)
if I replace the recipient with the recipient name the text, I get plain text, but it still has the Re Your Order line to demonstrate that it's using the HTML version

I am using a replace code to replace {recipient} with "Mr Bloggs". Actually I am doing this within the outlook email HTMLbody. I will try doing it with the HTML text before I assign it to the email, and see if that makes a difference.

 

[gemma-the-husky]

SUCCESS

I tried that last idea. I massaged the email text before assigning it the the outlook object, and that seemed to work. I just need to test multiple emails now, to make sure they get processed correctly. Yes, all working OK now.

I have marked this solved.

 

[cheekybuddha]

Yes, I would imagine that you would want something like:

emailtext = Replace(emailtext, "{Recipient}", Me.txtTitle & " " & Me.txtSurname)
mymail.body = PlainText(emailtext)
mymail.HTMLbody = emailtext   ' rich text from Access
mymail.send

But you've got there, so whatever you did was the answer!

 

[gemma-the-husky]

Yes, that's what I was trying to do, but I was assigning the .HTMLbody first and then trying to replace the text in the .HTMLbody, which was the problem.