You may find you need to put a link over a image and there's no simple way to slice it. But putting an image map over it, as I found out the hard way, will not work for all email clients. I attempted to place image maps over an image of several rings piled atop each other. Each ring needed to be linked individually and slicing the image up for a table would have been a pain. I tested in entourage and outlook '03 with no problems. The email was sent out and sure enough, there were problems. Outlook '07, gmail, and others were acting very buggy. Either the image maps weren't linking, they were causing unwanted gaps, or other bugs.

Basically, image maps don't work. They may work fine in a few email clients, but if you want across the board functionality, they won't work. Another reason to avoid image maps are they don't offer very good accessibility, no alt text. If you need to use an image as a link, you'll need to figure out a clever way to slice the image and place it in properly made table.

I've recently started a new job working for a company creating html emails. They send out magazine renewal notices, event notices, advertising, etc. Designing for email is a entirely different beast than designing for web.

Designing for emails, require one to take their html and css knowledge back about 10 to 15 years. Forget about html5 or css3, think simple tables with very rudimentary inline styles. Even then be careful because that doesn't always work. Email clients such as hotmail, yahoo, gmail, and outlook all render html and css very differently. Heck, outlook 07' uses a word processor (word 07') to render html and css, this means standards and best practices is out the door. Everything you know about internet design is wrong if you're talking email.

Here is a few things I've picked up so far

• Nothing goes above the "body" tag in the html. Any thing above this is almost always striped out by all email clients
• Don't attach a style sheet. Think about it. if you get an email, are you going to download a style sheet to view it? Everything needs to be in-line css. Not to mention an unknown recipient might not trust your email enough to download a style sheet too.
• No Adobe Flash or JavaScript, stuff like this sets off spam flags in most email clients or they my not even work to began with. You don't want your email going directly into the spam box
• TEST! You thought developing for the web was pain? Email is ridiculous. Nothing works across the board, what works for one email client won't work for another. Apple based email clients offer css3 support while Microsoft outlook is using a rendering engine from 1995. I'm not an Apple fan boy, but you gotta like the support for standards that apple offers.
• K.I.S.S, keep It Simple Stupid. Words to live by. When in doubt, go as simple as possible.Simple tables (no colspans) with simple inline styles, no padding, no margins, no pseudo classes, basically design for the web as it was in 1995.
• Always label your alt tags because some email programs will not show images, also try not to put important content into an image for the same reason. You want people to be able to read your email with or without images.

I've seen hundreds of articles stating why you should stop using Internet Explorer as your web browser and use something better. The one thing they're missing is, the average person doesn't care, or even know what a browser is for that matter. This list is for the non-geek.

First let's start with, what's a browser? This is the program that let's you surf the internet. By default, if you own a Windows OS based computer, you're probably using IE (Internet Explorer). You click the little IE icon and magically the interwebs appear on screen. But what you don't realize is, you're missing a much richer experience on the web and more by using IE. Most people don't know they have choices in browsers. Here a few reasons to download a different browser and kick IE to the curb.

• 1. Microsoft Monopoly - I'll get on my soap box for a moment and say, why support a company trying to dictate how the internet is constructed and used. The internet should be open to everyone. Microsoft should not be the one to control the internet. Most people can agree monopolies are bad, so why support one of the biggest in the technology field.


• 2. Security - There are a plethora of viruses on the internet waiting to take over your computer and millions of malwares that want to steal your personal information. You can go get an anti-virus program which could protect our computer from any virus. But then you have internet explorer which acts like a gateway to all the spywares and malwares and basically makes your anti-virus software useless. IE makes infecting your computer relatively easy through two features called ActiveX and Active Scripting. These technologies were designed specifically for the purpose of giving websites more control over a your computer. But obviously, this can be bad.


• 3. Missing Out - Internet Explorer doesn't work with web standards. What this means to you is you're not getting the experience the web designer intended you to have. IE can butcher the design of a website. The way you view a site through IE could be very different on another browser. The site could not look as nice, be missing features, or not even work right. You would never know what you're missing by using IE.


• 4. Bugs! - IE is known for making your computer crash. Nothing is more frustrating than when looking at something or working on a project your computer crashes and you lose everything you were doing. Other browsers don't do this, at least as much.


• 5. Freedom - Other , better, web browsers are free! it's usually 1 or 2 clicks and you have a new improved browser. It won't cost you a penny to upgrade to something better. Other browsers out there are more secure, cleaner running, faster, and present sites the way they were intended.

I realize in some corporate situations you may not have an option. The network applications may require IE6 or the IT department may not allow you to install anything to your computer. Not much we can do there other than hope they eventually update their system for the 21st century. To those at home though, you really really really, did I mention really, should switch from Internet Explorer to something else. Don't be scared, you'll still have IE on your computer (Microsoft makes it hard to get rid of), so if you don't like enjoying a free open source web, you can go back anytime.

But you should at least download and try one of these- Firefox, Opera, or Google Chrome.

1. 1. Don't use different colors in your posts. Especially if the colors don't appear anywhere else in the design of the site. It can be distracting trying to read. If a visitor can't read the content, they're going to move on from your site.

2. 2. Don't go overboard with plugins or widgets. If you find a plugin you feel is appropriate and adds gracefully to your site it would be wise to use it. But too many, the site becomes cluttered or worse may break. Some plugins my interfere with each other or the structure of the site and cause errors.

3. 3. Do make backups of everything. You never know what could happen, so it would be wise to make copies of your database and your site. There are several tutorials on the subject or contact a professional.

4. 4. Do be careful when adding pictures. Make sure they are sized properly, not distorted, and appropriate for the context they're placed.  Make sure the picture for the chocolate chip cookies is next to where you talk about chocolate chip cookies not somewhere else way down the page. Poorly cropped, distorted photos convey the message  unprofessional. Most people do not want to send that message.

5. 5. Don't change type sizes, even if you think you are emphasizing a word. This goes back to it makes your text hard to read. Most people get what you're trying to say with out blasting it.

6. 6. DO NOT TYPE IN ALL CAPS! most people on the web now should know this is improper netiquette. But I still see it. It seems like you're yelling when you type in all uppercase, no one wants to be yelled at.

7. 7. Do be sure that if you add links, make sure they work. It's somewhat frustrating when someone adds a link and then you can't visit it.

8. 8. Do be consistent. Try to keep the posts or information you add consistent. Visitors should feel a sense of continuity as the travel through your site.

9. 9. Don't think because it works on that site, it will work on yours. Some sites have some nice features, but don't assume they'd work for you as well. Trying to add features visitors don't want could just end up driving away traffic to your site.

10. 10. Don't clutter. Yes I am sure you have a lot of  information to share. But it doesn't have to all be on the front page. If you are running an e commerce site for example. You shouldn't try to have all 150 products, your company logo, 2 banner adds, a mission statement, and an article all crammed on the homepage.  Organize your information in a manner that visitors can easily search and or navigate through.