Note: This FAQ is irrelevant now that GMail has native support for HTML formatted messages.

Quick answer is yes. Does GMail support it? No. There are some workarounds to add this functionality to your account, but as new code at Google is pushed out it could break this example.

The HTML include code was originally posted here: »blogger.xs4all.nl/zanstra/archiv···tml.aspx

Step 1
Right click on one of the three bookmarklets here and save it as a bookmark. (We'll be using the gmail-html-select in the examples below, but any will work).

Here's the source code for the curious (or if the link dies):

javascript:function H(w){var s,i,c,h,f=w.document.forms;for(i=0;i<f.length;i++){if(h=f[i].
 *ishtml){s=document.createElement('span');s.innerHTML='<b>Body style:</b> <select name="i
 *sh
 *tml" style="width:15mm"><option value="0" >text</option><option value="1" selected>html<
 */o></select>';h.parentNode.replaceChild(s,h);}}for(i=0;i<w.frames.length;i++){H(w.frame
 *s[i]);}}try{H(window);}catch(e){alert('error:'+e)}void 0;
 
(*) WARNING 1 long line(s) split
 
(*) WARNING 2 long line(s) split
 

Step 2
Login to GMail, select Compose Message and insert the HTML code you'd like to send. Remember GMail is a WYSIWYG editor, so you'll need some simple HTML knowledge to do it. In this example, we're going to add the GMail logo as an inline image when we send messages.



Step 3
Click on the bookmark you just saved and you should have a new drop-down box just below the attachment line:



Select HTML and send your message off. If the recipient is another GMail account and you've included any HTML embedded images, you'll get the usual warning about external images not being displayed:



Just click on the Display external images link and viola! There's our embedded graphic:



If you know HTML, there's not a lot you can't do (well, until GMail changes their code to prevent it). One more example:



And the results from that:



There are rumors circulating around the newsgroups that HTML support is supposed to be added sometime soon, but until then, here's your workaround.

Enjoy!

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last modified: 2006-05-10 00:05:35