If (heaven forbid!) I was to use MS Word to create my emails, I would expect a much greater degreee of inconsistency between Firefox, IE etc. and the various mail clients. But that’s down to the mangled code Word produces – browsers and email clients find it very difficult to parse, and won’t be able to do so consistently.

I try to keep my code very clean (one of the things I really like about the broadcast email service I use is the tidy HTML their editor produces) and don’t experience too many difficulties with how it renders in various clients and browsers.

Another reason HTML renders differently in different browsers is down to variation in the default settings for CSS. For example, unless instructed otherwise Firefox adds top and bottom margins to a page element, where IE only adds a bottom margin (which could explain why your text doesn’t quite line up with your picture).

To get around that you need to set all the CSS parameters yourself – by setting them, you override the defaults of the browser or email client and get more control over how the page renders.

There’s a good post on that here:
http://www.search-this.com/2007/03/12/no-margin-for-error/

I must say, I’m surprised that Firefox removes your cell padding – that sort of thing really should remain present.

This is a great article. I didn’t even realize these services existed, and your review points me to the right player. Thanks.