Sherrylee asks up about Outlook 2007
I just recently switched to using Outlook 2007 for my email and just realized that my smileycons won't show the animation in my emails. Is there a way to fix this?

Our answer
Microsoft seems bound and determined that users of Outlook 2007 and newer will be forced to use MS Word as editor for all HTML emails. While MS Word has been the standard for word processing for many years, it writes non-standard HTML code, it doesn't allow for any animations, and it has many other non-changeable restrictions too. Word might be a great word processor, but no one would who is serious about building HTML web page would ever consider using Word to create Web pages.

What do HTML web pages have to do with email? Quite a lot actually. Outlook Express, Windows Mail and most other HTML-capable email programs, write somewhat standard HTML. This means that HTML email is very much like a web page that you send in email. In fact, if you look at this newsletter online and you look at it in your email program, it looks almost identical, that's because it is.

Prior to Outlook 2007, Outlook user had a choice between using MS Word as editor for HTML emails or not. Beginning with Outlook 2007, Microsoft decided to take away the user's option - meaning that Outlook 2007 and newer versions of Outlook are actually downgrades from previous versions. When you take away useful features like giving users a choice between sending email in non-standard (Word) HTML or standard HTML (non-Word) you're downgrading. What other programs can you name that offer newer versions that remove some of the best features? None. Most upgrades offer new features along with the best of the old features - not Microsoft.

Despite millions of complaints to Microsoft about removing this option from newer versions of Outlook, Microsoft has flatly refused to change. In a recent blog post, one of Microsoft's employees frankly stated that the option to not use MS Word as editor would not be included in the next version of Outlook. So, it appears that anyone who uses Outlook 2007 and beyond will have less of an email program than those who choose to stick with their older versions.

So, Sherrylee, our advice to you, if you want to use animations in your email, use Outlook Express, it's included with your Windows XP. You can make it your default email client by going to Control Panel, Internet Options, Email and selecting Outlook Express there. Don't forget to press Apply/OK before exiting the dialog. You can import all your email settings and messages from Outlook into Outlook Express. If you don't want to change email programs, then you won't be able to use any kind of animations in your email messages.