HTML E-mail Layouts Breaking When Forwarded - Make it Survive the Word 2003 HTML Editor

Question

My boss's clients are complaining that when some HTML newsletters are forwarded, their table-based layout breaks. I have determined that this is most likely caused by using the following option in Outlook:

Tools > Options > Mail Format > Use Microsoft Office Word 2003 to edit e-mail messages

My boss refuses to change this option and is demanding that I figure out a work-around. But I'm plain stumped. The e-mail that is breaking when forwarded with this option on is at http://www.egusts.com/stratham/stanford-square/10-0826/new/

Here's what happens when the Word 2003 HTML editor is done with it. No edits, just hit "forward" with that option selected - http://www.egusts.com/stratham/stanford-square/10-0826/new/alt/

Here's an example that my boss forwarded me that makes it through just fine - http://www.egusts.com/stratham/stanford-square/10-0826/new/example.html

But I'm still really stumped. I have no clue what to do. I had thought my original template's table-html was really simple and straight-forward. What's breaking in the Word 2003 Editor? Why? Is it stripping some tags? Adding some tags that screws it up? Is there anything I can do?

I'm at my wits end! Thanks for the help

Answer 1

I figured out that, in addition to using transparent spacer GIFs, I needed to specify a "width" for each of the s that housed the spacer GIFs.

That solved most of the layout problems, although forwarding an e-mail in outlook with that option set injects a lot of other ugly code that can screw things up.