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Word 2007 HTML and CSS Rendering Capabilities in Outlook 2007 (Part 1 of 2)

Summary: Learn about support for the HTML and Cascading Style Sheets specification provided by Word 2007 and Outlook 2007. Word 2007 HTML and CSS Rendering Capabilities in Outlook 2007 (Part 2 of 2) provides instructions to install and use the Outlook 2007 Tool: HTML and CSS Validator. (24 printed pages)

Zeyad Rajabi, Microsoft Corporation

Erika Ehrli, Microsoft Corporation

August 2006

Applies to: 2007 Microsoft Office System, Microsoft Expression Web, Microsoft Office Word 2007, Microsoft Office Outlook 2007, Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007, Microsoft Visual Studio 2005

Download Outlook 2007 Tool: HTML and CSS Validator.

Contents

Introduction to HTML Parsing and Rendering in Outlook 2007
Supported HTML Elements, Attributes, and Cascading Style Sheet Properties
Conclusion
Additional Resources

Introduction to HTML Parsing and Rendering in Outlook 2007

Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 uses the HTML parsing and rendering engine from Microsoft Office Word 2007 to display HTML message bodies. The same HTML and cascading style sheets (CSS) support available in Word 2007 is available in Outlook 2007.

This article provides reference documentation related to supported and unsupported HTML elements, attributes, and cascading style sheets properties.

Word 2007 HTML and CSS Rendering Capabilities in Outlook 2007 (Part 2 of 2) provides detailed instructions about how to install and use the Outlook HTML and CSS Validator tool.

The Outlook HTML and CSS Validator tool helps you to validate HTML and cascading style sheets grammar using some of the most popular Web development tools, such as Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007, Microsoft Expression Web Designer 2007, Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004, and Macromedia Dreamweaver 8.

These articles and accompanying tools are provided for your use and can help you to better understand the new capabilities offered with the switch to the Word 2007 HTML parsing and rendering engine. This information can help you with the generation of e-mail newsletters or other complex HTML documents.

Supported HTML Elements, Attributes, and Cascading Style Sheet Properties

Word 2007 supports a subset of the standard HTML 4.01 specification and of the Internet Explorer 6.0 HTML specification. Word 2007 also supports a subset of the standard Cascading Stylesheet Specification, Level 1. Word 2007 uses HTML elements that support a subset of the Word 2007 cascading style sheets properties. This article categorizes the Word 2007 supported cascading style sheets properties as follows:

FULL. The subset of the standard cascading style sheet 1.0 specification fully supported by Word. Note that Word 2007 also uses HTML elements that support a subset of the Word 2007 cascading style sheets properties.

COREEXTENDED. Two HTML elements that support a subset of the cascading style sheets properties are called out: DIV and P. DIV and P support a subset of Word 2007–supported cascading style sheet and are defined in this article by the term COREEXTENDED.

CORE. SPAN supports a smaller subset of Word 2007–supported cascading style sheets, defined by the term CORE.

Note:
For more information about the supported cascading style sheets property values in Word 2007, download and review the Outlook 2007 Tool: HTML and CSS Validator.

Word 2007 HTML Specification

The following table provides a list of the supported HTML elements in Word 2007. Also included in the table is the cascading style sheets support for the specified element. For a complete list of cascading style sheets properties that Word 2007 supports, see the Word 2007 CSS Specification.

Table 1. Word 2007 HTML elements, attributes, and associated cascading style sheet style support

HTML Element	Attribute	Cascading Style Sheet Style Support Level
a	class href hreflang id name rel rev target shape style type urn	FULL
abbr	class dir id lang style	FULL
acronym	class dir id lang style	FULL
address	class dir disabled id lang style	FULL
area	class coords href id nohref shape style target	FULL
b	class dir id lang style	FULL
base	class href id target	FULL
basefont	class color face id size style	FULL
big	class dir id lang style	FULL
blockquote	cite class dir id lang style	FULL
body	alink background bgcolor bgproperties class id link nowrap text vlink	FULL
br	class clear id style	FULL
caption	align class id lang style valign	FULL
center	class dir id lang style	FULL
cite	class dir id lang style	FULL
code	class dir id lang style	FULL
col	align class id lang span style valign width	FULL
colgroup	align bgcolor class dir id lang span style valign width	FULL
comment	class data dir id lang style	FULL
dd	class dir id lang style	FULL
del	cite class datetime dir id lang style	FULL
dfn	class dir id lang style	FULL
dir	class dir id lang style type	FULL
div	align class dir id lang nowrap style	COREEXTENDED
dl	class compact dir id lang style	FULL
dt	class dir id lang style nowrap	FULL
em	class dir id lang style	FULL
fieldset	align class dir id lang style	FULL
font	class color dir face id lang size style	FULL
frame	allowtransparency application bordercolor class frameborder height id longdesc name src width	None
frameset	border bordercolor class cols frameborder framespacing id	None
h1	align class dir id lang style	FULL
h2	align class dir id lang style	FULL
h3	align class dir id lang style	FULL
h4	align class dir id lang style	FULL
h5	align class dir id lang style	FULL
h6	align class dir id lang style	FULL
head	dir lang	None
hr	align class color dir id lang size style width	FULL
html	dir lang	None
i	class dir id lang style	FULL
img	align alt border class dir dynsrc height hspace id ismap lang longdesc lowsrc name src style usemap vspace width	FULL
ins	cite class datetime dir id lang style	FULL
kbd	class dir id lang style	FULL
label	class dir for id lang style	FULL
legend	align class dir id lang style	FULL
li	class dir id lang style type value	FULL
link	class dir href hreflang id lang name rel rev style type	FULL
listing	class dir id lang style	FULL
map	class dir id lang name style	FULL
meta	content http-equiv id name scheme	None
nobr	class dir height id lang style	FULL
ol	class compact dir id lang style type	FULL
p	align class dir id lang style	COREEXTENDED
pre	class dir id lang style	FULL
s	class dir id lang style	FULL
samp	class dir id lang style	FULL
small	class dir id lang style	FULL
span	class dir disabled id lang style	CORE
strike	class dir id lang style	FULL
strong	class dir id lang style	FULL
style	dir lang type	None
sub	class dir id lang style	FULL
sup	class dir id lang style	FULL
table	align bgcolor border bordercolor cellpadding cellspacing class cols dir frame height id lang rules style summary width	FULL
tbody	align bgcolor ch choff class cols dir id lang style valign	FULL
td	abbr align axis bgcolor bordercolor ch choff class colspan datafld dir headers height id lang nowrap scope style width valign	FULL
textarea	class cols dir id lang name readonly rows style wrap	FULL
tfoot	bgcolor ch choff class cols dir id lang style valign	FULL
th	abbr axis bgcolor bordercolor ch choff class colspan datafld dir headers height id lang nowrap scope style width valign	FULL
thead	bgcolor ch choff class cols dir id lang style valign	FULL
tfoot	bgcolor ch choff class cols dir id lang style valign	FULL
title	class dir id lang style	FULL
tr	align bgcolor bordercolor class dir height id lang style width valign	FULL
tt	class dir id lang style	FULL
u	class dir id lang style	FULL
ul	class dir id lang style type	FULL
var	class dir id lang style	FULL
xml	class id src	None

Word 2007 Cascading Style Sheet Specification

The following section provides a list of the cascading style sheets properties that Word 2007 supports. The section organizes cascading style sheets properties into three groups: CORE, COREEXTENDED, and FULL. In Word 2007, certain HTML elements only support a subset of cascading style sheet properties.

CORE

The following cascading style sheet properties are supported:

color
font
font-family
font-style
font-variant
font-size
font-weight
text-decoration
background (only color)
background-color
text-align
vertical-align
letter-spacing
line-height
white-space
display
border
border-color
border-style
border-width
src
size
marks
page-break-before
page-break-after
page-break-inside
list-style
list-style-type
unicode-bidi
border-collapse

COREEXTENDED

All of CORE, plus the following cascading style sheet properties are supported:

text-indent
margin
margin-left
margin-right
margin-top
margin-bottom

FULL

All of CORE and COREEXTENDED, plus the following cascading style sheet properties are supported:

width
height
padding
padding-left
padding-right
padding-top
padding-bottom
border-left
border-right
border-top
border-bottom
border-left-color
border-left-width
border-left-style
border-right-color
border-right-width
border-right-style
border-top-color
border-top-width
border-top-style
border-bottom-color
border-bottom-width
border-bottom-style

Unsupported HTML Elements Compared with the HTML 4.01 Specification

The following is a list of top-level HTML elements that the HTML 4.01 specification supports, but that Word 2007 does not support. Note that Word 2007 considers unsupported HTML elements to be unknown elements.

Word 2007 does not support:

applet
bdo
button
form
iframe
input
isindex
menu
noframes
noscript
object
optgroup
option
param
q
script
select

Unsupported HTML Attributes Compared with the HTML 4.01 Specification

The following is a list of top-level HTML attributes that the HTML 4.01 specification supports, but that Word 2007 does not support. Note that Word 2007 considers unsupported HTML attributes to be unknown attributes.

Word 2007 does not support:

accept-charset
accept
accesskey
archive
background (only when there is a URL)
checked
classid
code
codecore
codetype
compact
data
declare
defer
disabled
enctype
longdesc
marginheight
marginwidth
media ( screen | print | projection | braille | speech | all )
method
multiple
noresize
object
onblur
onchange
onclick
ondblclick
onfocus
onkeydown
onkeypress
onkeyup
onload
onmousedown
onmousemove
onmouseout
onmouseover
onmouseup
onreset
onselect
onsubmit
onunload
readonly
scrolling
selected
standby
tabindex
title
valuetype

Unsupported HTML Elements and Attributes Compared with the HTML 4.01 Specification

Table 2 provides a list of all the HTML elements, along with the HTML attributes and attribute values, that Word 2007 does not support.

Table 2. Unsupported HTML elements and attributes

Element	Attribute
textarea	cols
td	colspan=0
th	colspan=0
frame	frameborder=0
td	rowspan=0
th	rowspan=0

Unsupported Cascading Style Sheet Properties Compared with Cascading Style Sheets, Level 1

The following is a list of all the top-level cascading style sheet properties that the Cascading Stylesheet Specification, Level 1 supports, but that Word 2007 does not support. Note that Word 2007 considers unsupported cascading style sheet properties to be unknown properties.

background-attachment
background-image
background-position
background-repeat
clear
display
float
list-style-image
list-style-position
text-transform
word-spacing

Unsupported Cascading Style Sheet Properties Compared with Cascading Style Sheets, Level 2.1

The following is a list of all the top-level cascading style sheet properties that the Cascading Style Sheet Specification, Level 2.1 supports, but that Word 2007 does not support. Word 2007 considers unsupported cascading style sheet properties to be unknown properties.

azimuth
background-attachment
background-image
background-position
background-repeat
border-spacing
bottom
caption-side
clear
clip
content
counter-increment
counter-reset
cue-before, cue-after, cue
cursor
display
elevation
empty-cells
float
font-size-adjust
font-stretch
left
line-break
list-style-image
list-style-position
marker-offset
max-height
max-width
min-height
min-width
orphans
outline
outline-color
outline-style
outline-width
overflow
overflow-x
overflow-y
pause-before, pause-after, pause
pitch
pitch-range
play-during
position
quotes
richness
right
speak
speak-header
speak-numeral
speak-punctuation
speech-rate
stress
table-layout
text-shadow
text-transform
top
unicode-bidi
visibility
voice-family
volume
widows
word-spacing
z-index

Other Unsupported Web-Related Features

The following is a list of all other Web-related features that Word 2007 does not support:

Animated GIF images. Only a static representation of the GIF image shows.
Flash. Only a red "X" shows in the area where the flash would display.

Conclusion

Use this article as a guide and reference when you create e-mail newsletters and other complex HTML documents, so that they render in Outlook 2007. The Outlook 2007 Tool: HTML and CSS Validator provides a way to validate HTML and cascading style sheets grammar using some of the most popular Web development tools: Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007, Microsoft Web Expressions 2007, Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004, and Macromedia Dreamweaver 8. For more information about the Outlook 2007 Tool: HTML and CSS Validator, see Word 2007 HTML and CSS Rendering Capabilities in Outlook 2007 (Part 2 of 2).

We have tried to provide you with the most up-to-date and accurate information, but this document should not be considered a comprehensive reference guide. Please report technical inaccuracies you find to the Discussions in Word Mail newsgroup.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Rob Little, Matt Scott, Terry Crowley, and Dan Costenaro for their contributions to this article.

Additional Resources

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I just used FONT tags for the first time in 8 years.

beejamin ... Thomas Lee | Edit | Show History

Thanks guys - a real trip down memory lane. Do you remember coding layouts back then? It wasn't so much fun, now was it?

Let's have a look at the options for HTML rendering: a) a web browser, b) a word processor. Hands up if you choose 'b'...

...looks like you're the only one in the room with your hand up, MS. Good job.

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Were you just not thinking?

J53 ... Thomas Lee | Edit | Show History

Was the issue security? I'm using a testing tool on my emails called Litmus. Do you know that nine times out of ten that I have to make revisions, it's due to Outlook 2007? Why? Is this your strategy? Any publicity is good publicity?

What I'd honestly like to see is some sort of article that states a few things. What it's not going to state is what Outlook/Word 2007 DOES support, and what it CAN do, but why it CAN'T seem to do something that nearly every other modern email client CAN. It's going to state why you guys decided NOT to go down the road of standards, and why you guys decided to make it extremely hard on developers/designers like myself. And then...it's going to state a solution. A patch, a REALLY BIG patch, along with an apology for not taking your stance as a leader in the technical industry seriously.

Free browsers can manage to do what MS can't, and that's get things right. And that's when I just have to ask: Were you just not thinking? Is there ANY reason at all that this had to happen like this?

BTW, I'm running Vista, and think that you guys have the potential to put out a product that EVERYONE will be pleased with (and a huge advantage over Apple with your market share). I have had minimal problems with Vista, and none of them being MS's fault. I've got to admit that the UAC is annoying, but I can deal with changing a setting or two.

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Unnecessary and problematic code limitation within the new MS Office 2007 version!

mangonzo | Edit | Show History

Dear Developers,

I have heard and read about the limitations you have implemented within office 2007.

This new code-limitations to MS Outlook will have big negative impact within the creation and publication of e-mail advert campaigns.

As you know by today most of the e-mail promotional campaigns contain various visual elements. The new unsupported HTML tags as TABLES and BACKGROUND-IMAGES are essential tools within the "already very limited" capabilities of the existing e-mail clients.

With this new changes you are:

1. stopping an important established standard and support of the Outlook e-mail client.

2. Contributing to unnessesary confussion and problems within preestablished standards.

Outlook is an important and established communication tool within different branches world wide.
In this sense cutting down its features won't make it much attractive and compatible to anyone.

Please be aware of all concequences involved within this limitations.
I therefore expressevely request to remove this limitations which are not needed.

Thanks a lot for considering this request and critic.

Kind Regards

M.G.
Switzerland

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Violation in claim...

marijn01 ... Thomas Lee | Edit | Show History

Why does this article claims that Outlook 2007 support margins, without any sidenote about margin around images?
Same goes for alignments of images. You can align images, but then you loose the surrounding style, unless you repeat it again....

Anyway, to me it's *** and impossible to automaticly produce high quality newsletters who will look good in Outlook 2007.

Why Microsoft? Why?

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Sure don't have this problem on my Mac

autostar_design | Edit | Show History

Agree. This is making me change my entire strategy in designing rich html emails for ALL of my clients. I thought I had enough trouble dealing with Internet Exploder, but now, this just makes me more frustrated to deal with Windows products.

You're stabbing yourselves in the foot here with a lot of users.

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What?????

Pensive1 | Edit | Show History

You claim to support divs, but not floats or positioning.

What is the point?

I have a wonderful HTML signature which used W3C Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional and CSS2 to recreate our company logo without using a picture. It even displays the same in both IE and firefox. Of course since Word doesnt support DIV positioning or floats it will no longer work in outlook, which we all use.

Why take such an enormous step backwards instead of fixing the HTML incompatibility in Word? You have alienated a huge number of users to please just a few. Newsflash - Most users are not interested in using Word to create email signatures, due to the enormous bloat.

Most annoyed, at this non sensical approach.

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Forward Progress?

Frustrated Developer Over Here | Edit | Show History

Please Microsoft, do not back peddle Outlook 2007. If you are going to support HTML e-mails then please do what you say you do. Don't put half the effort in and only support some HTML and CSS elements. I for one refuse to be compliant with 2007 and will not go back to being frustrated as can be with tables. I am not forced to put on my e-blasts. "Please click here if you are having problems viewing this e-mail or are using Outlook 2007."

Here is a good place page that you (Microsoft Developers) should go check out.

http://www.molly.com/2007/01/18/what-happened-with-html-and-css-in-outlook-2007/

This is not a small problem and is now affecting business that support your products. I'm really hoping that you come up with a fix for this. If not you are just pushing people into using web based e-mail. All of which support HTML and CSS in the e-mails.

PLEASE fix this problem!

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Trying to be constructive..

Ablemike ... Thomas Lee | Edit | Show History

I am really reaching deep here to try and be constructive with my criticism, I simply can't find the words. What in God's name where you guys thinking? Why is it we can come up with a quirks mode for IE but when it gets down to Outlook, a complete vacuum of solutions?

Why isn't there a quirks mode equivalent for Outlook? I am so fed up with trying to plan our projects for sub par pieces of software from Microsoft.

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What a disaster for developers

Confus3d | Edit | Show History

What were you guys (MS office suite team) thinking? how to take us back a few decades with html emails? The market need for this media is taking off and now we have all been knee capped as outlook 2007 is pretty much useless when displaying any decent content. From a browser perspective everyone is happily moving forward due to the progress and support for pure CSS websites and then in next breath you actually remove a heap of CSS support in outlook 2007!?!?!?!? We all know Word is useless for web rendering and handling html elements, but why-o-why cant you upgrade words support for CSS???? The advancement of technology is supposed to iron out the creases of the past not complicate it further by removing support for an extremely popular markup language!!!

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Biggest mistake Microsoft made in years

jordanvanbergen ... Thomas Lee | Edit | Show History

For the last 2 years I'm rebuilding every newsletter I create for customers to make sure it's shown okay in Outlook 2007. This is really the biggest mistake ever made by Microsoft. Instead of saving companies time and money this whole way of rendering HTML emails is just costing companies money. Still I want to put this comment on the web although I'm already rebuilding html newsletters for 2 years now ;-( If Microsoft isn't changing this behavior in the upcoming office I'm switching too.

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Question for fieldset tag

yasushinj | Edit | Show History

The document suggests that fieldset/legend tag is supported, but it looks it does not. We have an internal application sends out simple html email to a user, but outlook 2007 does not show fieldset/legend properly. And also table border property was completely ignored on outlook 2007.

Anyway, the symptom is that fieldset is not displayed at all and legend is displayed as text or as it is. I tried to add the simplests tag like <fieldset></fieldset> inside body tag to more expressed case like adding style="border:1" tag, but there is no change at all.

Is there any way to show <fieldset> or a way to get around this problem? By the way, does someone in Microsft developer tested before they release outlook 2007 to create this support docuement?

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One more concerned service

Dimitri Pochet | Edit | Show History

Hello, this comment to add another brick in the wall.
We face with a 30K messages/day service, similar bad email rendering, like all other community members below, do. The only solutions we have identified so far, is to either use multipart/alternative (not really ergonomic), or to simplify the email template until it also renders good in OL2007. With a complete QA cycle of course : /

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I can only say, its an relif not t

Marcus B | Edit | Show History

Hi,

When I read this that Outlook 2007 dont support the basic CSS any more, I am so relifed that I not use any microsoft products any more.
One and a half year ago I bought an Dell with Vista Ultimate and Office 2007. 3 months later I was so unsatisfied with Vista and Office 2007. Products that are almost impossible to use.

And now when I am trying writing an HTML newsletter, and read this that Outlook 2007 have the rendering engine from Microsoft Office Word 2007, why change an working system. Why can't Microsoft do any thing new that is userfriendly and that works in an common business.

Now an happy none Microsoft user

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Ridiculous!

MaxMcConnell_PromptCommunications ... Thomas Lee | Edit | Show History

I'm just adding my name to the list of disgruntled companies on this page. Leaving out GIF animation is utterly incompetent and inexcuseable. Quoting from your knowledge base (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/320314) :

<quote>
Advantages:

GIF is a widely supported Internet standard.
Lossless compression and transparency are supported.
Animated GIFs are prevalent and easy to create with many GIF animation programs.

</quote>

We look forward to the patch release coming out soon. Meanwhile we suffer the cost of re-coding *all* our subscriber email newsletter templates to be compatible with Outlook 2007, and re-drawing all our gifs.

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causing problems

GlenLipka | Edit | Show History

I have several templates created using this spec. (The spec was helpful thank you.)
http://commadot.com/the-holy-mail/
http://commadot.com/cross-client-html-email-v2/
http://commadot.com/email-best-practices/

I have noticed a very specific problem. (Blogged: http://commadot.com/outlook-to-gmail-formatting-annoyance/)
The problem is that an image used like this:
<img src="http://www.site.com/images/foo.gif">
gets rendered like this:
<img src="cid:23490234">

I don't care about the image being embedded. What freaks me out is the tag! It's creating artificial margins above all the images. This sucks. Gmail strips CSS classes so the class is useless. Even purely from Outlook-to-Outlook this gets messed up.

I need to figure out a way to make the tag constrained in height regardless of its margins. What options do I have? Could someone from Microsoft please explain why you are making my life a living ***?

Thanks, Glen Lipka

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