How to send HTML email from Apple Mail 8.2

In past versions of Safari/Apple Mail, I could send an HTML email from Apple Mail by doing the following:

Open the .html file in Safari.
Select File > Share > Email this page.
Apple Mail would open a “New Message” window with the .html file within the message body. I could then proceed to send an email as normal.

In Apple Mail 8.2 however, when sending an .html file in this way the message arrives at an inbox with no visible content, or declares there is a plug-in missing. The alternatives of sending the email as a PDF or as a “Link Only” don’t give me the result of in-message HTML content like I want.

In case anyone’s wondering, I’m aware that sending via Apple Mail is not best practice but I’m not sending this through our usual email marketing software because the client doesn’t want that service’s default footer on the email.

Is there another way to send an HTML email with this version of Apple Mail?

Cheli

Posted 2015-12-17T00:25:25.657

Reputation: 41

What version of Mac OS X are you on? I am on Mac OS X 10.10.5 (Yosemite) and using Mail 8.2 and will be posting an answer with a solution but want to make sure all bases are covered OS-wise. – JakeGould – 2015-12-17T01:54:44.560

1Good point! Unfortunately this problem occured on my co-worker's computer and they've left for the day. I'll get back to you with more info when I've been able to check. – Cheli – 2015-12-17T04:15:59.993

Do you specifically require a user-friendly GUI? A simple script would sound like a lot easier and more versatile, and give you complete control over what you are sending. The default mailx on MacOS doesn't allow you to send MIME attachments but you could install something via Homebrew, or simply hack up a simple script in Perl or Python. – tripleee – 2018-03-02T21:54:09.060

Answers

Interesting issue. I know about the capability but don’t really use it or trip across it by mistake on my system occasionally and the HTML looks to be inline and readable. That said, I recently upgraded from Mac OS X 10.9.5 (Mavericks) to to Mac OS X 10.10.5 (Yosemite) this week and just now tried what you are describing and see an issue; see screenshots below. For my test I attempted to mail this webpage to myself.

Default behavior is to send the message in “Reader” mode.

Look at the area near the top right-hand side of the screenshot where it says, “Save Web Content As” and note how the default is “Reader.”

Change the page mode to “Web Page” and things should be better.

Looks like crud. But if I switch that pull down to “Web Page” and wait a second, et voilà… All looks good!

Received message is inline HTML.

And when receiving the message, things look fine as well:

Yes, note in that second screenshot before being sent there is an “Attachment 6KB” icon near the center of the screen. And on the received message, layout looks odd compared to the original. But I know how HTML emails and web pages are not 100% one-on-one and such and this Stack Exchange template is not email friendly by default. But that is procedural. At least the page was sent as inline HTML.

JakeGould

Posted 2015-12-17T00:25:25.657

Reputation: 38 217

Yes, choosing how the html should be sent definitely makes a difference to how the email is eventually received.

I'm sorry I didn't make it clear in my original question that we are using the 'web page' option. On Apple Mail 6.6 with OS 10.8.5 it works well, but on my co-worker's computer (Apple Mail 8.2, OS unknown till I can check in person) emails are received blank, or call for a missing plug-in. – Cheli – 2015-12-17T04:20:38.803