Copyright T. Rowe Price. All rights reserved. T. Rowe Price, Invest With Confidence and the Bighorn Sheep logo is a registered trademark of T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. HTML Overview for Communication Consultants November 2010 Internal use only Electronic Publishing
Copyright T. Rowe Price. All rights reserved. 1 HTML Overview for Communication Consultants AGENDA Introduction to HTML What is HTML? How does it differ from print? Creating and editing HTML templates Formatting Tables Images/graphics Putting the HTML into StrongMail Testing Launching a StrongMail Mailing List uploading Creating Mailing & Launch Using Word to send
Copyright T. Rowe Price. All rights reserved. 2 HTML Overview for Communication Consultants — Built on HTML HTML is the computer language that programs use to display our s. We write HTML for a wide variety of programs. HTML = Hyper Text Markup Language HTML is a language that defines things like fonts, colors, image placement, and general structure. Like a building, HTML code needs to be built from a strong foundation. Everything is interrelated and elements are added like bricks, piece by piece. An error anywhere in the HTML code may cause the entire to display incorrectly. Example: To display the banner image above, we would write the following HTML code:
Copyright T. Rowe Price. All rights reserved. 3 HTML Overview for Communication Consultants Print vs. Web: How they are structured Print — With print projects the entire product is one package. — The HTML that is contained within the spells out the ’s text, fonts, font colors, links, and general structure. Elements created outside of HTML: Photos Banners Buttons Thumbnails Logos PDFs They have to be uploaded to our server elsewhere on the web and pulled into the using code.
Copyright T. Rowe Price. All rights reserved. 4 HTML Overview for Communication Consultants Print vs. Web, how they are seen Print — With print the final product looks the same to everyone who sees it. The product will look the way the designer expects it to look. — With HTML s different factors change how we see . Platforms: Macs, PCs, mobile devices (iPhone, Droid, Blackberry) clients: Outlook 2003, 2007, Gmail, Hotmail, Thunderbird, Lotus Notes, etc… Web Browsers: Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, Chrome, etc… Electronic Publishing tests for over 30 renderings They all have their own method of displaying HTML s, which raises the challenge of coding properly to make sure the content is being viewed as consistently as possible.
Copyright T. Rowe Price. All rights reserved. 5 HTML Overview for Communication Consultants s and how they are seen Here is one of many examples of how s are translated differently between browsers. Notice the TRP logo has moved (A), the spacing between the Nav bar and content changed (B), and the link towards the bottom has changed formatting (C). GmailOutlook 2003 A C B
Copyright T. Rowe Price. All rights reserved. 6 HTML Overview for Communication Consultants StrongMail Testing tool This tool shows views of all the most popular browsers and how our templates perform in those browsers. EP makes sure to test templates in a variety of settings before mailing or releasing.
Copyright T. Rowe Price. All rights reserved. 7 HTML Overview for Communication Consultants Creating and editing HTML templates First step in the process is to look through the job jacket to make sure we have everything we need. What an EP Specialist looks for: EP Form StrongMail Form (filled out completely) Markup (It is important to make sure that you are using a PDF of an that has been created by EP. PDFs made by other departments will look different) Any necessary inserts or images that pertain to the job
Copyright T. Rowe Price. All rights reserved. 8 HTML Overview for Communication Consultants Reviewing the Markup
Copyright T. Rowe Price. All rights reserved. 9 HTML Overview for Communication Consultants Working on HTML - HTML is edited or created in a couple of different programs and compared against the markup
Copyright T. Rowe Price. All rights reserved. 10 HTML Overview for Communication Consultants Font Formatting All text gets formatted by code. Styles have to be set for every block of text. Some special characters have their own code. Code Examples Common edits and how they look in HTML code & = & Bold Italic Font = Bold Italic Font “quotations” = “quotations” ® = ®
Copyright T. Rowe Price. All rights reserved. 11 HTML Overview for Communication Consultants Working on HTML Simple changes that may seem simple require more complex solutions. For example, if the markup requests that the Time and Location below be indented and lined up we can’t just tab it over. The HTML code that creates the table looks like this: Formatted: In order to indent and line up the times and locations a table needs to be constructed to lock the content in place.
Copyright T. Rowe Price. All rights reserved. 12 HTML Overview for Communication Consultants Editing button text - Changes to the text on RWC buttons (and most other graphical elements) are done in Photoshop Photoshop is a image manipulation program. Most graphic buttons are images and not live text. A new image needs to be created in order to change the text on the button.
Copyright T. Rowe Price. All rights reserved. 13 HTML Overview for Communication Consultants Uploading the button - Every element for each project needs to be hosted on T. Rowe Price’s secure hosting server. Vignette - One of our hosting servers. Items Uploaded separate from HTML Button Banners Photos Logos PDFs
Copyright T. Rowe Price. All rights reserved. 14 HTML Overview for Communication Consultants Setting up s in StrongMail Once EP has completed production on an HTML code we use StrongMail to add the tracking tags to links and to connect the to its appropriate test and final mailing lists.
Copyright T. Rowe Price. All rights reserved. 15 HTML Overview for Communication Consultants Setting up s in StrongMail The raw HTML code created in previous steps is pasted into the StrongMail template editing window.
Copyright T. Rowe Price. All rights reserved. 16 HTML Overview for Communication Consultants Setting up s in StrongMail Tracking tags are added and named for links. This gives the ability to monitor the effectiveness of the s by tracking who is clicking on which links.
Copyright T. Rowe Price. All rights reserved. 17 HTML Overview for Communication Consultants Setting up s in StrongMail StrongMail allows us to send test versions of the to test links and verify edits have been made correctly.
Copyright T. Rowe Price. All rights reserved. 18 HTML Overview for Communication Consultants Setting up s in StrongMail QC Process Once the is created the next step in our process is to check over the code and edits made. HTML team members check each others work using a comprehensive checklist to ensure both the code and edits are done correctly.
Copyright T. Rowe Price. All rights reserved. 19 HTML Overview for Communication Consultants Launching out of StrongMail Items we look for when launching Signed off PDF of the latest proof provided by EP. Using EP’s proof is important to ensure we are using the correct version by comparing time and date stamps. StrongMail form filled out completely Final recipient list, in.csv format. This can be sent to EP in earlier rounds. We verify the name of this file against what is placed on the EP form to make sure we are using the correct file.
Copyright T. Rowe Price. All rights reserved. 20 HTML Overview for Communication Consultants Launching out of StrongMail When a final mailing list is submitted, EP checks the file name against the one listed on the SM req form. EP does not edit or alter lists in anyway.
Copyright T. Rowe Price. All rights reserved. 21 HTML Overview for Communication Consultants Launching out of StrongMail Why CSV? Accepted by StrongMail No tabs Plain text Ideally a list file contains only address and names. Other content like mailing addresses or plan name are not necessary. Why CSV? Accepted by StrongMail No tabs Plain text Ideally a list file contains only address and names. Other content like mailing addresses or plan name are not necessary. Additional tabs may contain content we don’t want. YES NO
Copyright T. Rowe Price. All rights reserved. 22 HTML Overview for Communication Consultants Launching out of StrongMail List Reporting When we upload a list into StrongMail, sometimes addresses are rejected because it has found duplicates or malformed addresses. When this happens, an will be sent to the Communications Consultant with upload results. We request approval for this from the Communications Consultant so they are aware of the final total. An example of this is below. Hello, The recipient list supplied for the above job has been uploaded to StrongMail. Of the 2,326 total recipients, 2,154 were accepted by StrongMail. The rest were rejected due to possible reasons such as duplicate, malformed, or missing addresses. At this time, EP cannot provide a list of which addresses were not accepted. Please advise if these results are OK or if you wish to submit a new list. Please respond to all attached to this .
Copyright T. Rowe Price. All rights reserved. 23 HTML Overview for Communication Consultants Launching out of StrongMail Once the mailing is set up, it is QC’d by another team member. After a mailing has launched After a mailing has launched we will send an requesting a fulfillment report. After that has been sent out, the job has been completed. QC checks: To, From Reply To information Send test mailing Verify links Scheduled time for launch Mailing failures
Copyright T. Rowe Price. All rights reserved. 24 HTML Overview for Communication Consultants Sending s Out of StrongMail vs. Microsoft Word s should NEVER be sent out of Microsoft Word. StrongMail: Word: Microsoft Word s: Adds extra, bad code May not send properly Change the appearance May be tagged as SPAM May get TRP Blacklisted Getting Blacklisted! Means TRP s will NOT be received by our recipients! The HTML for this as sent by:
Copyright T. Rowe Price. All rights reserved. 25 HTML Overview for Communication Consultants Thanks! Questions regarding StrongMail and HTML s? Please Contact the Electronic Publishing mailbox at