The problem of Lotus Notes displaying HTML newsletters has been long known. I am a Lotus Notes user myself and as evidenced by a bunch of unreadable emails in my mail box many companies prefer to ignore this compatibility issue in spite of the fact that Lotus Notes is recognized as the largest corporate messaging platform. After several conversations with Lotus Notes consultants I put together some general recommendations which may help you to avoid this problem. I hope this will diminish the amount of "broken" emails I receive....

Though there is no standard recipe we’ve put together some general recommendations which you may find helpful to deal with this Lotus Notes & HTML e-newsletters issue.

What you should know about Lotus Notes:

First thing to know about Lotus Notes clients is that they don’t receive messages in the same format they were initially sent. The Lotus Notes client is usually receiving email from a Lotus Domino server which is converting those messages before delivering them to the recipient’s mailbox db. Conversion of HTML code plus Lotus Notes client rendering are altering the appearance of the original message. The more complex the message, the more altered it gets.

Lotus Notes has known problems in correctly converting HTML tables. They get obvious especially when you create tables inside other tables. Usually the most common display error is the page being spread out of the Notes window. Next to that other display problems may occur, like text wrapping in weird ways around tables or images.

General recommendations:

- From our experience many problems can be avoided if you pay enough attention on generating 100% correct HTML code for your newsletter. The best way is to use an HTML editor to check and edit the source code.
- If possible, you should be able to test the look of your newsletter in Lotus Notes clients. It is possible to obtain a Lotus Notes client email account for quite a low monthly fee;
- Create complete Text versions for those who prefer not to receive HTML or cannot view HTML (for example, clients who are using Lotus Notes versions below R5).

I hope this guidance will help you to avoid some common Lotus Notes rendering problems. If you have any comments or questions, please don’t hesitate to post them here.