Here are a list of common email display issues and tips to help ensure your emails look their best.
As per our support policy related to troubleshooting email display related issues please read through this page before contacting support.
The most common display issue: overly long emails
By far the most common reason for email layouts to break is when emails are treated as web pages.
Designing emails is far more restrictive than designing web pages. Most web browsers can display complex layouts consistently while email apps impose many restrictions and there is a large variance in how the same email is displayed in different email clients.
The Envoke email editor can create great looking messages with multi-column layout, embedded videos and images, buttons, dividers and fully customizable text formatting.
However, adding too much content, attempting to create complex layouts, including a table of contents or a navigation inside emails should be avoided. Long and overly complex emails can not only be cut off by email clients the additional content often doesn't translate into better engagement (more clicks) and production time, including testing and troubleshooting can become significant.
Outlook specific display issues
Outlook is a finicky email client when it comes to displaying email layouts. There are many versions widely in use with several known glitches and limitations. Read about email display issues specific to Outlook.
Images aren't shown automatically and need to be manually downloaded
This is a user setting and not something you have control over from your Envoke account. See related article from Outlook.
Depending on the level of control your email app provides, it may be possible to update this setting across the board for all your users to turn on image downloads by default.
Text doesn't wrap around images as intended or images look squished
This article explains how images work in emails including the differences between in-line images and dedicated image blocks and answers common questions about image formatting.
Font sizes, colours and line height don't show up as intended
Read FAQs related to text formatting, font and line heights.
Forwarded emails
Emails can look different when they are forwarded and we have no control over changes made during a forward by various email platforms as the forward is not sent from Envoke. You should test your email as a direct send from Envoke versus a forward. We don't support email display issues that originate from a forward.
Parts of the email look too wide
This is often because there is a long link in the email that forces parts of the message too wide. Here's how to fix this.
Emails look different on mobile devices compared to desktop view
Mobile display is automatically adjusted to create the best possible mobile view experience for your audience. Find out what changes in mobile view.
Email content is cut off
Long emails are truncated by some email clients. Read more.
Images are too large or too small on mobile devices
Images wider than 300px are auto-adjusted for optimal display on desktop and web based email clients as well as mobile devices. Small images, however, on mobile screens may need adjustments. See this article for details.
Address and phone numbers are linked and change colour
Some email programs add links and/or display notices in emails or even change content that aren't part of the original email. They do this to augment the user experience and provide added security. Read more.
The entire email layout is misaligned
General layout issues can arise when the email inbox is zoomed. Please reset the zoom level to 100%.
Anchor links don't work
Anchor links (for example in a table of contents) are not universally supported in every email program. Read more.
Tables in emails
Inserting tables into emails should be avoided as display across various email clients is inconsistent. Tables also don't convert well to mobile view, resulting in poor user experience and emails with tables in it may have horizontal scrolling due to tables pushing content too wide on small screens. There is no setting or workaround to mitigate this issue.
For these reasons we don't support table related display issues or editing table properties in emails. The option to add tables is provided on an as-is basis. As an alternative to tables you can use two or three column sections or upload and link to a PDF file that contains the table. Using a screenshot of tables is not recommended because screenshot images can be blurry or small when viewed on mobile devices.
Custom HTML code
Customizing the HTML code of emails is possible by technical/developer users but if you decide to go down this path please remember that you are responsible to ensure compatibility / display across different platforms. Messages where the HTML code is modified are not supported by Envoke. Read more about using custom HTML in emails.