HTML email

Can anyone provide some insight on adding html to email? I've never done this before. Is it just a matter of adding the html code to the message? I see there are a lot of programs out there to do it for you. Are they generally for those non-html versed users, or is there something "behind the scenes" that is more complex than html?

Also, what are the usability issues with doing this? Do some email recipients choose to not accept html emails?

One of the possible uses I would like is for a submitted product inquiry form to include a html tag that displays the product being inquired about. That way, when my customer service people respond to the inquiry, the customer would see an image of the product and a link so as to refresh their memory and to make ordering easier. I think having the customer see the product again would be beneficial to sales. However, if there is a chance of them not receiving the email, I'm not sure it is worth it. Any thoughts on that as well?

Thanks!

Are you looking to dynamically alter an html email per user sent? Or you just want to send out an email in HTML format? If it is the latter, you can specify the mail format to be html in say, ms outlook. At which point all email messages you compose will be sent out in html. If it's the prior, there is a bit more involved than can be put in a single post, check out asp email or something similar, it might get you started.

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