(Part I) Weird Outlook issues with VML button | Community
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New Participant
September 22, 2022
Question

(Part I) Weird Outlook issues with VML button

  • September 22, 2022
  • 1 reply
  • 3368 views

Hi Community,

 

I am having issues with a VML button in Outlook. 

 

Because there are two different issues, but related to the same button, I am going to create two posts--Part I and Part II.


This is how the button should/does appear in most email clients:

This is the module/button code:

 

<tr class="mktoModule" mktoname="Module 34b | BulletProof Button" id="Module_34b" mktoaddbydefault="false"> <td align="center" valign="top" style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; padding:${section_top_space_01} 0px ${section_bottom_space_01} 0px;"> <table align="center" width="600" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="em_main_table" style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0px; mso-table-rspace: 0px; width:600px; table-layout:fixed;" bgcolor="${Mod_01_BG_Color}"> <tbody> <tr> <td width="42" style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; width:42px;" class="em_side14">&nbsp;</td> <td align="center" valign="top" class="em_defaultlink" style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; padding:10px 0px 10px 0px;"> <div id="Mod34b_button" mktoname="Button Mod 34b" class="mktoText"><!--[if mso]> <a:roundrect xmlns:a="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" href="{{lead.Brand Phone MX - Nationals CallTo}}" target="_blank" style="height:48px;v-text-anchor:middle;width:180px;" arcsize="15%" strokecolor="{{Lead.Brand Primary Color}}" fillcolor="{{Lead.Brand Primary Color}};width: 180;"> <w:anchorlock/> <center style="color:#ffffff;font-family:'Helvetica', Arial, sans-serif; font-size:16px; font-weight: 600;">Llama&nbsp;<span style="text-decoration: underline;">{{lead.Brand Phone MX - Nationals}}</span></center> </a:roundrect> <![endif]--> <a href="{{lead.Brand Phone MX - Nationals CallTo}}" target="_blank" style="display: inline-block; mso-hide: all; background-color:aquamarine; color: #ffffff; border: 1px solid aquamarine; border-radius: 8px; line-height: 48px; width: 180px; font-family: 'Helvetica', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; text-align: center; -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; text-decoration: none;">SHOP NOW</a></div> </td> <td width="42" style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; width:42px;" class="em_side14">&nbsp;</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </td> </tr>

 

 

The first problem I have been trying to resolve is that when an email containing the button is forwarded from Outlook desktop, it shows two buttons:

 

I tried resolving this by adding <!--[if !mso]><!-->  around the <a href> code as shown below:

 

<!--[if !mso]><!--> <a href="{{lead.Brand Phone MX - Nationals CallTo}}" target="_blank" style="display: inline-block; background-color:aquamarine; color: #ffffff; border: 1px solid aquamarine; border-radius: 8px; line-height: 48px; width: 180px; font-family: 'Helvetica', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; text-align: center; -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; text-decoration: none;">SHOP NOW</a> <!--<![endif]-->


But that caused the following issues to occur in Outlook for desktop and Outlook.Office.com:

 

Outlook Desktop:

 

 

Outlook.Office.com:

 

I have not been able to figure out a cause for this or a solution.

 

Any suggestions?

 

Thanks,

 

LK

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1 reply

SanfordWhiteman
New Participant
September 22, 2022

The first problem I have been trying to resolve is that when an email containing the button is forwarded from Outlook desktop, it shows two buttons:

It's simply not reasonable to expect formatting to be predictable after forwarding: part of the act of forwarding (unless forwarded as an attachment) is altering the HTML.

New Participant
September 22, 2022

That makes sense, Sanford. Thanks.

 

Can you recommend an alternative to VML buttons that might not have this same issue? The reason I wanted to switch to VMLs is that we've noticed that Outlook AND Gmail are stripping out the padding so that the button ends up looking like the below:

 

Dave_Roberts
New Participant
September 23, 2022

You might try using  style="width:200px;" in place of the padding there. I'm pretty sure Outlook only supports padding on table cells (<td>), so it's probably failing when added to the link (<a>) element.  Here's a link to a support chart for reference: https://www.caniemail.com/features/css-padding/