I'm working on a last-minute email for a client and they've asked for it to be created without any DIV tags. I usually use a simple template editor and have a basic understanding of HTML, but I'm not sure I can do this in the short time I have. Does anyone know of a mobile-friendly email template that doesn't use DIV tags? Any help would be appreciated!
4 Answers
Just so you know, you can use other block-level elements in place of DIVs—just adjust the CSS accordingly. This could work as a quick workaround for you.
You can absolutely start with HTML tables instead! They can be made responsive with a little effort. Once you cover non-Microsoft email clients, you can add in all the necessary hacks to make it compatible with Outlook and others. A site like SitePoint has some great resources to guide you through this.
How comfortable are you with writing HTML from scratch? It's definitely doable using tables, which is how emails were traditionally done. Modern techniques often use nested tables and some DIVs for easier design. If you understand the basics, you might find tools like ChatGPT or Claude helpful for the coding part!
You might want to check out MJML. It's a markup language that helps you design responsive emails and though it generates HTML with DIVs, it's super user-friendly. Writing everything manually nowadays can be a real headache, especially if you need consistency across different email clients.
Yeah, MJML does a good job, but just note that it does use DIV elements in the final output.
True, MJML is better for handling responsive designs without too much hassle!
I ended up going with DIV tags because of the tight deadline. I don’t have much experience coding emails from scratch, just mainly maintain things. I used to do web pages when mobile compatibility wasn't a concern.