This article details an issue that is occurring with Higher Logic Thrive Marketing Professional (Thrive Marketing Professional) email messages when they are opened in several versions of Microsoft Outlook.
The versions of Outlook that are affected by this are:
- Outlook 2007
- Outlook 2016
- Outlook 365 (only some versions)
Description
ISSUE: Line breaks are unexpectedly appearing in Thrive Marketing Professional email messages.
These lines are caused by transparent line breaks that are inserted by Outlook when it processes your message.
These line breaks:
- are 1px in height,
- show through to the background color of the message, and
- often follow or are directly before large sections, buttons, or images.
NOTE: This issue has been occurring for some time and it has been reported to Microsoft. However, it continues to occur in Thrive Marketing Enterprise and continues to impact all users, regardless of how the message is sent.
While we do not have a way of "stopping" these line breaks from occurring, our graphics team has come up with some workarounds that will reduce the number of them that occur in your messages.
Workarounds
This section details some of the workarounds that have been found to work best.
NOTE: We cannot 100% guarantee that these fixes will work, but they have proven successful in reducing the number of line breaks in messages.
Use even numbers
- Change all font sizes in your templates and messages to even numbers. For example, if a font size is set to 13px, change it to 14px.
- If your template or message uses dividers, set their heights to even numbers.
Use Text content types
These line breaks show between content sections in messages that contain a very long section with a lot of content (e.g., a lot of text or many images).
- If you plan to use a lot of text or many images in your message, we recommend that you "break up" this information across multiple content types.
Image size
- Keep images to less than 1500px in height.
Body color
- Change the body color of your message to match the background color of your message. If Outlook adds the line breaks, they will blend with the background and be "invisible."
Create a custom Button layout
This section describes how to manage the amount of space (i.e., the "padding") around your buttons by creating a custom Button layout that is designed explicitly to prevent the line breaks form occurring.
NOTE: This process applies the padding to the Section that houses the Button layout, rather than to the Button layout.
TIP: To allow this custom Button layout to be managed in messages, make sure that Prevent Style Edits is not checked in the template's theme.
Create a custom Button layout:
- Access the Admin interface and navigate to Messages > Templates.
- Select a template and click the Edit button.
- On the Design tab, click the Build subtab, and then click Custom Layouts to expand that group.
- Click Create Custom Layout.
- In Layout Editor, click and drag a Section content block to the canvas and, with it selected, click the Style subtab on the Section Properties panel.
- Click the Padding dropdown and set the amount of padding you typically use for buttons.
-
- Our expert designers recommend a minimum padding of 10px.
- Do not uncheck any of the boxes in the padding properties.
- Click Save Layout and click the Back button on the Section Properties panel.
- Click and drag a Button placeholder to the Section that you've added.
- In the upper right, specify a Layout Name for this Button layout (required).
TIP: Consider using a name that indicates the purpose of this Button layout and distinguishes it from any standard Button layouts you might have.
- Customize the Button layout using the fields and settings on the Content and Style subtabs of the Button Properties panel.
- Click Save Layout.
The new Button layout is available in your account and when it is used in messages, the unexpected line breaks will not appear in your messages in MS Outlook.