Follow-Blog Widget not behaving properly
-
I am having a problem with the follow-blog widget. It is sending out emails that are several thousand pixils too wide, with the actual content centered in this too-wide frame, such that a person has to scroll to the right for quite a while before they see the content. The content table itself appears to be correct – right width, etc. – it’s just centered in an email body that’s way too wide. When you open the email, it appears to be blank.
Any ideas?
Blog url: http://pony1952.wordpress.com/ -
Are you referring to the subscription emails that are sent out when you publish a new post?
If so, can you let me know what email client and web browser you’re using to view these emails? Could you also send a screenshot of how it appears for you?
-
Yes, I’m referring to the subscription emails. It’s called the “follow blog” widget. As far as I can see, there are only a few settings, none of which have anything to do with the layout of the emails. So I don’t think this had anything to do with anything I may have done.
The email client I use is Outlook. Several of my subscribers have commented that they have the same problem, thought I don’t know which clients they use.
If I view the email in Web-browser-based Hotmail, using Internet Explorer, it also displays with a body background that is several thousand pixils wide, though the content column is not centered, instead aligned left, so you don’t have to scroll right to see it. Although if you do scroll right, you see the same grey background stretching way over.
Viewing the email in Hotmail using the Chrome Web browser, the background is not too wide, and it basically displays normally, except it seems to perturb some of the Hotmail elements on the screen. For example, one of the Hotmail menus that should be all the way at the bottom, is hovering in the middle of the page.
This has never happened before. And now it has happened on the last two posts. So something definitely changed. I’ve been doing this for a long time without issue.
I’m not sure a screen shot is going to tell you much, and I don’t see an option in here to attach an image. How do I show you a jpg?
What the email looks like is a blank screen, with a scroll bar along the BOTTOM, which, if you you scroll to the right, you will eventually see the body of the post, in a regular sized column. None of this would be shown in a screen shot.
If I could forward you the email itself, that may be more revealing . . .
-
Can you tell us which version of Outlook and Internet Explorer you’re using?
Also, can you take a screenshot of the email in both and upload it for us at Media -> Add New in your Dashboard?
-
My version of Outlook is 2002. My version of IE is 8.
Again, this has never happened before, until my last two posts. I haven’t changed any settings or updated anything.
Here are the screen shots:
-
That’s a very old version of Outlook. Is there any chance that you could upgrade, or switch to a different email client, like http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/ ?
We can’t really provide support for Outlook 2002, given its age and poor support for web standards.
What you’re seeing in IE is normal. In the case of this post, the email is a bit thrown off by the size of the image. Future posts shouldn’t have the same problem.
-
Hi macmanx,
Since our last communication on this problem, I’ve noticed a thread in the forums that describes a similar problem that, though the symptoms are different, seems to be related to my problem: https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/wp-changed-format-of-my-pictures-why?replies=365
This thread was started at the extact time that my problems with the follow-blog widget started, which also conincided with an update to WordPress that you mention in that thread. I believe that my problem does have to do with the rendering of photos, whose actual sizes are thousands of pixels wide, but whose display sizes have been modified down to 500px wide using the HTML atributes. Though the pictures in my blog posts and emails do not appear at the full size (as they did for those in the other thread), it seems that certain email applications are rendereing the email width in accordance with the actual width of the photos. That is, if the actual width of the photo is 3800px wide, even though it is reduced via HTML attributes to 500, the email width itself is made 3800px wide, causing my readers to have to scroll way right to view the the post.
I noticed in the thread referenced above, that you were able to go on to various people’s blogs and run a script that solved the problem. Is there anything similar you can do to help me?
I really don’t think that this issue is due to Outlook 2002 or any other email client. I think it’s some fallout from the WordPress update referenced in that other thread.
I would really appreciate it if you could take another look at this problem. I can assure you that nothing has changed at my end – in terms of my email client, or web browser, or any of my settings in WordPress. All of a sudden – right at the same time that all of these other people starting having problems with the rendering of photos with the “size-full” css attribute (end of Nov, beginning of Dec) – I started having this problem with the email subcription service. Everything before that point worked perfectly – and now, it’s kind of a mess, and many of my less tech-savvy readers can’t figure out that they have to scroll way over to the right to view the email. Please help!
Much thanks, and happy holidays to you and yours.
-
I have run the fixer on your blog.
Please let us know if that makes any improvement to future posts.
If not, I’m still convinced that it’s an issue with Outlook 2002, due to its poor security and poor support for web standards.
- The topic ‘Follow-Blog Widget not behaving properly’ is closed to new replies.
WordPress.com Forums 