Enabling my client to send html formatted mass mail

I know you've heard it all before but I will reiterate.
Your documentation leaves a lot to be desired.
I know the process is probably a lot simpler than I can grasp, but the paradigm you've created around UniversalEmail has got me pulling my hair out.
I cannot grasp how I would enable my client to have the ability to send a mass mailing of a simple one page flyer in an html email, not as an attachment.
I've gone through the various help docs over and over again but they're so generic as to be unusable for me (and others too).
I'm not alone in wanting to see something more structured i.e. "to enable your client to send html mail to his clients, you need to
1. do this
2. do that
3. do this again if
4.etc."
We've developed a printed flyer for a client he is physically mailing.
He wants to send that flyer as html mail to around 600 clients. I know I can do this with UE but I've lost my way a dozen times trying to make this work.
I imagine that I would give him a page (not publicly accessible, possibly password protected) that he would go to and hit send. At this point I am confused as to What he is sending when he hits send. Is it the page he's on or is it another (possibly dynamic) page?
I imagine too that that page could allow him to choose to whom to send from a db of clients or to individuals as well as a selection of various content.
Please help.

Mick

  At this point I am confused as to What he is sending  

This depends on how you configure Universal Email.

In the Universal Email wizard on the first page, The Email Body section Allows you to create the email that is being sent.

this can be done a few ways, You can Create a static html page before hand that contains the email message content, then Check the "Create a File For Your Email" option, click the folder icon and browse to the file you created.

This sounds like the option you would use to send your flier.

Another option is to select to use one of the predefined templates, this is used if you have a form and you want the form contents to be sent in the email.

you could also click the Dreamweaver icon to use Dreamweaver to create your message.

Which method to use really depends on what you are trying to accomplish.

All of the things you state you image can be done are true, the steps for accomplishing this are very much dependent on which of the those you chose to include in your application.

in reading your post, there are 9 different tutorials that we would have to write for each of the scenarios you mention. If the tutorial where not broken into different ones, it would become way to complex to follow.

Jason

Regarding the last point. I'm not looking for tutorials - those are thoroughly covered elsewhere - what I like to see is a definition of the logical steps to take to achieve X. An outline i.e. "to do X you need to do step 1, step 2, step 3 or 4 depending on… " with reference to the tutorials pertaining to those steps.
I and others have been caught up using a product only to discover that we also needed product Y which we did not already own.

Regarding the first point.
I think creating a static page followed by the "Create a File For Your Email" option is the most logical for me.
And this is where I first get lost.
Your tutorials advise variably that I can…
1.use UE to create the necessary content on that page
2.must create the necessary form elements first than apply UE
So which is it?

Secondly, for the purpose intended here - sending a graphic representation of his flyer to multiple contacts - would the page he would use, in its simplest form, contain the graphic and a "submit" button assuming that I had predefined all the other parameters including the list of mailto's?
When he does "submit" what is sent? Is it the page he sent from minus the "submit" button or is it another page? I would want it be just the graphic without any reference to the "submit" button or any other optional parameters I may set for him.
As you can tell I'm very confused by this.

Thanks
Mick

[quote]
Your tutorials advise variably that I can…
1.use UE to create the necessary content on that page
2.must create the necessary form elements first than apply UE
So which is it?
[quote]

both, you can do it either way.


if you are going to send a graphic represetation of the flier, create new static html page.

Add an image tag to it and add the full HTTP address to the image.

Then in UE Check the Create File For My Email Message and select the static html page you created.

as for what is sent when the client clicks send, in your case, the static html file is sent as the email.

Thanks Jason

RE:
[quote]
Your tutorials advise variably that I can…
1.use UE to create the necessary content on that page
2.must create the necessary form elements first than apply UE
So which is it?
[quote]

Maybe I've misread but I think it did say "Must create the necessary form elements" which indicates it's not an option.
In any case, being able to do either seems logical and desirable.

So, I create the page with the image in place with full http address.

In UE I CreateFile and select the page in question.

I attach whatever variables are necessary - in this case a link to the db of addresses and add whatever parameters are necessary to send individual mailings to all recipients incrementally over a given period of time.

I attach a submit/send button.

Correct so far?

Here is the substance of my confusion - I think.
When I CreateFile and select the page in question I'm telling UE that that is the page I want to send.
Is the page I apply the Submit/Send button to the same page or is it something else?
If it is the same page, does the content applied to the page other than the image go with it once sent?

Mick

they are two separate pages.

Thank you Jason

you're welcome.

Jason

I think I've got it but when my client hits submit (currently set to send to him and cc me) I get it just fine but he says he gets an empty box where the image should be.
He's not been responsive to my inquiries whether there is anything in that box - title, broken image icon, whatever.

Can I send you privately whatever you need to see whether I've missed something?

Mick

most email programs wont display images by default. you may need to right click and select the display images option.

When displaying an image in an email, you should make sure to follow all image best practices like making use of alt attributes just for this problem. if you use an alt attribute, the email will display the alt text until the user enables the email program to display the image.