Allow Outlook conditional tags and comments in emails created from templates

[Anonymous]

I've created a fluid layout responsive email that relies on some conditional comments to function properly in several versions of Outlook.

Like this:

<!--[if (gte mso 9)|(IE)]>   <table valign="top"width="600" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">     <tr valign="top">       <td valign="top"> <![endif]-->

I've done extensive Litmus testing on the HTML itself, and it seems to work fine.

The problem is that when I create a Marketo template and then in turn use that template to create an email, all my comments get srtipped out, breaking the layout in Outlook.

Looks like the conditional comments are saved in the template and don't get stripped out until the email creation.

Is there a way to prevent this from happening?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Anonymous]

I came here to create exactly this idea entry. Currently my solution is to use the Replace HTML feature to put my markup directly into an email asset. For some reason, the Outlook conditional tags are not removed when the email is rendered in this fashion as opposed to Using a template. The problem with this is that if I make a global change, I can simply make the change to my template and reapprove the draft with the change that get created for every email asset that uses the template. Instead I have to go in and update the one-by-one.

Marketo Support's response to this issue is that it falls under the category of "custom code" and is thus not supported. However, if (for example) an email client with a large proportion of the market share only supported layouts with tables, would it not be in Marketo's best interest to implement table layouts in emails? Or are we expected instead to tell our users they can't have something that is possible outside of Marketo simply because Marketo is what they use?

I would urge you, if possible, to change the name of this post to "Allow Outlook conditional tags and comments in emails created from templates" so that we can hopefully get more traction with this idea and get it implemented.

[Anonymous]

[accidental repost deleted]

[Anonymous]

Also, this idea belongs under "Design Studio", not "Support"

[Anonymous]

Thanks, Charles. Changed the name in the hope it might eventually get us somewhere on this. 

Couldn't seem to change categories...feel free to move it over to "Design Studio".

[Anonymous]

Thanks! It looks like someone else already created this:

Don't strip comments to target Outlook in HTML email