Email code not working in forwarded email and in outlook on windows

[Franky_Ruyssch2]

I am having a issue with code in my emails.
The different components in my email have the following code surrounding each block / section:

<div style="position: relative;">
   <a href="link-with-all-utm-parameters" class="link-tag" style="position: absolute; top: 0; right: 0; bottom: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%;"></a>
<table>
block or section html
</table>
</div>

The purpose is that the complete block / section, like e.g. a header image is clickable.

On apple devices this kind of thing is working correct. The complete block or section can be clicked.
On outlook this code is not working, there seems to be no link.
The problem is also there ( even on email clients on apple ) if the mail has been forward.
So forwarding the mail changes the code or functionality?
Can somebody help on this?

[Dave_Roberts · Accepted solution]

Hey Franky,

It's reasonable to expect that the HTML of an email will change once it has been delivered to an inbox. Each inbox has it's own "interpretation" of the source code so what you end up with in your inbox doesn't necessarily match what you sent out. Because of this, something that is sent to Gmail, for example, might strip out all the Outlook-specific (MSO-only) code and vice-versa so that what you end up forwarding is kind of a fraction of the original. The best practice is to use the "Forward to a Friend" functionality -- not only because it sends a "new copy" of the email (not the interpreted version) but also b/c the tracking that's setup on an email that's forwarded looks like it's all coming from the same user (whoever it was sent to in the first place). 

For the clickable section piece, that might need to be setup differently to be compatible with less capable systems like Outlook than it needs to be for more modern clients. There's a great site that helps break down support for various CSS properties across email clients that might be a helpful resource to you -- here's a link to a page that's dedicated to the "position" CSS property and where it is and isn't supported across inboxes. It looks like there are a few exceptions, but the "position" property isn't well supported so that might be what you're running into with the styling on the link <a> element.

[SanfordWhiteman · Accepted solution]

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On apple devices this kind of thing is working correct. The complete block or section can be clicked.
On outlook this code is not working, there seems to be no link.
The problem is also there ( even on email clients on apple ) if the mail has been forward.
So forwarding the mail changes the code or functionality?
Can somebody help on this?

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In HTML4, which is the implicit HTML version you’re writing for in Outlook, an <a> tag cannot have a descendant <table> tag.