How do I host my image for setting up an HTML Email in DreamWeaver

[SquidneyGee]

I have one single graphic that I have sliced in Photoshop and exported into Dreamweaver. I have four slices, each have a link the corresponds to our live website. I tried uploading all the images that Photoshop made when I sliced, as well as the ready HTML web file from Dreamweaver to dropbox.com, and then uploaded the code text into our email service. The preview through the email service shows all blank images. I am very new to using Dreamweaver and have never attempted to upload my own HTML to this email provider.

How should I go about hosting the images so all clients can view the email? Nothing on the internet has quite answered my question as to how I can get the images to show up.

Thank you for your help!

[Nancy OShea · Accepted solution]

We don't use slices anymore.  It rarely works out.  And please DO NOT let PS generate your HTML code.  It won't work for a variety of reasons.  PS is a graphics app, not an HTML generator.

You must upload your optimized image (no slices) to a public facing web host.  If your company already has a web site, upload to the images folder on your web site's server.

HTML Emails are not the same as web sites so you must use absolute paths in your HTML code.

<img src="http://yourdomain.com/images/my_email_image.jpg">

Keep in mind that many email clients don't support images for security reasons.  Those people won't see your images so be sure to use plain text in your email which everyone can see.   Ideally, you should post a link to the HTML version on line so people who can't see HTML in their email client can view the page as intended in their browsers.

Please see: HTML E-Mail & Newsletter Blasts - http://alt-web.com/

[SquidneyGee]

Thank you. It seems the youtube videos I have been watching are outdated. I did not let PS generate the code, Dreamweaver did. All I did was slice the image in PS so I could make the slices click to different links once opened in DW.

I will see if there is somewhere I can host the images on our own site. I have never heard of absolute paths before, is this something I do in DW?

So if I do not use PS for slicing, I will need an entirely new way to make my image click to different links, is this correct?

[Nancy OShea]

Use Text Links in emails with an absolute URL to the target website page.  Images are for eye candy; not content.

Nancy

[Jon Fritz]

An absolute path is the URL of the file on your hosting server. So instead of using something like...

../folder/file.jpg

...you use...

http: //www.domain.com/folder/file.jpg

[Jon Fritz]

The file needs to be hosted on a web server, whether it's one you have control over, or the server of the email service provider, is up to you.

Cloud storage won't do the trick unless every recipient has access to the files via a web-accessible URL in your email's code.

For myself, when I design HTML emails, I work from the client's site definition in DW with local copies of the files. I then upload them to the client's site, or the email service provider's space, and change the URLs of the images to the absolute location of the uploaded version as the final step before emailing.