<commit_before>---
title: Tips &amp; Tricks
description: We've put together some Responsive Emails Tips &amp; Tricks that will help you navigate the mine field that is coding HTML emails.
---

Coding responsive emails can be a real pain. This guide will help you through some of the the most common issues you'd face. It's a living document and will get updates periodically.

## Why Foundation for Emails

Most responsive emails are built on templates. They’re simple, easy to drop content into and are usually well-tested. Templates have a serious cost though. "Oh, so you want to do anything other than change the colors and text?" Sorry … you’re out of luck, Chuck. Templates tend to be hard to customize heavily or to extend. For that you need a framework.

A framework is a collection of reusable code and design patterns which gives users a solid, tested base upon which to build. Not a bunch of visual styles you can just bolt on as an afterthought and call it a day.

- Frameworks give you the solid base of a template, but the extensibility of custom code. You can make your template fit your content, not the other way around.
- Additionally, a framework gives you a common codebase to structure your projects around. So if new team members work on the project, they don't have to re-invent the wheel. You can spend less time coding your email and more time optimizing your campaigns.

## Need to know

The sad truth about creating or coding HTML emails is that tables are the only things that are universally supported when it comes to email design. If you came from the world of building websites, this may seem like a stepping into Doc Brown's Delorean, charging up the Flux-capitor, and going back to the 1996. Suddenly your CSS is written with inline style tags, useful CSS properties don't work and you're burried in a sea of table tags.

<div class="callout secondary tip">General rule of thumb: your email is not going to look identical in every client. And that’s OK.</div>

It's not all doom and gloom though, and we're all in this together. Foundation for Emails helps by getting you away from tables (Sass version), helping you with an organized project structure, and a well tested codebase to make this much easier. We've put together this guide and [links to resources](http://foundation.zurb.com/emails/resources.html) from our friends to help you along as well as a new [Responsive Emails master class](http://zurb.com/university/responsive-emails-foundation) to become a HTML email pro.<commit_msg>Fixed typo for Back to the Future reference (#907)<commit_after>---
title: Tips &amp; Tricks
description: We've put together some Responsive Emails Tips &amp; Tricks that will help you navigate the mine field that is coding HTML emails.
---

Coding responsive emails can be a real pain. This guide will help you through some of the the most common issues you'd face. It's a living document and will get updates periodically.

## Why Foundation for Emails

Most responsive emails are built on templates. They’re simple, easy to drop content into and are usually well-tested. Templates have a serious cost though. "Oh, so you want to do anything other than change the colors and text?" Sorry … you’re out of luck, Chuck. Templates tend to be hard to customize heavily or to extend. For that you need a framework.

A framework is a collection of reusable code and design patterns which gives users a solid, tested base upon which to build. Not a bunch of visual styles you can just bolt on as an afterthought and call it a day.

- Frameworks give you the solid base of a template, but the extensibility of custom code. You can make your template fit your content, not the other way around.
- Additionally, a framework gives you a common codebase to structure your projects around. So if new team members work on the project, they don't have to re-invent the wheel. You can spend less time coding your email and more time optimizing your campaigns.

## Need to know

The sad truth about creating or coding HTML emails is that tables are the only things that are universally supported when it comes to email design. If you came from the world of building websites, this may seem like a stepping into Doc Brown's Delorean, charging up the Flux-capacitor, and going back to the 1996. Suddenly your CSS is written with inline style tags, useful CSS properties don't work and you're burried in a sea of table tags.

<div class="callout secondary tip">General rule of thumb: your email is not going to look identical in every client. And that’s OK.</div>

It's not all doom and gloom though, and we're all in this together. Foundation for Emails helps by getting you away from tables (Sass version), helping you with an organized project structure, and a well tested codebase to make this much easier. We've put together this guide and [links to resources](http://foundation.zurb.com/emails/resources.html) from our friends to help you along as well as a new [Responsive Emails master class](http://zurb.com/university/responsive-emails-foundation) to become a HTML email pro.
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