Embedding a Poll in a Web Site

To embed your poll in your Web site, you copy the source code for the poll to an HTML page on your Web site. When you do so, you can update the code at any time and you can link to the page where you host this poll from any of your mailings.

Make sure you do not make changes to any of the form elements in the code, or the poll may not function as desired.

Advantages to hosting your own poll include:

• You can update the code at any time, since it resides on your server.
• You can also link to the page where you host this poll from any of your mailings to provide your own version of a hosted poll.

Although this deployment option provides maximum flexibility for customizing your poll, the disadvantage of this approach is that the poll is static; you cannot update questions or styles using Poll Builder.

You should include a link to your hosted poll (preferably under the poll) if you embed the poll in a mailing. Outlook 2007 and several other e-mail servers disable form elements or strip them out altogether. Embedded polls may not function correctly or appear at all to some recipients.

e-Dialog recommends the following guidelines:

• Build flexible e-mail templates by leaving space for your poll in a mailing. The exact height and width of the poll cannot be specified, and Poll Builder automatically adds some padding to the poll that cannot be controlled. Allow for extra space both vertically and horizontally.
• Use solid colors behind the poll. If you must use a background image, specify a background color for the cell where the poll will appear. This ensures that the poll questions will be visible if the e-mail server removes the background image.
• Most CSS styles can be applied to a poll. Embedding the poll in your own Website provides even greater control because you can surround the poll code with your own source code. To ensure poll integrity, do not change any form settings.
• You can also use existing external or internal style sheets to style the poll elements.
• Source code is available at the bottom of the Deployment tab. You can use the ID tag of any element and style for your poll.
• To add a style sheet to a poll that you are not hosting on your own Website, use the Copy tab in the Poll Header section. This applies a style to the entire poll.