Email testing tools
A few bookmarklets to help with manual testing.
Bookmarklets
- Add bookmarklet to the browsers bookmarks (dragging it usually works).
- Navigate to the HTML version of the email for testing.
- Click the bookmark.
There is no specific order to run the checks, but please refresh the page before each check.
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Show image alt text
Bookmarklet:
Alt text check All images show their accessible name, that's usually the alt text.
- Solid green outline
Good, but check the alt text is relevant to the content. - Dashed green outline
Image is inside a link, check the alt text describes the destination. - Dotted red outline
No alt text present, remedial action required.
Helps to check:
- Solid green outline
-
Outline all headings
Bookmarklet:
Headings check All headings are outlined and marked. Check for anything missed or inappropriate.
- One h1 per email, the emails main heading
- Sub-sections are h2
- Sub-sub-sections are h3
- Sub-sub-sub-sections are h4
Test it on this page to see what it does.
Helps to check:
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Outline all tables
Bookmarklet:
Tables check Outlines all the tables present.
- Solid green outline
- valid for layout purposes - Dotted red outline
- must be a data, or comparision, table. Please check this is the case.
Helps to check:
- Solid green outline
-
Highlight all keyboard tab stops
Bookmarklet:
Tab-stops check All tab-stops have a solid green outline which changes to a dashed blue outline upon focus.
Use the Tab key, to step through the links and check for anything missed or inappropriate.
Test it on this page to see what it does.
Helps to check:
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Outline large text
Bookmarklet:
Large text check Text which is larger than 14px (body copy) will be highlighted with a dotted red outline.
Please sense check, should it be a heading?
Helps to check:
Version and security
The bookmarklets presented here are self contained, and do not reference any external resources, which means they're safe to use where security restrictions are tight.
All are currently at version 1.0 and may contain some obscure minor bugs. For any issues encountered please email Mike Foskett for support.
The documentation could probably of been written better (a bit rushed). So anything unclear please contact me to elaborate, and I'll update the descriptions too.