Outlook Email Broken Layout Fix: Resolve Outlook Button Border Collapsing for Editorial & Content Newsletters
Editorial newsletters rely on content layout readability and structural text spacing. If fonts default to Times New Roman or layout borders break, subscriber engagement metrics suffer. Below is the targeted integration guide to fix Outlook Button Border Collapsing inside Outlook 2019 templates when using MJML Framework.
Technical Breakdown
Outlook 2019 uses the Microsoft Word (MSO) which lacks support for standard rendering rules. This causes Outlook Button Border Collapsing elements to break or collapse when rendering templates.
MJML Framework Behaviors
The MJML transpilation compiler parses dynamic columns and wraps them in custom HTML conditional tags. If you paste direct tables or VML code blocks inside an MJML layout without proper escaping, the MJML compiler will try to clean the code, resulting in stripped Outlook namespaces and broken layouts. Keep your editorial body clean. Strip redundant CSS class definitions using Vaporize to ensure the newsletter stays under Gmail's 102KB clipping ceiling.
Remediation Code Block
To guarantee perfectly rounded buttons inside Outlook, we must generate a hybrid VML (Vector Markup Language) roundrect structure overlaid with normal HTML tables. VML is read only by Outlook, while WebKit clients read the HTML layout. In your MJML Framework campaign manager, make sure you configure your links to run via {{unsubscribe_link}}.
<!--[if mso]>
<v:roundrect xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" href="{{unsubscribe_link}}" style="height:44px;v-text-anchor:middle;width:200px;" arcsize="15%" stroke="f" fillcolor="#720e9e">
<w:anchorlock/>
<center style="color:#ffffff;font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;font-weight:bold;">Click Here</center>
</v:roundrect>
<![endif]-->
<!--[if !mso]><!-->
<table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse:collapse;">
<tr><td align="center" bgcolor="#720e9e" style="border-radius:6px;"><a href="{{unsubscribe_link}}" style="padding:12px 24px;color:#ffffff;display:inline-block;text-decoration:none;font-weight:bold;">Click Here</a></td></tr>
</table>
<!--<![endif]-->Live Code Sandbox Test
How to Deploy inside MJML Framework
Copy the fixed VML or table wrapper code block from the remediation box above.
Wrap the entire RenderOps corrected table block inside an '<mj-raw>' tag block. This tells the MJML compiler to bypass parsing on this segment, exporting the exact conditional statements into the final HTML output.