thanks.  i was too trigger happy to post.

so i hit another issue though.  i can't seem to pull {!relatedto.solution_description} , which is technically a standard case merge field.

I'm essentially trying to create an email template that can have custom HTML styling, not just the crappy letterhead logo nonsense that almost every email client blocks the images on by default, and also have the user sending it be able to customize the text of.

to add on even more, i need for the user to be able to send solutions from cases with this, so it's not just generic merge data.

argh, every way i try this there's a caveat.

using "custom" email template type, the sender can't edit the message at all

using "HTML" email template type, it's not actually HTML but rich text, and uses the letterhead, which is really just an image.

using "visualforce" email template type, i can stylize it any way i want, but again, the user can't customize anything in the template before they send it.

i give up.  i guess the "html" type, even though it's neither real HTML nor very flexible, is the only option i have here that isn't plain text.

Sounds like you need a custom class to get the related data.  I built one of these for a nicely styled (albeit inline) VF Email template a couple of months back.  I just tried to find the code for that in one of my previous posts but no luck.  This won't help you with preview/send, but should help with getting other data related to the case.  So here it is:

public class CapitalProjectController {

    private List<Opportunity> relatedOpportunity;
    //I can't get these controllers to work in email templates without making lists of the objects
    private List<Capital_Project__c> myCapitalProject;
    public Id ProjectID{get;set;}
    private List<Capital_Subproject__c> mySubProjects;
        
    public List<Opportunity> getRelatedOpportunity(){
        relatedOpportunity = [select id, name, AccountId, Amount,NRR__c, Term_In_Months__c, A_end_state__c, Z_end_state__c
         from Opportunity where id in
        (select Opportunity__c from Capital_Project__c where id = :ProjectID)];
        return relatedOpportunity;
    }
    
    public List<Capital_Project__c> getMyCapitalProject(){
        myCapitalProject = [select id, name, opportunity__c, status__c, notes__c,  project_class__c, project_Name__c,
        Amount_Approved__c, ICB_Approved_Amount__c, Original_Budget__c, Revised_budget__c from Capital_Project__c
        where id = :ProjectID];
        return myCapitalProject;    
    }
    public List<Capital_Subproject__c> getMySubProjects(){
    	mySubProjects = [select id, name, icb_approved_amount__c, capital_project__c, project_code__c, amount_approved__c, current_budget__c, original_budget__c, type__c, status__c
    	from Capital_Subproject__c where Capital_Project__c = :ProjectID];
    	return mySubProjects;	
    }
}

The component code:

<apex:component controller="CapitalProjectController" access="global">
<apex:attribute name="ProjectID" description="This is the Capital Project ID from which we glean the opportunity"
type="Id" assignTo="{!ProjectID}"/>
<apex:stylesheet value="{!$Resource.Print}" />
<h3>Opportunity Information</h3>
<apex:datatable cellpadding="5" var="opp" value="{!relatedOpportunity}"
style="text-align:center" rendered="{!NOT(ISNULL(relatedOpportunity))}">
<apex:column value="{!opp.AccountId}" headerValue="Account Name" />
<apex:column value="{!opp.Name}" headerValue="Opportunity Name" />
<apex:column value="{!opp.Amount}" headerValue="MRR"/>
<apex:column value="{!opp.NRR__c}" headerValue="NRR"/>
<apex:column value="{!opp.Term_in_Months__c}" headerValue="Term (Months)" />
<apex:column value="{!opp.A_end_state__c}" headerValue="A End State" />
<apex:column value="{!opp.Z_end_state__c}" headerValue="Z End State" />
</apex:datatable>
<p style="{border-bottom-style: groove}"/>
<h3>Capital Project Information</h3>
<apex:datatable cellpadding="5" var="project" value="{!myCapitalProject}"
style="text-align:center">
<apex:column value="{!project.Name}" headerValue="Project ID" />
<apex:column value="{!project.Project_Name__c}" headerValue="Project Name" />
<apex:column value="{!project.Project_Class__c}" headerValue="Project Class" />
<apex:column value="{!project.Status__c}" headerValue="Status" />
<apex:column value="{!project.ICB_Approved_Amount__c}" headerValue="ICB Approved Amount" />
<apex:column value="{!project.Revised_Budget__c}" headerValue="Current Budget" />
<apex:column value="{!project.Original_Budget__c}" headerValue="Original Budget" />
<apex:column value="{!project.Notes__c}" headerValue="Notes" />
</apex:datatable>
<p style="{border-bottom-style: groove}"/>
<h3>Capital Subproject Information</h3>
<apex:datatable cellpadding="5" var="subproj" value="{!mySubProjects}"
style="text-align:center">
<apex:column value="{!subproj.Project_Code__c}" headerValue="Project Code" />
<apex:column value="{!subproj.Type__c}" headerValue="Type" />
<apex:column value="{!subproj.Status__c}" headerValue="Status" />
<apex:column value="{!subproj.ICB_Approved_Amount__c}" headerValue="ICB Approved Amount" />
<apex:column value="{!subproj.Current_Budget__c}" headerValue="Current Budget" />
<apex:column value="{!subproj.Original_Budget__c}" headerValue="Original Budget" />
<apex:column value="{!subproj.Amount_Approved__c}" headerValue="Approved Amount" />
</apex:datatable>
</apex:component>

And the Email Template (kudos to the author of the style sheet, it's pretty...)

<messaging:emailTemplate recipientType="User"
relatedToType="Capital_Subproject__c"
subject="Capital Subproject: {!relatedTo.Name} requires approval">
<messaging:htmlEmailBody >
<style>


h3 {
   font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, sans-serif;
}
table, th, td {
    border: 1px solid #D4E0EE;
    border-collapse: collapse;
    font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, sans-serif;
    color: #555;
}

caption {
    font-size: 150%;
    font-weight: bold;
    margin: 5px;
}

td, th {
    padding: 4px;
}

thead th {
    text-align: center;
    background: #E6EDF5;
    color: #4F76A3;
    font-size: 100% !important;
}

tbody th {
    font-weight: bold;
}

tbody tr { background: #FCFDFE; }

tbody tr.odd { background: #F7F9FC; }

table a:link {
    color: #718ABE;
    text-decoration: none;
}

table a:visited {
    color: #718ABE;
    text-decoration: none;
}

table a:hover {
    color: #718ABE;
    text-decoration: underline !important;
}

tfoot th, tfoot td {
    font-size: 85%;
}
</style>
<html>
    <body>
        <a href="https://na4.salesforce.com/{!relatedTo.Id}">Click to review project and approve/reject</a>
        <c:CapitalApprovalEmail ProjectID="{!relatedTo.Capital_Project__c}" />
    </body>
</html>
</messaging:htmlEmailBody>
</messaging:emailTemplate>