I am trying to make nicely formatted (html), cross email client compatiable Order Confirmation and Shipping Confirmation emails.

The problem is that the notification message page uses a RTE for input and that throws away markup and also moves {{IterationStart[Invoice.Items]}} and {{IterationEnd[Invoice.Items]}} tags upon save (as the RTE doesn't think they are valid inside <table> markup).

Eg, if your markup is

<table><tbody>
{{IterationStart[Invoice.Items]}}
<tr>
    <td>{{Item.Name}}</td>
    <td>{{Item.Quantity}}</td>
    <td>{{Item.UnitPrice}}</td>
    <td>{{Item.TotalPrice}}</td>
</tr>
{{IterationEnd[Invoice.Items]}}
</tbody></table>
</tbody></table>

The RTE after save does this

{{IterationStart[Invoice.Items]}} {{IterationEnd[Invoice.Items]}}
<table><tbody>
<tr>
    <td>{{Item.Name}}</td>
    <td>{{Item.Quantity}}</td>
    <td>{{Item.UnitPrice}}</td>
    <td>{{Item.TotalPrice}}</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
</tbody></table>

For now I have updated the database directly in order to produce the desired emails, but run the risk that if anyone was to go to the message editor to change an email address or subject line text and save, it will save the now manipulated and incorrect email template.

Is there a quick hack that will allow me to change this field to a normal multi-row textarea field so that the markup will not become corrupted by the RTE on save?

For example, I tried to change....

<!-- Template pane -->
<input type="hidden" data-ng-bind=""/>
<div class="control-group umb-control-group">
    <label class="merchello-control-label">
        <localize key="merchelloNotificationsEdit_emailTemplate" />
        <small><localize key="merchelloNotificationsEdit_emailTemplateHelper" /></small>
    </label>
    <div class="merchello-controls">
        <div class="row-fluid col-xs-8 span8">
            <label for="template"><localize key="merchelloNotificationsEdit_emailTemplateEditBody" /></label>
            <ng-form>
                <umb-editor model="rteProperties"></umb-editor>
            </ng-form>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>

To this

<div class="row-fluid">
    <div class="col-xs-8 span8">
        <label><localize key="merchelloNotificationsEdit_emailTemplateEditBody" /></label>
        <textarea rows="20" class="col-xs-12 span12" data-ng-model="notificationMessage.emailTemplateEditBody" />
    </div>
</div>

But the markup didn't appear in the textarea.  

Thanks.