Create a Mobile Version of the Message

To create a separate version of your message that will be seen only on mobile devices, open the second tab of the message editor, Mobile Message.  Learn more by reading the Create a Mobile Version of a Message Wiki article.

Message Editor Toolbar

The Message Editor is a ready-for-use HTML text editor designed to simplify web content and email message creation. The Toolbar is the section located at the top of the editor window. It contains menu buttons that give you access to various functions of CKEditor. All buttons are grouped according to their function and include both simple operations (like basic text styling or formatting) and more advanced features.

Insert Variables

How to insert mail merge variables into an email message

To insert mail merge variables, also called Custom Fields, into an email message:

1. From the Message Editor screen, click the location within your email message where you would like to insert the variable.
2. Click the Insert Variables icon:
3. Click the Custom Field to insert it into the message

How to insert social sharing links into an email message

To insert social sharing links into an email message:

1. From the Message Editor screen, click the location within your email message where you would like to insert the social sharing icon.
2. Click the Insert Social Bookmark icon:
3. Click the Social icon you would like to insert
4. Add a link:
   1. Select the Icon image
   2. Click the Insert Link Icon:
   3. Enter the appropriate link

Paste Options

Paste

The message editor allows you to preserve basic formatting when you paste a text fragment. To achieve this, copy the text and paste it using one of the following methods:

• Press the  button on the toolbar.
• Use the Ctrl+V shortcut on your keyboard. Note this method works even when the browser blocks CKEditor toolbar's access to the clipboard, so this is the most reliable way of pasting the text.

Paste as Plain Text

If you want to paste an already formatted text, but without preserving the formatting, you can paste it as plain text. To achieve this, copy the formatted text and press the  button on the toolbar. If the browser blocks CKEditor toolbar's access to clipboard, a Paste as Plain Text dialog window will appear and you will be asked to paste the fragment into the text box using the Ctrl+V keyboard shortcut.

Once pasted into the document, the text will lose all its formatting and you will be able to style it with the message editor.

Paste from Word

Use this option when copying from Word and pasting into an email.  Word automatically applies styles that can be incompatible with emails unless you use this tool.

The message editor allows you to preserve basic formatting when you paste a text fragment from Microsoft Word. To achieve this, copy the text in a Word document and paste it using one of the following methods:

• Press the  button on the toolbar.
• Use the Ctrl+V shortcut on your keyboard. Note this method works even when the browser blocks CKEditor toolbar's access to the clipboard, so this is the most reliable way of pasting the text.

Edit Images

To insert an image into your message, replace one image with another, or edit the basic image info, please follow the steps in the Edit Images Wiki article.

Creating a Table

To create a table in the message editor, press the button on the toolbar. The Table Properties dialog window that will open lets you set configuration options that define table size, its display properties, or other advanced properties.

The Table Properties dialog window includes two tabs that group table options: Table Properties and Advanced.

Table Properties

The Table Properties tab is the default tab that opens after you press the button on the toolbar. It allows you to set the table dimensions and configure the way it will appear in the document.

Table Properties dialog window with the default tab open

Below is an overview of all Table Properties tab elements:

• Rows – the number of rows in the table (obligatory).
• Columns – the number of columns in the table (obligatory).

• Width – the width of the table in pixels or a percent value. Giving the width as a percent value lets you set the proportion of the editing area that the table will occupy.
• Height – the height of the table in pixels.

• Headers – the drop-down list that formats certain table cells as headers, which applies special formatting to them. You can apply header formatting to First Row, First Column or Both.
• Border size – the thickness of the table border in pixels.
• Alignment – the alignment of the table on the page. The following options are available: Left, Center, Right.

• Cell spacing – the space between individual cells as well as cells and table borders, in pixels.
• Cell padding – the space between the cell border and its contents, in pixels.

• Caption – the label of the table that is displayed on top of it.
• Summary – the summary of the table contents that is available for assistive devices like screen readers. It is a good practice to provide your tables with meaningful summary text in order to make it more accessible to users with disabilities.
  
  

For more information, read the Create and Edit a Table Wiki article.

Template Blocks

Template blocks are a great way to quickly create email content blocks by selecting and inserting template sections.

Learn more by reading the Insert Template Blocks Wiki article. 

Options

Preview

The preview options allow you to choose to include the header and/or footer.  Note: If you shrink the preview window and you have a mobile version of the message saved, you won't see the mobile version.  You need to send a test email and open it on a mobile device or use the Inbox Preview tool.

The Inbox Preview is a powerful tool that allows you to preview your email in 65 combinations of the most popular email clients and mobile devices.

Test

Send yourself test emails to make sure that everything looks great before making a send. 

Use the Spam/Link Check to check that all the links in your email are working properly and to calculate your SPAM score.  Please note that some links, like Twitter links, will show as invalid, even if they are valid, because Twitter rejects our link query. 

Validate the message's HTML Source to make sure there aren't any big mistakes in your HTML code.  Please use this feature only if you are comfortable working with HTML.

Options

Uncheck the Auto create plain text email if you would like to hand make the plain text version of the email.  Otherwise it will be auto-generated from the HTML message.

Click Create Plain Text Version from HTML to generate a plain text version of the message.  Some people like to use this tool, deselect the checkbox above, and then customize the plain text.

Click Create Mobile from HTML to overwrite the mobile version with a copy of the HTML code.