Editor Messages (old editor)

The editor of the Messages module has the following layout:

1. An editing menu in the header which contains eight grey and one blue button.
2. The tool palette with Editor options on the left side of the screen.
3. The canvas with content blocks in the center of your screen.

Below you will find an explanation of the different functions within the editors.

1. The editing menu in the header

The editing menu in the header has the following layout:

Button	Function
	Save Spotler has an autosave function, but the most secure way to ensure your work is saved is to manually save your message every now and then. In this way you create multiple versions of your message.
	Preview This function opens a new window with a preview of your message. You can see how your message will appear in desktop, mobile or tablet view.
	Undo Not satisfied with a change you made? Use this function to undo your action.
	Redo Have you undone too much? With this function you can easily redo an action.
	Loading a previous version Spotler automatically saves your changes after 10 actions or after 5 minutes. Using this drop-down you can reload any automatically or manually saved versions of your message.
	Web analytics To follow your readers’ behaviour on your website, Spotler offers Web Analytics integration. In this way you can track what your readers do on your website after they have clicked on a certain link in your email message. Click on the icon and fill in the standard Web Analytics values such as: source, name, content and word. All links will now contain these values. It is possible to make changes  for each separate link. When you are creating a link, you will see an additional tab, Web analytics. For better distinction between links in your Web Analytics account, you can edit the campaign word for each link separately. Campaign source: the name of this specific mailing Campaign name: the title of the mailing Campaign content: the main subject of the mailing Campaign word: hyperlink-specific
	Change template When you have several templates available in your account, e.g. multiple languages or brands, you can use this icon to load another template. Note: choose a template before editing the message. Changes you have made to your message will be lost once you switch templates.
	Show source code With this icon you can view the HTML code of your message. Be careful when making any changes, as this can have an adverse effect on your message.

 

2. Tool palette with Editor options

The tool palette looks like this:

In the module Messages the editor has a drag-and-drop interface. This means you can drag elements using your mouse. You can drag content blocks and form feedback from the tool palette to the canvas.

 

Element	Explenation
	Multi block Of the same type as the free layout blocks, but with the possibility to place multiple content blocks next to each other.
	Free lay-out block This is the default content block for articles. All the elements can be filled in freely.
	RSS feed Automatically loads content from an RSS feed.
	Video Paste your url of your video on YouTube or Vimeo into this block and a thumbnail from YouTube or Vimeo will automatically be taken. Read more in the article:How do I include a video in my email?
	Form feedback Add a form transcript to, for example, a confirmation email. It can be useful for the recipient to receive a transcript of the data they have entered.

 

Do you also see product blocks? Product blocks are content blocks where content from your webshop (through integration) is automatically loaded.

 

3. Canvas and content blocks

The tool palette allows you to drag content blocks to the canvas. In the editor, you will see as a minimum a header and a footer of your template. In-between these, you can build your message to your own design. As a minimum, you will have the following standard options in your template:

• A content block with an image on the left
• A content block with an image on the right
• A text-only content block

Depending on your design, you may have many more options.

How is a template constructed on the basis of a design?

As example, we use the Spotler newsletter. A design was produced for it, which consists of a number of content blocks. In advance we have thought about how we want those content blocks to look. We want a block with an image on the left and space for text on the right. And a block in which the text is on the left and the image can be seen on the right. At the top, we want the header. In the print screen below you can see three loose content blocks. These are outlined in red.

The footer and the header are fixed. You can't change their position, but you can amend parts of the footer. The content blocks can be duplicated and put in various positions. That allows you to design the structure of your message personally.

If you would like a template based on your own design, supply us with a Photoshop file. We will need that to include the correct fonts, sizes and ratios in your template.

Adding content blocks to canvas

The tool palette works as a drag & drop editor. Using your mouse, you drag content blocks or a form statement onto the canvas from the tool.

Your template allows you to choose from multiple types of content blocks. Would you like to see which content blocks you can use? Then drag a free layout block onto your canvas and double-click to open the block. A drop-down menu with options appears at the top of the editor of the free layout block.

Would you like more options than are available in your template? Then contact your Spotler partner.

Editing menu's content blocks

As soon as you drag content blocks from the tool palette to the canvas, you can open three different editing menus:

1. The editing menu for changing the block type by clicking on the checkbox on the left side of the content block’s title bar.
2. The content block’s editing menu by clicking the drop-down arrow on the right side of the content block’s title bar.
3. The Edit block content editing menu by double-clicking somewhere within the content block.

The editing menu for changing the block type

When you check the box to the left of the content block, the following screen will appear:

A content block is set to the Standard block option by default.

Do you want hide a content block for certain readers? To make a content block appear only to a select group of people, choose the Optional block type. When you choose this option, a so-called ‘target’ or ‘bullseye’ will appear on the right side of the block bar.

Click on this icon and in the pop-up select the area of interest or the target group to which the content block should be visible. The content block will now only be shown to readers that fit those criteria.

 

The editing menu of the content block

When you click on the drop-down menu to the right of the block bar, the following editing screen will appear:

Explanation of the functions:

• Standard editing functions
  Using these three functions you can perform the three commonly known editing functions.

• Social media
  If you would like to enable sharing via social media, click on Social media. A popup will appear in which you can choose to enable sharing on one or more of the following platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Google. Provide a title for your sharing buttons and place a trackable link in your content block. The link can be shown as a name, an image or a button.

The editing menu Edit block content

When you double-click the content block, the following screen will appear:

Explanation of the functions:

Function	Explanation
Change template	Change template With the drop-down menu you can load another layout for your content block. By default there are several layouts available for your content blocks. For example, you can choose a template with an image on the left side and one with an image on the right side.
	Anchor An anchor can link to a specific location. For instance: to the beginning of a paragraph or to the top of your message. Anchors are frequently used for a table of contents with links that refer to articles below. You can add an anchor to each article to link to that location. To add an anchor, you should place your cursor in the desired location. Then click the anchor icon and specify a name for the anchor in the pop-up screen. After clicking on OK, the anchor will be added. If you choose the option Link to an anchor (when you are adding a link), you can link to the correct anchor in your text.
	Insert/edit image After clicking on this icon, a new screen will open containing two tabs. On the ‘Select an image’ tab, you will see previews of images you have uploaded via the module Images. Behind each image you can see a ‘Select’ button. When you click on this button, you will automatically go to the second tab, ‘Image properties’. Would you like to use an image that is stored in a different location? Select the option ‘Images from an external location’ on the first tab. Here you can specify an image URL. On the “Image properties” tab you have several options to edit your image properties, such as the Alt text. This text will be showed when the image is not loaded properly.
	Add personalization Create a personal message for your reader! With this icon you can add personalization. You can also find this option with the subject line of your message. With a personalized field you can show personal data of your reader. ‘Dear {first name}’ is a commonly used salutation. But you can also add personal data such as their interests, company name, account manager, client number etc.
	Paste plain text When you copy a piece of text from another location, such as a website, PDF or Word document, there is a fair chance some styles will be applied to this text. There is also a style added to your template (typeface, font size, color etc.). To prevent the styles from the other location being applied in your template, it is wise to paste the text as plain text. Use this icon and all unnecessary styles will be ignored when your text is pasted. Spotler will instead apply your template style rules to the text.

 

Choose a template before you start editing your content block When you choose a different layout after you have made changes to the content blocks, you will lose the content you created.

 

Replacing an image Would you like to replace one of the images in your template? Place your cursor on the image you would like to replace. That means you shouldn’t delete the image first! Choose the Insert/add image option and then pick the image you would like to use. In this way you ensure your image will remain responsive.

 

Additional explanation about placing links

Make sure that the links in your message work properly. We still too often see that links are not trackable, point to the wrong location or simply don’t work. Prevent this from happening. Select the text or the title or click on the the image you would like to add the link to and click on the symbol in the content block editor:

The following popup screen will appear:

In this screen you will find the General and Webanalytics tab.

The General tab allows you to:
● Choose the type of link you would like to use
● Depending on the link type, you can specify a URL and link name
● Depending on the type of link, you can make changes to the profile

The Web analytics tab allows you to:
● Enter the codes for Web analytics

The Update profile tab allows you to:

• Update a profile or add/remove a tag and score based on one click. Think of registering an interest based on a click.

Do you want to know more or tagging and scoring in your message? Then read the article: Tagging and scoring in your message or web page.

Different type of links

External link with tracking
When you create a link in your email message and you pick this option, the link will become trackable and you will see the results appear in your mailings report.

But more is possible with links:

Link to Spotler landingpage
It’s all in the name. Use this type of link when you want to link to a webpage within Spotler.

Link to an anchor
This link is used if you want to point to a location in your message or webpage. The reader will see the screen jump to the location of the anchor. Use this to point to a specific paragraph or to a heading if you are using a table of contents.

Link to an email address
When the reader clicks on this link, their default email client will open a new email message. It depends on the email client whether this happens automatically.

Special link
You should already have an unsubscribe link, a link to the online version and a change profile link in your template. If not, you can add these using the option Special link. In addition to these three special links, you can also choose the option Link to print version. When the reader clicks on this link, a browser window will open containing a PDF version of your message.

Link to a document
When you want to link to a document in the module Documents within Spotler you should use this link type.

Link (without tracking) to an external page
This is a link to a webpage that doesn’t include data tracking. You can use this link if you refer to a URL in your text, for example: https://www.spotler.com.

 

Don’t add tracking to your external URLs If you add tracking to an external URL, such as www.spotler.com, a piece of code is added to the URL that enables data tracking. This means you are not really pointing to the domain https://www.spotler.com and that is considered phishing. If you are writing your URLs in full, make sure you don’t add tracking.

 

Conversion link
When you are creating an external link with tracking, a Link to a webpage in Spotler or a Link to a document, you will also see a checkbox with the Conversion link option.

This option is checked by default and ensures that the conversion data for this link will be added to your mailing report. A conversion link is a link that creates traffic to your website. But what isn’t considered a conversion link? One example would be the unsubscribe link. This is a link with tracking (measurable), because you want to know if someone has clicked ‘unsubscribe’, but it does not generate traffic to your website.

 

The link URL and the link name You should choose a unique name for your link, so you can easily recognize it in the report. Tip: in the link name specify if it is a text link, an image link or a heading link.

 

Web analytics
Via the Web analytics tab you can see which Google Analytics values you have supplied. If everything has been done properly, you will only need to add the specific campaign word for specifying the link.

The standard Google Analytics values such as source, name and content can be filled in for all your links at once. To do this, go to the dropdown-menu in the header.