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Introduction to the Email Composer
Introduction to the Email Composer

Our drag-n-drop email editor makes it easy to create beautiful messages that can be used to send all sorts of email campaigns.

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Written by Simen Ytre-Arne
Updated over a week ago

It combines excellent ease of use with many features that give you complete control over the design of your emails. Its drag-and-drop interface enables you to design a nice-looking message without knowledge of HTML and produces code that adapts automatically to small screens, such as that of a smartphone.

Structure vs. Content

For maximum design flexibility, the structure of the message is separated from its content. This means, for example, that you can have rows of content that use different designs for different sections of the message (e.g., full-width background colors, a different number of columns, etc.) without negatively impacting the responsiveness of the message on mobile devices.

Message editing stage & properties panel

The editor is divided into two main areas: the main message editing stage on the left, and the properties panel on the right.

In general, you will drag and drop content elements onto the stage and then edit their properties. This is true for entire structures (e.g. a single-column row) and individual content blocks (e.g. a text content block).

When it comes to images, you can drag & drop image files directly from your desktop onto an image content block. You can also upload them using the File Manager or use the URL of remotely hosted images.

The properties panel is divided into three sections:

  • Content - Read About Content
    This is where you will choose and edit the specific content elements that make up your message: buttons, images, text blocks, etc.

  • Rows - Read About Rows
    Here you can select different structural elements (e.g., a single-column vs. three-column row) to organize your content.

  • Settings - Read About Settings
    Here is where you will define some overall settings that affect the entire message—for example, a default font family.

Content

The Content tab allows you to choose a new content element and add it to your message. Just drag and drop a content element (a button, an image, a text block, a transparent or solid divider, social media sharing, etc.) in the message area on the left.

Content properties

Clicking on a content element inside the message will make the content panel switch to Content properties mode so that you can change the settings of that particular content block.

If you click outside of a content element, the row in which the content element is located will be selected and its properties will be available (more on this under Rows below).

The Content properties area changes depending on the content element that has been selected. Some properties are available for any content type, while others are specific for certain content types. For instance, the letter-spacing property is available only for content blocks with a text element, like Title, Text, Menu, Button, etc. This setting enables you to customize the spacing in pixels between letters, where 0 is the default spacing for the font in use.

Another example is the button block, where you will see a number of tools to help you style the button and link it to your desired action (open a web page, send an email, make a phone call, etc.). In the example shown below, for instance, the “Show me how” button has been selected.

The properties panel switches to button mode and allows you to set the button’s width, background color, text color, alignment, the roundness of the corners, padding around the text, ... you name it. A scroll bar appears on the right side when the properties panel is longer than the screen's height.

With buttons and many other content items, the editor gives you great control over the design of your email messages. Some of the controls, including Content padding and Borders, have both a simple editing mode – where only one setting is shown – and an advanced editing mode, where more control is provided (e.g. specifying padding for the four sides of the object independently of each other).

Text Editing

If you click inside a text content block, the text editor toolbar will appear directly on the editing stage. It gives you access to a number of text editing tools: font family, font size, basic formatting, text alignment, numbered and non-numbered bullets, font color, links, etc.

Note that if you set the font family to Global Font, it will inherit the font family selected under the BODY tab. This allows you to change the font family for multiple elements at once just by changing that property in the Body tab.

Content Settings

The properties panel displays different controls depending on which content element you selected. Here is a description of some of the most frequently used ones.

Padding

Padding settings can be configured both for all sides of the selected element...

... or separately for each side.

Borders

Border settings can be configured for all sides of the selected element...

...or separately for each side of a button, column, etc.

Dividers

Dividers help create visual separation between design elements. They can be transparent...

...or visible. Here too, granular control on padding provides great design flexibility.

Color memory

As you pick colors for fonts, background colors, etc., the editor will learn and remember them, making them quickly accessible to style future content elements.

Settings

From this tab you can modify general settings that apply to the entire message:

  • Content area width: this is the width of the area where content blocks are dropped. According to email marketing best practices, it should typically be set to 600px or less. Please note that this is the maximum width that will be used on larger devices. When the device’s screen is smaller, the message will adjust automatically to it.

  • Content area alignment: set the body of the email to be aligned to the center (default behavior) or to the left. This setting will not affect the alignment of the content blocks in the email.

  • Background color: it's the message background color. This setting is effective only for rows (and columns) where a color has not been specified. Otherwise, the background color specified for that content structure will be used.

  • Content area background color: it's the background color for the content area. This setting is effective only for rows and columns where a color has not been specified.

  • Default font: it's the default font that will be used when another font family has not been specified. This setting affects all text set to use the global font.

  • Link color: it's the link color. As above, this setting affects all text links set to use the default color.

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