MailPoet Email Editor
The email designer is the most important part of MailPoet. You'll probably spend most of your time using it.
The editor
There are basically two things you can do in the email editor:
- Drag and drop objects created from the sidebar to your editor;
- Perform actions (edit settings, delete, duplicate or move) on each object (i.e.: a text block, image, button, etc.) or layout (i.e.: two columns) that this object is inside.
In the image below, the light blue box has a lateral tab with the options and actions related to the one-column layout block. You can check its settings, delete, duplicate, or move it.
The dark blue box has a top tab with the actions for the image (in our example, the MailPoet logo image), so you can delete, duplicate, or move it.
Sidebar options
In the right sidebar, you'll find four menu items that will help you customize your newsletter:
- Content: add buttons, widgets, and other content to your newsletter.
- Columns: add pre-created columns to your newsletter.
- Styles: change your global newsletter styles.
- Preview: view a preview of your newsletter or send a preview via email to yourself.
The Content Panel
All of these tools are drag-and-drop. That means you simply have to grab one and drag into a layout block in the editor to the left.
1. Text
This tool allows you to add text to your newsletter. It's as simple as that! You can customize the text in many ways:
- Apply the same styles to all paragraph text or all headers
- Make the text bold or italic
- Change the text color
- Add or remove a hyperlink
- Align the text to the left, right, center, or make it justified
- Use a bullet or numbered list
- Add quoted text
- Add newsletter shortcodes
- Directly modify the HTML of the text block
2. Image
This tool lets you add images to your newsletter. Pretty easy, eh? You can choose from images already uploaded to your WordPress site as well as directly upload new ones.
3. Button
This tool is used to create buttons. When you drag the button tool into your newsletter, you'll need to click on the small gear icon to edit its settings. This icon is displayed when you hover your mouse over the button block.
After clicking the cog icon, the settings will be displayed:
Most of the other tools contain an options panel similar to the one above.
4. Divider
The divider is useful to separate content blocks inside your newsletter. Use as many dividers as you like! (Just don't divide by zero.)
In the new version of the Newsletter Designer, you can also increase the top and bottom margin of the divider, relative to the content above and below it. Simply hover over the divider block to see the ruler then drag up or down to change the margin value in pixels:
5. Spacer
The spacer works just like the divider. The only difference is the lack of a visible image (there is no visible divider bar.) It is useful for adding empty spaces or margins between your newsletter content.
6. Social
This tool has two main functions:
- Add links to your social media pages: Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, Linkedin.
- Add a link to your website or a mailto: link
Can't find your favorite social network among the pre-existing options? Not a problem! You can add your own custom image from the Tool Settings panel:
7. Posts
With this tool, you can easily add your WordPress Posts, Pages or Custom Post Types to your newsletter. When you drag the tool into the editor, the settings panel will reveal the available options:
Simply select the Posts that you want to insert and click the Insert selected button. Don't forget to check all the existing Display options to modify how your posts are displayed.
8. Automatic Latest Content
This tool is nearly identical to the Post tool above. The primary difference is that this tool will automatically include your latest Posts in the newsletter without having to manually add them each time you want to send a new newsletter. This tool is very useful when creating a Post Notification campaign.
9. Header
This tool adds a link to the browser version of your newsletter:
10. Footer
Like the header tool, the footer tool automatically adds the Unsubscribe and Manage Subscription links to your newsletter. The Unsubscribe link is mandatory when using the MailPoet Sending Service.
If you don't add the Unsubscribe link to the editor, you will see the message below and you'll be unable to progress to the next step of the newsletter creation process:
FAQ
Q: How do I adjust the email width? Can I make the email fill the page width?
A: It's not currently possible to adjust the email width — the email content width is fixed at 660px. However, you can use different column widths within the content.
Q: Is it possible to create a Share button in the newsletter?
A: It's not possible out of the box.