Email formatting

Karen Jenkins

I'm new to Online Express - how can I format my email so that it looks great for both mobile viewing and viewing on a computer screen?  Thanks!

Chris Martin

Hi Karen. You shouldn't have to do any special work to make sure your Online Express email is formatted properly on mobile devices. It has automatic behavior to do things like making sure images fit the full width of the device, wrapping multi-column layouts into a single column on mobile devices, etc.


Thanks!

Chris Martin

Karen Jenkins

Thank you!

Karen Jenkins

My experience to date has been that the email appears differently when viewed on a computer screen AND on each and every different mobile device tested. So, I'm looking for a means to tweak the design so that it's legible and formatted properly on all.  Not sure this is possible.

 

Chris Martin

Hey Karen. The approach we've taken with Online Express is that emails should never appear illegible or poorly formatted on any reasonably modern mobile device. Because of the many ways in which different email devices and clients implement interpretation of HTML and CSS standards differently, it's definitely possible to see some small differences in how a given email renders. And you'll definitely see big differences (by design) in how emails will look when comparing the desktop design (i.e. what you see in Online Express) and what you see on mobile devices.


Rather than expect users of Online Express to have proficiency in HTML/CSS authoring and to be versed in the various tweaks and tricks that are necessary to work around all the ways email clients don't properly adhere to published HTML/CSS standards, we chose to bake that stuff into OLX. The tradeoff was that we wouldn't be able to give you access to the underlying HTML because we wouldn't be able to ensure your would always produce desirable outcomes across all devices/clients.


I can tell you that in our new email marketing tool in RE NXT, we have plans to allow HTML editing for more advanced content authors. We're imagining a workflow where you could begin in the drag and drop editor and get an email quickly drafted so that it's close to your design intent...but then let you switch over to HTML world. You wouldn't be able to come back to drag and drop world after altering the HTML (for the same reason as noted above)...but it would allow more advanced folks who are comfortable working in HTML to do so.

Karen Jenkins

Thank you - that helps me understand the degree to which I can control the view, device to device.  When will the new email marketing tool be available in NXT?


Best, Karen Jenkins

 

Kevin Christensen

Chris Martin:

Hey Karen. The approach we've taken with Online Express is that emails should never appear illegible or poorly formatted on any reasonably modern mobile device. Because of the many ways in which different email devices and clients implement interpretation of HTML and CSS standards differently, it's definitely possible to see some small differences in how a given email renders. And you'll definitely see big differences (by design) in how emails will look when comparing the desktop design (i.e. what you see in Online Express) and what you see on mobile devices.


Rather than expect users of Online Express to have proficiency in HTML/CSS authoring and to be versed in the various tweaks and tricks that are necessary to work around all the ways email clients don't properly adhere to published HTML/CSS standards, we chose to bake that stuff into OLX. The tradeoff was that we wouldn't be able to give you access to the underlying HTML because we wouldn't be able to ensure your would always produce desirable outcomes across all devices/clients.


I can tell you that in our new email marketing tool in RE NXT, we have plans to allow HTML editing for more advanced content authors. We're imagining a workflow where you could begin in the drag and drop editor and get an email quickly drafted so that it's close to your design intent...but then let you switch over to HTML world. You wouldn't be able to come back to drag and drop world after altering the HTML (for the same reason as noted above)...but it would allow more advanced folks who are comfortable working in HTML to do so.

Chris,


What's the time frame on opening up HTML Editor to advanced users for Next Gen email in NXT? We've been sending emails out with success but are severely limited in bringing over all our other emails due to the lack of edit options. I'm very advanced in HTML and CSS so it's not fun trying to build an email with your hands tied.  We're at a point where we may be buying a 3rd party email tool because NXT can't fulfill our needs moving forward. If we can get it turned on right now or get into an early adopter of it, we'd love to give you all the feedback and bug catches you need. 


Thanks,

Kevin Christensen

Kevin Christensen

bump previous question Chris Martin‍ 

Chris Martin

Hey Kevin Christensen‍ thanks for the bump and sorry for missing your post. We don't have committed timing just yet on allowing access to the underlying HTML, but it probably won't be before the end of the year. We're working on a few other things that customer feedback tells us are more urgently needed by more marketers (and hopefully they'll be valuable for you too!).


Are you comfortable sharing any specific examples of content design you're not sufficiently able to produce using the drag and drop editor? In our perfect world, no user ever feels like their only way to produce a given design intent is by cracking open the HTML (and bearing the responsibility of the associated cross-device testing, etc.) so we'd like to chip away at any constraints that stand in the way of drag and drop design flexibility.


But we love our power users too and are committed to getting out of their (your) way and letting you do what you do best in code. Stay tuned to the RE NXT quarterly roadmap webinars for updates as we get closer.

Kevin Christensen

Chris Martin‍, 


It's not so much that the drag and drop isn't good. It's the margins and padding of everything. Not being able to add buttons or images in the same block, there is all this default margin/padding having to separate out everything. Also only being limited by your default column list 1, 2, or 3. Sometimes certain email templates call for having 2/6 + 4/6, 3/12 + 9/12, etc. 


Having more power user options to make tweaks to the the drag and drop features would go a LONG way. i.e margin and padding on everything, or maybe being able to edit html in only WYSIWYG text box for only specific sections and not the entire email itself. It doesn't necessarily have to be completely opened to html but it's just easier that way. We've been building out our own emails in Luminate for years so we know the struggle and appreciate the drag and drop features and new email tool updates. It's easier staying in NXT and sending out emails because we can query list easier, but the new email tool just doesn't seem quite there yet.


We'd love to be apart of any EAPs you might have going for it. We're developers ourselves and we'd give you a lot of great feedback and support. 


Thank you!

Kevin Christensen   

Kevin Christensen

Chris Martin‍,


We also build out our monthly newsletters via Luminate and it's important that we have the ability to view the email in a web version. We use that link to share the newsletter on Social Media and create an archive list for those that want to look back through. Is that also a feature coming to NXT's builder anytime soon or will users only be able to see the email version that was sent them? 


Thanks! 

Chris Martin

Awesome feedback Kevin Christensen‍! Wanting more flexibility/granularity with padding and margins is legit..we've heard this request from others as well and is something we're looking at. We've also considered an implementation of HTML editing where you can start in drag/drop world to get some rough layout work done quickly and then toggle over to HTML world to fine tune.


And yes the web version of emails is something we've been asked about as well. There's a separate thread on the community that mentions this. Would a simple web page view of the email without any further links/branding on the page meet your needs? 

Hilda Pries

We too would love to be part of the EAP for getting more flexibility with emails in OLX. My marketing team is SOOOOO frustrated that they are looking at other options that would not easily integrate with RE/NXT. I am not happy about it, but there is nothing I can do unless Blackbaud gives us more ability to design emails. Period. Why can't this be done sooner?

Chris Martin

Hi Hilda Pries‍. Would you be willing to share a sample email design that your marketing team is aiming for and that they're not able to replicate closely enough using the new drag and drop editor? It's been a good exercise for us internally here to take customer designs and do our best to use our own marketing tool to try to replicate the design. Sometimes we bump into the same design constraints that customers mention and it helps inform what we work on next. Also sometimes we find that we can actually replicate a design pretty faithfully (and easily) in the new email tool and when that's the case, we might need to be doing a better job of showcasing what's possible.


Separately, does your marketing team prefer working in raw HTML like Kevin Christensen‍ mentioned? Or is their preference the drag and drop experience but just with more design flexibility?

Kevin Christensen

Chris Martin:

Awesome feedback Kevin Christensen‍! Wanting more flexibility/granularity with padding and margins is legit..we've heard this request from others as well and is something we're looking at. We've also considered an implementation of HTML editing where you can start in drag/drop world to get some rough layout work done quickly and then toggle over to HTML world to fine tune.


And yes the web version of emails is something we've been asked about as well. There's a separate thread on the community that mentions this. Would a simple web page view of the email without any further links/branding on the page meet your needs? 

Chris Martin‍ Just like with Luminate. We just need a hyperlink to just a web view link. That would be great for our newsletters so we don't have to build them out in Luminate and NXT. Also I wanted to follow up on the EAP for HTML editing. Have you all made any progress in implementing that? 


Thanks,

Kevin