Email Template Editor

Contents of this Topic: Show

Overview

Main Menu>Settings>Report Functions>Email Template Editor  

Description of the Email Template Screen

Email Template Editor screen

 

Template Drop-down List

Tags Section

Test With Buttons

Body of the Email Template

Delete Button

New Button

Save Button

Reload Button

Using the Email Template Editor

Creating a New Email Template

  1. To build the template from scratch:

    1. Select New.

    2. Enter a name for the new template when prompted, and select OK.

    3. Optional: Select the Miscellaneous filter from the Tags drop-down list to limit the list.  

    4. Select the Subject Start tag from the list and double-click to add it to the body of the email text in the right-most pane.

    5. Type in the text of subject line as it should appear next to the <<Subject Start>> tag.

    6. Double-click the Subject End tag from the list to insert it at the end of the subject line.

For example, if the company name is My Web Orders and first line of the email template looks like this:

<<Subject Start>>Order Confirmation from <<CompanyName>><<Subject End>>

the resulting subject line of the email sent to the customer will be:

Order Confirmation from My Web Orders

    1. Continue to add tags and/or text to the template body until the all desired text and tags are entered.

    1. Select Save to create the template, which now appears in the Template drop-down list at the top of the screen.

    2. To test the current template, select one of the Test With: buttons located above the body of the email template. The choice of which button is used depends on the types of tags included in the email template; therefore it may be necessary to test the template with more than one button.

  1. To create a template based on a standard email template:

    1. Select the base template from the Template drop-down list. The AllFields.txt template contains all of the possible email tags, making it a good candidate to copy.

    2. Select the email template pane, select all or a portion of the template and copy it to the clipboard.

    3. Select New and enter a name for the new template. Select OK.

    4. Select anywhere in the email template body pane and paste the data from the base template into the new template. Select Save.

    5. Continue editing or making changes to the template text and/or tags as necessary. Select Save to retain the changes.    

    6. Select one of the Test With: buttons located above the body of the email template to test the changes with real data in the store file. The choice of which button to use depends on the tags included in the email template; it may be necessary to test the template with more than one button.

Modifying an Existing Template

  1. Select the template you wish to modify from the Template drop down list at the top of the form. The template opens in the editor window below.
  2. The list of available tags, which represent data fields in your store's data file, appear on the left of your screen. To view a specific category of tags, click the radio buttons at the top of the Tags section.

Note: Any text between the tag markers <<  >> in the editor window is a tag that is replaced with actual data when the email is sent.

The data contained in some tags is only available to be inserted into the body of an email that is sent from a related location in the program. For example, a Purchase Order field tag will not be available in an email sent from the View Customers screen.

Also, data in a similarly named tag field may be different depending on the category to which it belongs. For instance, the Purchase Order "Comments" tag would contain different information than the Orders "Comments" tag.  

  1. Type anywhere in the editor window to add or edit text. To insert a tag, click where you want the tag to appear, then either double-click the name of the tag in the list on the left, or select the tag and select Insert into Template.

Note: The EmailFromName and EmailFromAddress tags allow you define what name and address appear in the From: field in email using that template. To use them, insert the tag (or tags) at the top of template, then add a comma and the name or email address. For example:

 

<<EmailFromName,George Smith>> <<EmailFromAddress,george@smithco.com>>.

 

The SubjectStart and SubjectEnd tags allow you to define what appears in the Subject: field in email using that template. To use them, insert the opening tag next to the text you want to appear in the Subject line, then insert the closing tag. For example:

 

<<Subject Start>>Order Confirmation from <<CompanyName>><<Subject End>>.

 

  1. To preview your template, select one of the Test With buttons at the top of the editor window. Note: It is important to test a template with the proper type of data. For example, tags related to orders or suppliers will not work if you test the template with customers.

  1. When you are finished editing the template,select Save. Or, to cancel your changes, select Reload to reload a copy of the current template in its previous form.
  2. Select Close to exit the Edit Email Templates screen.

Testing or Previewing an Email Template

  1. To preview the template, select one of the Test With: buttons directly above the body of the email template. It is important to test a template with the proper type of data. For example, tags related to orders or suppliers will not work if you test the template with customer records.

  2. The Email Templates screen changes slightly once a Test With: button is selected. The other buttons are grayed out and a Back to Edit button appears. The tags in the body of the email template are replaced with valid data.

  3. Use the navigation arrows to scroll through the collection of records and view the sample output for each one.

  4. Select Back to Edit button to continue tweaking the changes made to the template.

  5. When satisfied with the test results, select Save. Or, to cancel the changes and start over with a fresh copy of the current template, select Reload.

Including HTML Content in an Email Template

  1. To add HTML to a plain text email template, use the Email Template Editor or the Edit Message tab of the Send Email screen.  

For example, select the standard email template, HTML Confirmation with Invoice.txt from the Template drop-down list of the Send Email screen.

  1. Select Edit Template.

  2. Scrolling down, we see the beginning of the HTML portion of the template.

  1. To add HTML to a template that does not already contain HTML content, add the <<HTML Start>> and <<HTML End>> tags in the body of the template.

  2. Type the full HTML source code in between those tags, including any SEOM field tags that the program should replace with data from your store data file.

  3. Any text that is not within the <<HTML Start>> and <<HTML End>> tags is processed as plain text and sent as the text-only version of the email.

  4. In most cases, you will want to repeat the entire plain text message of the template within the <<HTML Start>> and <<HTML End>> tags.

Example of an HTML and Plain Text Email Template

<<OrderDate>>

Dear <<OrderName>>,

Thanks for ordering from <<CompanyName>>.

We appreciate your business!

- The Staff at <<CompanyName>>

<<HTML Start>>
<p><<OrderDate>></p>

<p>Dear <<OrderName>>,</p>

<p>Thanks for ordering from <b><<CompanyName>></b>.</p>

<p><i>We appreciate your business!</i></p>

<p>- The Staff at <img src="http://www.stoneedge.com/images/stomediumsm.gif'">
<<HTML End>>

An additional resource for help coding HTML is WebMonkey.

Adding a Tracking Link to an Email Template

Additional Information

Send Email

Settings

 

Created: 3/7/11

Revised: 9/23/14

Published: 04/14/16