(DM-5) Using the Email Message Editor

Having looked at the different types of messages, let's now dive into the details of how to use the message editor.

Text Selection

Text is selected when it is highlighted in blue:

To select some text:

• Drag your cursor across the text and then let go of the mouse button

To select a single word:

• Double click on the word

To select all the text in the editor:

• Press [ctrl+a]

To deselect text:

• Single click anywhere within the text editing area.

If you start typing when text is selected, then the selected text will be replaced with what you type.

Undo Function

To undo what you have just done (typed, formatted, etc)

• Click on or type [ctrl+z]

Text Formatting

Here is the menu bar for the message editor:

Basic Formatting Options

The main text formatting functions are similar to other editors you may have used. You will probably find it easiest to type some text and then apply the formatting.

The main formatting options can also be set by holding down the [ctrl] key and pressing a letter on the keyboard.

Here are the available options

• [B] icon or [ctrl+b] - makes selected text bold.

• [I] icon or [ctrl+i] - makes selected text italic.

• [ctrl+u] - makes selected text underlined.

• or [ctrl+/] - remove all formatting on selected text

Changing Colour

To change the colour of the text or the background to the text:

• Click on the arrow next to the letter A on the menu bar:

This displays a colour palette where you can select a text and background colour for the text you have selected.

Note that you are not able to add your own colour - you can only choose from the colours shown here.

Text Layout Options

Bullet and Numbered Lists

You can create a bullet point (unordered) list of items:

To create a bullet point (unordered) list:

• Type the items in the list

• Select the items

• Click on the (Unordered list) icon

Or you can:

• Click on the (Unordered list) icon
• Type the list

• Press [Enter] twice to leave list editing mode.

You can also create a numbered (ordered) list of items:

To create a numbered (ordered) list:

• Use the technique above, but use the numbered (unordered) list button.

Paragraph Alignment

You can align paragraphs in different styles:

• Click inside the paragraph you want to align (you do not need to have selected the text)

• Click on the paragraph icon

This will give you a range of alignment options:

You can use these to align a paragraph in the style indicated by the individual icon.

Adding a Link

In order to add a link to an external web page:

• Type the text that the user will click as the link

• Select that text:

• Click on the icon
• Enter the URL of the web page you want to link to in the "To What URL should this link go?" field

• Click [Insert Link]:

• Single click anywhere in your text to deselect the clickable text.

Your link will now look like this:

Adding Images and Attachments

All the details of working with images and attachments are shown in lesson DM-8.

Working in Full Screen

You can edit your details in full screen mode, where the screen is cleared except for the editing area:

• Click on the icon on the right hand side

File Save

You can save the work that you are doing by either:

• Clicking on [Save]

or

• Type ctrl+s

Note that if you are working in full screen mode, you can type ctrl-s and it will save your work but also quit full screen mode. This is normal, and you can go back into full screen mode to continue working if you choose.

Importing Text From Other Documents

The Issue

When you start out, you may find yourself wanting to import text from other documents into different messages. This can cause issues due to different formatting methods being used in the existing document editor and in the Workshop Angel editor.

Let's walk through an example of how to manage this situation, using a Word document like this:

You can see that this document includes:

• A specific font type

• Different font sizes

• An image

• Colours

• A "Click here" link.

If you just copy this text in Word and then paste it into the message editor, you will get multiple issues come up:

• New text that you type won't be in the same font or the same size.

• Clicking on the link when you "view" the message will cause you to be logged out of Workshop Angel

• The image will have disappeared

The Solution

The best way to solve this issue is to paste the words from your existing document without any formatting information, and to re-apply the formatting in Workshop Angel.

Follow these steps to remove the existing formatting:

• Select the content from your existing document.

• Open the message you wish to paste it into in Workshop Angel.

• Paste the content into the "Paste Area" of the message, at the bottom of the right hand side of the screen.

You can see that all of the text content has been pasted but without any formatting.

If you have previously added any content into the Content - Email area:

• Select all the content in that area

• Click on the Erase Formatting button
• Delete the content

Then to add your new content:

• Select and copy all of the text in the Paste Area

• Paste it into the Content - Email area

• Add the formatting and new text that you require

Summary

Wow, that was a very detailed lesson! We have seen how to use the email editor in terms of using all the different text and paragraph formatting features.

We have also seen the issues that can come up when bringing text across from other document editors, and worked through how to solve this by removing the formatting, and then re-applying it as you work in the Workshop Angel editor.

Now you are a guru in using the message editor, let's move on to how you can easily add the various shortcodes to your messages so information can be extracted from your booking database.