Designing e-Newsletters

G'day,
On a weekly basis I send out via email a newsletter to a club I'm in that includes text, photos and graphics. Here's the procedure I do it on my Macbook:
1. Have the draft designed and laid out in MS Word
2. Convert the document to PDF
3. Use preview to cut+paste each page as an image into an Entourage message
The trade off for this method is that obviously I can't include links, nor does it allow people to cut+paste; I'm essentially emailing in-text attachments.
I am contemplating getting an iPad, and I was wondering how i would go about in creating an email-based newsletter as well as creating a mailing list to send it to. Does the Mail App hve any advantages for desktop publishers and designers?
Thanks in advance!

Look into Apple's Pages app in the iTunes App Store. The App Store has a number of bulk mail apps as well.
Dah•veed

Similar Messages

Designing HTML Newsletters

I'm looking for an app that will allow me to easily create HTML newsletters. I know I can do it in Dreamweaver, but I'm looking for something quick and easy. Ideally, it would be along the lines of PrintShop and include templates and the ability to import my own graphics and such. Anyone know of such a beast?

Hi Jeppe,
This is what I do to send HTML newletters:
1) Create the page using Dreamweaver;
2) Open the HTML file using Safari;
3) Under "File", I click on "Mail Contents Of This Page", which takes me to a new message in Mail;
4) I choose the addresses and whatever text I need, then send.
Here's the catch: when designing the page (whether you use Dreamweaver or some other software), make sure you use absolute URL's in your code and upload your images, CSS, etc., to your server for your website. This way, the person receiving your newsletter has access to the files needed to correctly compile the HTML code. Hope this helps.
G4 PB Ti 867 MHz Mac OS X (10.2.x)

Email Marketing & Newsletters

Hi Guys
My client would like to send email marketing/newsletters based on their website design.
My question: what is the best/easiest way to send Dreamweaver designed html newsletters? What to avoid, what to make sure, how to avoid that it comes in the junk mailboxes, how do I make it "light" so they won't get 2MB in their mailboxes, how can I send it once it's finished?
I work on Mac, and I have Safari, Firefox and Chrome installed. I remember sending newsletters was possible via Safari but can I also try this another way?
Thanks
Bob

HTML email can be a bit tricky, here's some of the do's and don'ts...
Do:
Use tables for layout
Use absolute links to images stored on your server for any images in the email
Use html text whenever possible
Use a limited amount of inline css when necessary
Use a service like http://www.constantcontact.com or http://www.icontact.com
Don't:
Use external .css files or embedded (in the <head> section) css
Use css for layout
Use only images
Try to embed images or attachments
Use reletive links for anything
Use javascripts
Expect it to function or look exactly like your website
Send thousands of emails from a personal or corporate email account
Because of the vast differences in email clients, it is pretty difficult to get "a page from your site" to function correctly via email. It's best to "dumb down" the html of the site to fit what I have above. There are other concerns to consider, but the above will cover most of the problems you'll run into and give you decent cross-client compatibility.
The services I list above go even further to keep your email from being caught as spam, I highly recommend using them for both the creation and delivery of your email.

Help Getting CS6 DreamWeaver to Allow Me to Set HTML Settings in Property Inspector

Hi,
Another quesiton regarding table layout. As I often am designing email newsletters, I still need easy ways to set old fashioned HTML elements without messing with CSS (alignment, etc) - it just works better for me for email blasts to code in HTML, plus Outlook still doesn't follow CSS very well in HTML emails.
After moving to CS6 on a Mac, I can't get the property inspector to allow me to edit HTML Cell properties in the property inspector. Everything is grayed out. I'm sure this is some setting somewhere but I can't find it. In Preferences I do have "HTML instead of CSS" set. Note that in CS6 on my PC I AM able to edit these fields and change alignment and other cell propertie.s But, see below, on the Mac, everything is grayed out and I can't edit anything.
It's got to be a setting somewhere. How do you over ride CS6 insistance on CSS and HTML blocking and go back to ability to set HTML properties in the property inspector? There has to be something set different on my PC install than my Mac install but I can't figure out what, as I personally don't remember changing anything and both are brand new installs of CS6, and both are editing the same file.
HELP! Thanks!

Hi Nancy,
Thanks so much for the response, and I understand CS6 is more standards compliant, but they did NOT remove the ability to make these changes. You’re missing that I AM able to change and edit in the property inspector to my hearts content in CS6 on my WINDOWS install. See this screen shot – I can click in the property inspector for a cell and change alignment, etc, and CS6 happily makes the code (like it should) for me. But on the MAC, it’s grayed out per my original post. There is a setting I’m missing that I can’t find, or does CS6 Mac not work like CS6 Windows? Something doesn’t add up.

How do I save my .muse file as a .html file?

I want to upload the .html file to http://www.directmailmac.com and use it as an email template.

This will not work! A Muse site consist of much more then HTML – Java script for instance. The code, Muse exports, will not work as a HTML e-mail.
To built such e-mails, I would recommend a very fine application, provided you are working on a mac:
Mail Designer - Create newsletters and emails on your Mac

JSF always uses absolute path

Hi I am new to JSF. You might be able to help me with an absolute path problem I encountered in my project.
Our team has a JSF project called PHA, it has been deployed to 8 production machines. Recently I made some change to it and want to test it on one of my company's testing machine n251. In order to access n251, I need to use my company's proxy bbweb1. Here is the URL I ran:
http://bbweb1.xxxxx.com/bravo/pxhistory/map/n251/charlie/pha/ to access PHA on n251.(BTW, we use http://bbweb1.xxxxx.com/charlie/pha/ to access our production machines.) It seems like I got my main PHA page from N251. But when I clicked any
of the menu bars, bbweb1 proxy always ignores the relative path "bravo/pxhistory/map/n251" and simply rediect me to the main page again on one of our production machines. Here is the URL AFTER I clicked the menu bar:"http://bbweb1.xxxxx.com/charlie/pha/faces/jsp-pages/main page.jsp;jsessionid=CC8BD42D458EB5361532FF99FC1F5D83". I studied my code for the last 3 days and didn't find any problem. An only wild guess is: when I view source on my IE, I found JSF
always use absolute path :
src="/charlie/pha/faces/myFacesExtensionResource/tree2.HtmlTreeRenderer/1161281
90776/javascript/tree.js"></script><script type="text/javascript" I don't know if this indicates why I failed to route to N251. Could this cause by a wrong config on bbweb1? or is there some trick I don't know? ... Since I don't
have much experience on JSF, can you please help me with this? Thanks in advance.

I wish there were. I don't know of any way to do this. Why
not submit it
here -
http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform
Murray --- ICQ 71997575
Adobe Community Expert
(If you *MUST* email me, don't LAUGH when you do so!)
==================
http://www.projectseven.com/go
- DW FAQs, Tutorials & Resources
http://www.dwfaq.com - DW FAQs,
Tutorials & Resources
==================
"mikeycorn" <[email protected]> wrote in
message
news:gou2p7$8dl$[email protected]..
> When I design my newsletters in Dreamweaver, I always
have to manually
> switch
> the image links to the absolute path before sending it
out as an email.
> Is
> there a way I can switch back and forth between relative
paths for when
> I'm
> designing the site and absolute paths for when I'm doing
the newsletter?
>

Force Dreamweaver CS5 to use long hexadecimal color codes

Hi everyone. Does anybody know if there is an option to force Dreamweaver CS5 to use long hexadecimal color codes in all instances?
My company designs email newsletters and so we have to ensure maximum compatibility across web clients and email programs. The worst offenders for rendering CSS are Gmail and Outlook. We have to ensure all text and links have their color set by inline style tags, and since this is CSS Dreamweaver inserts them in 3-character shortform. Some versions of Outlook are not capable of processing these shortcodes, and so we must use 6-character codes in all instances.
I am aware that this is not necessary for most people but for us it is an essential feature. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Sorry for the confusion, SnakEyez02. My sense is that tobe82 addressed the issue that Dreamweaver CS5 inserts 3-character shortform hex code, i.e., #FC3 instead of #FFCC33. This can be seen by using Page Properties to select a color for the page background. As tobe82 points out, there doesn't seem to be a Preference that addresses 3- vs 6-character hex codes although CS5 uses the shorter version under some circumstances.
For those doing HTML newsletters with Dreamweaver, this is a significant issue because thousands of subscribers use a wide variety of email software, including Microsoft Mail, and view the newsletters online with a wide range of web browsers, including Internet Explorer. Having a "happy yellow" background render black on heavily used Windows software is unacceptable. Knowing the way to correct this is important, so tobe82's question in this forum helped by suggesting the manual code fix. But I agree with tobe82 that it would be a good idea for Adobe to provide a Preference now that the 3-character shortform hex code is in Dreamweaver CS5.
(Un)fortunately, the example is corrected. If you want to take a look, imagine this Defrost yourself and make a margarita! newsletter with a black background instead of the #FC3 yellow.
http://reigntrading.com/newsletter/retail/2011_April7/final.html
It looked more like an invitation to a wake than a party! The yellow background rendered black on Internet Explorer (Win 7) until I changed the automatically inserted #FC3 to #FFCC33. I don't read email on a PC, but thankfully Mac users are used to testing on Windows browsers.....

1-Up vs. 2-Up -- I design in 2-Up but my print house wants 1-Up

I've been designing magazines and newsletters for about 10 years, and I have learned to do it using facing pages -- this seems perfectly natural and that is how I visualize and balace my pages.
My print house of 7 years has recently informed me that high-end production houses always submit their work in 1-up format, becuase a 2-up multi-page booklet requires the print house to "break" the pages apart and re-impose them according to their printing methods, such as an 8 page sig. I understand this, and am willing (if not eager) to conform to save time, $$$, and reduce errors. However this presents a few issues. I was wondering if any of you high-end experts out there know any tricks or features that wil ease this transition:
1) MASTER PAGES -- I now have to create a separate left and right master. Is there any way to make InDesign automatically assign them according to even and odd pages? So that I can shuffle pages without having to manually update the master page assignments? (I am familiar with the "apply mater pages to ..." feature; hoping for something less clunky.)
2) VISUALIZING -- is there any way to see the pages side-by-side even though the pub is in 1-up format? A split screen like Excel, or some kind of proofing view? I can make a PDF and look at that, but again, this is an extra clunky step I'd like to avoid.
3 BLEEDS -- I understand that with 2-up the inside bleed is eliminated, and how this can be an issue for the print-house. So, is there a way to set up a 2-up pub where this inner-bleed still exists? Some kind of compromise between their needs and my familiar workflow?
Finally, if 1-up is the preferred standard for professional printing, and InDesign is the professional design standard, why is there even a 2-up option that creates so much extra work for the print house?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Not sure what you've been doing, but left/right master pages and
side-by-side display are both pretty normal and simple, unless you've
got Facing Pages turned off. Facing Pages don't print or Export to PDF
facing unless you choose Spreads when you print or export.
> 1) MASTER PAGES -- I now have to create a separate left and right
> master.
File > Document Setup > Facing Pages. Turn this on, and your master
pages will come in pairs.
> 2) VISUALIZING -- is there any way to see the pages side-by-side
Again, Facing Pages.
> 3 BLEEDS --
If you really need an inside bleed (you probably don't) you can offset
the spread that requires it. So instead of having page 4 next to page 5,
page 4 has an empty space to the right of it, and page 5 has an empty
space to the left of it. Why do you need an inside bleed?
> why is there even a
> 2-up option that creates so much extra work for the print house?
What 2-up option is this? Are you using Print Booklet?
Kenneth Benson
Pegasus Type, Inc.
www.pegtype.com

Font sizes render too small in DW CS3 design view?

I have recently upgraded to DW CS3 from DW8 (which is still
installed) on my Vista Ultimate system.
For some reason CS3 occasionally renders fonts smaller than
they 'should' appear. This can be replicated using the below code
(I realise this code is not 'best practice' by any measure but it
is the simplest way I could demonstrate the problem). In DW8 design
view it renders exactly as it outputs in IE5, 6, 7, and Firefox
(with default viewing settings) but in DW CS3 the font appears much
smaller! I realise this is probably a standards issue, with CS3
probably sticking to the standards more firmly than the browsers
and DW8 but I need the design view to render as the browser will or
it is no use to me
Please do not say that I should amend my code to be more
'Standards Compliant' as my main use of DW is coding a large
PHP/MySQL invoicing system which is used within a controlled LAN on
IE6 only. It was originally written by someone else and has been
added to and updated by myself. It is very large and certainly
doesn't need rewriting just to render correctly in DW CS3 design
view.
Any help greatly appreciated

Thanks, Malcom
Here is a screen shot of DW CS2 andn how the fonts are
displayed:
http://www.jlynnewines.com/images/purge_fontexample.gif
~~~
The page is:
http://www.jlynnewines.com/newsletter_archive.htm
~~~
Here is the code:
<td height="114" align="center"
valign="top">December,
2007 
 
<a href="
http://www.jlynnewines.com/newsletters/JL_News_Q4_2007.htm"
target="_blank">View
HTML Presentation</a><a
href="newsletters/pdf/JL_newsletter_Q2_2007.pdf"
target="_blank"> 
</a><a href="
http://www.jlynnewines.com/newsletters/pdf/JL_newsletter_Q4_2007.pdf"
target="_blank">Printable
PDF
Version</a>
August,
2007 
 
<a href="
http://www.jlynnewines.com/newsletters/JL_News_Q3_2007.htm"
target="_blank">View
HTML Presentation</a><a
href="newsletters/pdf/JL_newsletter_Q2_2007.pdf"
target="_blank"> 
</a><a
href="newsletters/pdf/JL_newsletter_Q3_2007.pdf"
target="_blank">Printable
PDF Version</a>
May,
2007 
<a href="
http://www.jlynnewines.com/newsletters/JL_News_Q2_2007.htm"
target="_blank">View
HTML Presentation</a><a
href="newsletters/pdf/JL_newsletter_Q2_2007.pdf"
target="_blank"> 
Printable PDF
Version</a>
February,
2007 
<a href="
http://www.jlynnewines.com/newsletters/JL_News_Q1_2007.htm"
target="_blank">View
HTML Presentation</a> 
<a href="newsletters/pdf/JL_newsletter_Q1_2007.pdf"
target="_blank">Printable
PDF
Version</a></td>

Why, since CS6 does DW now use ABSOLUTE image paths when dragging images into Design View from a folder in Finder?!

While I am grateful the previous issue I had with not being able to drag files into design view at all (in CC and CC2014) was resolved.
Guys (Adobe), seriously, if you're going to change the functioning of something that used to work just fine, at least supply a way for a user to revert to the old way... I absolutely loathe that I need a legacy version of DW to continue with my current workflow. Please put it back to the way it was, or at least allow a user to chose between the two behaviours.
If there is a way to do this, without using the Site Manager (which still doesn't work from Finder even with relative to document selected), I would appreciate any guidance.
As for using the Site Manager (before some smart guy suggests that I just use that) I do not wish to navigate to and create up to 20 "sites" a week and wait for DW to cache them all, when I am already in the folder with the image assets in Finder.
Also before someone pipes up and says: "You shouldn't be diving sites in design view anyway", I don't... I develop many, many newsletters every week and the folder structure is such that navigation to the actual image folder using the Site Manager would be painful at best.
I don't really like having to and replace all instances of "file:///Users/me/Work/company/Mailers/Year/wk14/mailer/dev/img/prod5.jpg". It is horrendously wasteful, time-wise.
Thanks in advance for any helpful replies

Sorry Murray, DW used to have an idea, my point is that since CS6 its developed a case of Amnesia.
The "elements" are in the "root" folder as follows:
newslettername.htm
img
imagename.jpg
So the relative path would be <img src"img/imagename.jpg" />
However since the change: <img src"file:///Users/me/work/Company/year/week/campaign/img/imagename.jpg" />
Which is completely useless and needs to be corrected before I upload the html anywhere.
As for using the site directory, I did answer that in my initial post. I use a laptop, I really don't want a site manager taking half my screen just so I can see the folder structure and navigate with that, especially since I am already at the files I need in Finder.
Again, this is something that used to work just fine in previous iterations of DW, so I don't believe Adobe is incapable of fixing it nor am I being unreasonable asking for a choice for those that may find the local absolute paths useful in some way. All I want is to be able to chose not to use absolute paths when dragging from Finder.

Using Business Catalyst for Newsletters - Several Questions

Hello everyone - I hope the format of this forum question is okay. I have designed our company website with Muse and we host it with Business Catalyst (webBasics+). We like it a lot and are looking to possibly upgrade it to the next package (webMarketing) simply because of the potential for newsletters (as well as all of the other benefits like blogging and the helpful modules).
My company currently uses Constant Contact for our quarterly newsletters and holiday emails and we send to about 2800 people. It seems obvious to me that we should ditch Constant Contact as we pay more than $50.00/month and I think it is very limiting as far as being creative goes. It just makes sense that I should use Bc because I already use it...and the 5,000 newsletters is only $6.00 more.
My questions are:
Are there a lot of templates to choose from? 100's? 1,000's?
Is it easy to create my own template? Do I need Dreamweaver (Only have Creative Suite and Muse)?
Is it easy to transfer an email list I have? We have software called ACT and I am a little unsure how this works but I assume there is a certain file type we can export and just upload into Bc.
Are there options to have links to social media (facebook, twitter, etc.) in the newsletters?
Are the newsletters limited in size? I think Constant Contact limited the width of an email to 600 pixels - occasionally we had text in a graphic we made in Photoshop - so things go a little fuzzy.
Add-on question from #5 Are there ways to layer graphics on top of one another in the newsletters aside from flattening it in Photoshop? This was the most limiting factor in Constant Contact.
I appreciate any help with answering these questions. Again, I think it is pretty obvious and maybe you have some things to tell me that I am completely clueless about. I basically have to make the pitch to the powers that be and I want to make sure I have a lot of the ends covered.
Thanks!

Hope this helps.
1) When using Adobe BC I can use dreamweaver cs6 as well, correct? Yes. BC works in DW CS6
2) If i download Adobe BC on my computer to build the website can I also use it on another computer to keep the products updated? I read that it's online so i'm assuming this can be done for no extra cost but i want to make sure. Yes you can have SFTP access from any computer.
3) Can you host your website using godaddy or other hosts while using business catalyst? NO, BC is a hosted solution. You can although host email services third-party (i.e. Gmail).
4) Lastly, if you were to make an ecommerce website for a CLIENT how would you do it? WOuld you use business catalyst or other software such as, authorize.net and a shopping cart? BC includes a full-featured shopping cart (http://www.businesscatalyst.com/features/online-store), so you would manage products in the backend. A payment gateway like Authorize.net or Paypal will be needed (http://www.businesscatalyst.com/features/payment-gateways).

Newsletters integration with email services

In this topic I would like to discuss about integrating custom newsletters into email campaign services. I've never used an email campaign service. I don't even know how they work. Lets say I have designed an html newsletter template and the client wants me to integrate rss feed into it using an email service like mailchimp or icontact.
1. To integrate rss feed into newsletter: does this service generates a code that I have to embed into my newsletter code in a predefined section (eg. Featured article)?
2. If not I would like some steps on how to integrate rss feed to my newsletter using icontact or mailchimp.
3. How to add a custom newsletter to my email campaign service? (Steps)
Ps: please provide answers that don't include ready newsletter templates. I have my own one.
Than you a lot in advance.

Right, it's just an .html file that has a base design with links to images stored on the client's server that functions as, basically, a letterhead if you will. Background images don't work well in email clients, so I avoid those all together, but the structure/design of the email is already there, yes.
Like I mentioned, I use the client's site as the home for the .html email/newsletter template, I just don't upload it. That way any links to images or pages on the client's site are easy to make and already correct from a directory structure point of view, all I need to do is add in the ht tp://www.domain.com/ part with a quick Find & Replace before I bring everything over to the email service to make them link to the files online.
So, to create an html email, I have 6 steps...
1. Open the template from the client's site and drop info into it
2. Save as the send date to the email folder (on the same directory level as index.html)
3. Ctrl+F (this step is because DW has intermittent issues with displaying absolute image paths, so I use local links during development)
     Set Find: to ../pages
     Set Replace With: to ht tp://www.domain.com/pages
     Set Find: to ../images
     Set Replace With: to ht tp://www.domain.com/images
4. Copy/paste code into email service admin
5. Test and make fixes if necessary
6. Schedule or send

Sending email-based newsletters

Is there a way to send email-based newsletters using Mail. The newsletter has been designed in a popular WYSIWYG editor. I know there are lots of dos and dont attached to designing them and thats not what Im interested in learning. Everyone discusses sending them using outlook and entourage but rarely ever Mail - can it be done and how?

If you mean a newsletter composed with HTML then the answer is yes.
RTF with Tiger Mail is really HTML but Mail does not include an HTML composer/editor.
Save the completed HTML document created by the editor of choice.
Open the saved document with Safari.
At the Safari menu bar, go to File and select Mail Contents of This Page.
The document rendered with Safari will be copied to a new Mail.app message which will be sent in its entirety.

Beginner Web Design help with tables

For my college Web Design course we are building a basic website using tables and basic coding. Right now I am trying to align this img with the text on the left. The width of the outer table is 1024px and everytime I try and add the img into its own <td> it pushes outside the outer table. I would add screenshots of the code and css, but for some reason it isn't allowing me to insert images into the post.

SnakEyez02 wrote:
I don't agree 100% with previous comments made about tables because they are still relevant for email layouts due to archaic applications like Outlook using the brilliant "Word" rendering engine or Google disabling CSS in the header for GMail.
Hear, hear!!
I have never bought into the nonsense about how tables should be used for tabular data only. Adobe has been touting the power of tables as layout tools for as long as I can remember, and still are: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/dreamweaver/cs/using/WScbb6b82af5544594822510a94ae8d65-7da3a.h tml (Although the wording has been toned down some).
DIV/CSS based layouts were not a part of my workflow until a couple of years ago. At that time, my plan was to make the switch from table based layouts (which already used a fair amount of CSS) to strictly DIV & CSS layouts. That’s when I discovered that Outlook and Gmail were unable to render DIV & CSS based newsletters. When I studied the newsletters of the industry leaders, and realized that almost all of them use tables with inline styles, I decided to put my workflow switch on hold.
While all of my mobile work is strictly HTML5 (DIV’s & CSS), I have given clients the option to go with either CSS or table based layouts for their websites. Most choose table layouts. Design migrations from Photoshop to Dreamweaver are 10 times faster with tables, with little to no CSS hacks, and far easier to maintain than the purists are telling you. This makes table layouts less expensive in the short and long run.
As far as SEO is concerned, Google doesn’t care either way: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fL_GZwoC2uQ
With all of that said, the W3C is planning on having the HTML5 recommendation finalized by 2014, at which time it should be completely stable and away from the bleeding edge. And while it is my hope that I will be done with table based layouts by then, I do not feel it is right that Adobe should make that choice for me by continuing to remove critical table, image, and text based tool sets from Dreamweaver. If for nothing else but newsletter design and development, we need those tools back.

Where can I learn page layout design?

I'm looking for a book, or a website course that will teach me the principles and theory of good layout design. Can anybody recommend any good resources for me?

I can't recommend a book, but it will help a lot to study actual layouts: magazine ads and story or article pages, newsletters you receive, etc. Notice what looks good to you and what looks "not good." See how headlines are used in newspapers, magazine articles and the like. In other words, open your eyes to design where ever you go and whatever you see. Become aware of design in nature, on billboards ... design is all around you. You're immersed in it whether you know it or not. Some of it is good and some of it is bad. Ask yourself "why?"
Someone, I'm sure, will recommend a book, but never stop looking!
Good wishes,
Walt

Designing e-Newsletters

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