Good-to-Know Tips in the Visual Editor
Here are some handy hints to make your life easier when using the OptiMail Visual Editor.
- Auto-Full Screen: When you first open the Visual Editor, it will now open in full screen, with your settings and tools on the right, and the full-screen drag-and-drop builder on the left.
- Email Details: Your Email Details will be automatically open on the right, taking up less space, and ensuring you have the key elements sorted from the start.
- Adding Content: To add content, simply open the next tab on the right, and begin adding Rows, Content, and more. Easily navigate between the Details and Content tabs to update your template quickly and easily.
- Write with AI: In specific content blocks (Title, List, Paragraph, Button), use our AI Assistant to generate content as part of your workflow, like new CTAs or catchy titles.
- Preview, Validate, and Test: While Preview stays in the top left, you can also Validate the template and send a Test of your email before you either save or set up a campaign directly from the template builder using the Run Campaign option.
Visual Editor 101
When creating a new template, you’ll be given the option between the Visual Editor and the HTML Editor. In this article, we’ll focus on the Visual Editor, which gives marketing teams lots of flexibility in designing email templates, regardless of their HTML or design experience.
The Visual Editor allows you to simply drag and drop components onto a WYSIWYG canvas and edit their properties as you go.
Before building a template it’s important to separate the concepts of Email Details, Design Settings, Template Rows, and Content Blocks.
Email Details
The Email Details are the elements of your campaign that determine first of all how you find and manage your templates, but also how each of your customers will see the email within their inbox.
Template Name
The Template Name is the unique name you give each template that will appear in the template lobby, to allow you to search for the template and find it within your folders. Give it a name that reflects the purpose and content of the email to make it easier to find in the future.
Subject Line and Preview Text
Your Subject Line and Preview text are key for ensuring that your customers engagement with your email marketing campaign, as this is the first thing they see in their Inbox. You also need to have a subject line in place in order to save your template, so it’s worth making this one of the first things you add to your template.
From Name, From Email and Reply-To
These elements will confirm for the customer who has sent the email, and how they can get in touch (if replies are available). Double-check these elements before using your email template in a campaign, as they are important for building and maintaining brand trust and recognition.
Design Settings
The Design Settings is where you set the properties that apply to the entire template. This can include setting the overall width, the background color, default fonts, and more. This is incredibly useful for creating consistency in your email, and important for maintaining brand resonance.
You should set these up before moving on to adding content so that any new content is aligned and saves you from changing the settings on each individual component.
Template Rows
Rows are the structural units that define the horizontal layout of each template. You can define anywhere between 1-4 columns of content in each row, depending on your preferences.
When you’d like to have components side by side, for example, an image on the left and some text on the right, choose the relevant row option to suit.
You can update the settings for each individual row or use the default settings that you have defined earlier.
Content Blocks
Content Blocks allow you to drag and drop various forms of content into each row and column. There are a range of different types of Content Blocks, which you can read about here.
Each block has its own settings in terms of fonts, colors, padding, alignment, and more. For some Content Blocks, you can also use our AI Assistant to generate copy for templates. Learn more about the AI Assistant here.
For maximum flexibility, you can also use the Custom HTML block.
Rounded Corners
You have two options for rounding corners in your templates/images in the Visual Editor:
- Via creative effects - When you have the image you're looking to round the corners of, you can select the blue "Apply effects & more" button and choose the "Corners" button to manually slide the Radius selector to round all four corners of your image at once. However, this is not an exact solution in that you cannot choose the exact radius of the corners - so it may be more difficult to have the exact same level of rounded corners from one image to another.
- Content area rounded corners - The other option you have is within the template editor itself, where the "rounded corners" feature is applied to the row itself, rather than to a specific image.
Here are some tips to bear in mind:
- The ability to round corners will only become available when you have an entire row highlighted vs. a specific image.
- It's referred to, in the properties as the "Content area rounded corners" because it will only round the content area's corners - not the image or the text, etc.
- It shows up best if the template's Background color and Content area color are different (this can be changed under the "Settings" tab)
- When you adjust the radius, you'll notice that it's the content area background color that begins to round - making the background layout rounded
It's best to edit your images before bringing them into the template builder unless you are using an image as a "Row background image". Then, the image (since it's now your Content area background) will actually have rounded corners.