Getting the most out of mail templates

Working with BrandMail Mail templates

Getting the most out of BrandMail mail templates

Before getting started with mail templates, it is useful to ensure your Microsoft Word settings are optimised for the creation of mail templates. Here are some settings to check before getting started.
Open up Microsoft Word, and go to File > Options and click on Advanced:

Image Size and Quality

  1. Tick do not compress images in file
  2. Select default resolution and set it to no less than 220 ppi

Show document content

  1. Tick Show background colors and images in Print Layout view
  2. Tick show bookmarks


Display

  1. Tick show pixels for HTML features



Customize Ribbon

  1. Click on Customize Ribbon and check the Developer box.



Microsoft Outlook settings

These Outlook settings will help you ensure the best possible experience when working and testing your mailers. 

Image Size and Quality

  1. Tick do not compress images in file
  2. Select default resolution and set it to no less than 220 ppi

Display

  1. Tick show pixels for HTML features

View

When working with mailers it is useful to switch to web or HTML view, since this will show you how the mailer will actually appear in Microsoft Outlook. To switch to Web view, click on View at the top of your Word ribbon. Then select Web Layout to toggle to HTML view. 



Office theme

Since Microsoft Outlook uses Microsoft Word as its base editor, it is very important to ensure that there is consistency between your Word theme and style settings and Outlook settings, since your Outlook settings will always take preference when mailers are inserted into Outlook. 

To view a theme in Word click on Design > Colours. This will bring up the theme in an open Word document. 



BrandMail theme

To check the default theme used on the BrandMail toolbar where the mailer will be required, go to Brand Tool and open your default theme to view the colours and order of colours used in BrandMail. 




BrandOffice theme

Check your BrandOffice theme for consistency and then apply the matching BrandOffice theme to your mailer template document. Check the theme after applying and these should now match. 



Tip: Use an existing mail template which has already been correctly configured, when creating new mail templates. This will save you the time and effort required to set up your themes and styles. 

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