Content Editor
The content editor allows you to edit the message content of your mail job.
The editor consists of the main panel that displays the actual editor and an additional options panel on the right. The options panel also contains the [OK] and [Cancel] buttons for the editor in the bottom right corner. Click [OK] to submit the changes in the editor or [Cancel] to leave the editor without submitting any changes.
In the options panel, above the buttons, you have several sections. Each section can be opened and closed separately, so that you only need to see the content of those sections that are currently of interest to you. Simply click on a section header to open/close this section.
The content editor for a HTML message that is based on a click-and-fill system template is the special click-and-fill editor that is described below.
For a message that is based on the currently selected click-and-fill system template, the options panel on the right contains the following sections:
Template Colors
This option panel section allows you to change the colors that are used by the template. The colors that are currently in use are shown as color patches. Click on a color patch to open a color picker. Then in the color picker, select the new color. Once have found the color you want, click the [Close Color Picker] button to hide the color picker and show the color patches again. If you change your mind while the color picker is open and while you are trying to find a new color, and you want to stick with the previous color without changing it, click the Previous color patch in the color picker before closing it, to reset your color selection to the previous color.
Template Border
This option panel section allows you to select the border type for the main content box. You have the choice between a slight 4-pixel wide shade, a single 1-pixel wide line, or no border at all. Simply click one one of the available border types to select it.
Template Default Font
This option panel section allows you to select the default font that is to be used by the template. Simply click one of the available fonts to select it. This default is then automatically applied to the template. In the template content, where necessary you can of course always override this default with individual font settings, for example for certain paragraphs or words.
Content Fields
This option panel section shows all click-and-fill placeholders in the template. You can select a placeholder for editing by clicking it in the list. The placeholder that is currently selected for editing is highlighted (if any). Mandatory placeholders are marked with bold text and the state icons show which placeholders have been filled out and which not.
Merge Fields
This option panel section shows all available merge fields. Click on a merge field name to insert it into the editor at the current cursor position.
User-Defined Drop-Ins
This options panel section is available if drop-in content is currently enabled. It lists all user-defined drop-ins that you have currently defined. Click on a drop-in name to insert it into the editor at the current cursor position. See also here.
System Drop-Ins
This options panel section is available if drop-in content is currently enabled. It lists all available system drop-ins. Click on a drop-in name to insert it into the editor at the current cursor position. Hover the mouse pointer over a drop-in name to see a short description of what this drop-in will do. See also here.
Images in a HTML Message
When using the content editor to add images or videos to the HTML content, you have the following options:
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Inline Image: The image data is embedded in the message (as a special attachment). To display the image, the recipient's email client will load the image data from the message itself. No access to an external web server is necessary
For this image type, you upload the image from your local computer into LISTSERV Maestro, which will include the image with the message.
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Linked Image: The image is located on a web server and the message contains only a reference (link) to the image. To display the image, the recipient's email client will load the image from the web server.
For this image type, you have two options:
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If the image is already located on an external web server and you know the URL of the image, then you can simply specify the image URL to include the image as a linked image.
If you use this type, then make sure that the image file is not removed from the web server (at least not until the message is so old that either no one would open it anymore anyway, or, if somebody does, that it does not matter if the image is missing in the message). -
If the image is not located on a web server, but you have the image file on your local computer, then to include the image as a linked image, you can upload the image to LISTSERV Maestro and let LISTSERV Maestro act as the web server that serves the image.
LISTSERV Maestro will be able to serve an image of this type as long as the mail job that contains this image still exists in LISTSERV Maestro. So if you use this type, make sure that the mail job is not deleted (at least not until the message is so old that either no one would open it anymore anyway, or, if somebody does, that it does not matter if the image is missing in the message).
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YouTube Video: When adding a video instead of an image, you choose if the thumbnail image that is added to the HTML as stand-in replacement is sent inline with the message or served by LISTSERV Maestro. The image data is fetched automatically from YouTube, you don't need to upload a file.
All these various methods of adding an image to a message are available via the image dialog of the content editor. See here for a more in-depth explanation of the differences between linked and inline images, which also explains the main advantages and disadvantages of each type.
Unsure what image option is best? See here for help with choosing the right option.
Click-and-Fill Editor
To fill out the editable content fields of a click-and-fill template, move the mouse pointer over the editor area. As soon as the mouse is moved over an editable field, the field will be highlighted. Just click on the highlighted field to fill it out or edit its current content.
You can also click the field in the Content Fields section of the options panel on the right. You can use this as an alternative method to select a field for editing, in addition to simply clicking on a field in the content editor, as described above. In some cases, this makes it easier to select a field for editing, especially if the field does not have a clickable representation in the editor.
The Content Fields section is also useful to get an overview about which fields you
have already filled out 
and which not
. In addition, the dialog displays information about if a field
is used in the HTML part of the message, or the text part, or in both, or if a field is a mandatory field, which
means that you must supply a non-empty value for this field. For an optional field on the other hand, you may chose
to leave the field empty. However, you will have to do so actively (by editing the field but leaving its value
empty) in order for the field to be marked as complete. That way, even optional fields that you want to leave empty
require your attention at least once, where you actively decide to leave them empty, which makes sure that you do
not leave an optional field empty by accident.
Any fields that are still undefined are shown in the editor with a suitable "Lorem Ipsum" dummy text as a stand-in for the yet to be defined actual value so that the preview is more meaningful to you.
The message cannot be delivered until all fields have been filled out. If there are still fields which need your attention and which you can not find in the content preview, remember to check both the HTML and the text parts of the message.
When editing a field value, your options depend on the type of the field, as explained below.
Single Value Content Field
You can enter only one value for a single value field. This value will be used to fill out the field. If the same field appears in different locations of the template (or for example both in the HTML part and the text part), then all occurrences of the field will be filled out with the same value.
In the edit dialog for the field, simply fill out the desired content and click [Close Field].
A field may have any of the following types:
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Plain Text: The text that you type will be interpreted as plain text without any HTML code. If the placeholder is used in the HTML part of the message and the text you type contains any special HTML characters, then those will be HTML-escaped before replacement.
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HTML Source Code: The text that you type will be interpreted as HTML code and may contain special HTML tags that are handled depending on the context:
If the field appears in the HTML part of the message, then the HTML code appears unescaped and will therefore be interpreted as normal HTML. This allows you to include HTML formatting code in the field value (e.g. for attributes like underline, bold, color, font, etc.), but it also requires you to remember to manually escape any HTML-sensitive characters that are not be supposed to be interpreted as HTML code.
If such a field is used in the plain text part of the message, then the HTML code that you enter will automatically be converted to plain text (see below).
If the field appears both in the HTML and the plain text part of the message, then each of the above applies for each respective part, i.e. in the HTML part the field's value will be interpreted as HTML, in the plain text part it will automatically be converted to plain text.
Therefore, it is safe to use simple formatting tags (like <b> or <u> for bold or underlined style) so that in the HTML part some special formatting will be applied, even if the same field appears in the plain text part because there these tags will automatically be removed.
However, you should avoid complicated HTML code in such fields, as the rules by which the HTML code is converted into plain text are rather simple: Any HTML entities (for example like "&" or """) will be resolved into the correct replacement character. Any paragraph and linebreak tags (<p>, <br> and similar) will be converted to normal linebreaks. Any occurrences of ordered or unordered lists with list entries (<ol>, <ul> and <li>) will be converted into simple ordered/unordered lists. All other HTML tags will simply be removed. If in doubt, make sure to check the plain text tab after supplying the HTML field value to see how your input was converted into plain text and that it appears in an acceptable fashion. -
Image: Fields of this type appear only in the HTML part of a message. The value for such a field will be a URL that points to an image that is supposed to appear in the message. Depending on how the field was defined, options for inline and/or linked images are available, as described above.
Additionally, also depending on the field definition, an input field for the Title attribute may be available. Usually the value of this field is used to supply the "title" and/or "alt" attribute of the <img> tag that renders the image that is defined by the image field. In these cases, the "title" text will be displayed if the image is not available (and also for accessibility purposes) and may also become visible as a little tool-tip popup that appears when the mouse pointer hovers over the image. This may vary, however, depending on the field definition. If the "title" input field is available, then enter a meaningful "title" value for the image that you provide.
Multi Value Content Field
If a field is a multi value field, then you can enter several values for the field. The values you supply will be combined and used to fill out the field in a format defined by the template. If the same field appears in different locations of the template (or for example both in the HTML part and the text part), then all occurrences of the field will be filled out with the same values.
In the edit dialog for the multi value field, each value instance is displayed as a separate box. Click on a value of the field to edit it. To add a new value to the list, click the Add Field Value link at the bottom. To reorder the existing field values or to delete a value, use the little icons at the right of the value boxes. When you have completed filling out all field values, click [Close Field].
Multi value fields can be of the same Plain Text, HTML Source Code or Image types as described above, and all values of a multi value field are of the same type.
Grouped Multi Value Content Fields
The template may combine several multi value fields together into a group. If this is the case, then if you select one of the fields in the group for editing, you actually select the whole group.
In the edit dialog for a group of multi value fields, each group instance is displayed as a separate box, similar to the field value box for a normal multi value field (see above). For a group of multi value fields however, this group instance box contains not only a single field, but contains a value for each of the fields in the group.
For example, such a group may consist of three multi value fields: One for the article header, one for the article body, and one for the article image. So each instance of this group creates a new article, with a title, body and image. And when you edit an instance of this group, then the group instance box contains the values of all three fields that are combined to form the article: The header, body and image.
The values of the fields in all group instances will be used to fill out the fields in a format that is defined by the template. If the same fields appear in different locations of the template (or for example both in the HTML part and the text part), then all occurrences of the fields will be filled out with the same values.
In the edit dialog, simply click on any of the field values in any of the group instance boxes to edit this field value. To add a new group instance to the list, click the Add Value Group link at the bottom. To reorder the existing group instances or to delete an instance, use the little icons at the right of the instance boxes. When you have completed filling out the group instances, click [Close Field Group].