LISTSERV Maestro 8.1-4 Help

Define Message

Define the content of your message on this page.

The email message consists of the following parts (some of which are optional):

• Email Subject
• Template Gallery
• HTML Content
• Plain Text Content
• Attachments
• Social Media Publishing
• Options

Email Subject

Enter the subject line for the email into the Subject edit field at the very top of the page.

As part of the subject line, you can specify merge fields and drop-ins for a personalized subject line that is custom tailored for each recipient. But remember to only use merge fields and drop-ins that make sense in a single line, text only subject.

Template Gallery

The template gallery can be accessed via the Open Template Gallery link at the top right corner of the page. The gallery allows you to pick the template that the message content shall be based on.

You can either pick one of the available templates, or chose to create your message for scratch, without basing it on a template, either by starting with an empty content or by uploading a HTML file that you have created outside of LISTSERV Maestro. You can also copy the content from another mail job.

HTML Content

An email can either be a HTML email (optionally with a plain text alternative) or a simple plain text email. To create a HTML email, you need to select one of the following from the template gallery: Either pick one of the templates, or select the No Template -> HTML Content, Edited in LISTSERV Maestro choice, or upload a prepared HTML file via No Template -> HTML Content Created in External Editor (Uploaded).

Then you need to provide the message body in HTML format, on the HTML tab. The HTML tab shows a preview of the current HTML content. To edit it, click the Edit the HTML content link in the top left corner of the tab.

In the HTML content, you can use merge fields, drop-ins, and conditional blocks to customize the content for each recipient.

The HTML content of a mail job can be based on several different template types. The template that the content is based on can be changed by clicking on the Open Template Gallery link. This allows you to start over with a new template or uploaded content.

Working with the different available template types is slightly different for each:

• Standard Template: The HTML content is based on an existing standard template. A standard template has a predefined layout and design, with predefined editable blocks. To fill out a standard template, you provide content for these editable blocks.

• Click-and-Fill Template: The HTML content is based on an existing click-and-fill template. A click-and-fill template has a predefined layout and design, similar to a standard template. But instead of the larger editable blocks, a click-and-fill template has more fine grained editable fields with predefined semantics, akin to the blanks in a form. To fill out a click-and-fill template, you provide content for these editable fields.

• HTML Content, Edited in LISTSERV Maestro: The HTML content is created from scratch, without any template, using the built-in visual HTML editor (WYSIWYG editor) of LISTSERV Maestro.

• HTML Content Created in External Editor (Uploaded): The HTML content was prepared outside of LISTSERV Maestro, for example with the help of a 3rd party HTML editor, and was then uploaded as a HTML file (possibly with associated image files) into LISTSERV Maestro.

At the bottom of the tab there is also the Download HTML link which allows you to download the current HTML content.

The Preview with linked images and Preview with inline images options at the bottom right of the tab allow you to check how your HTML message will look if the images in the message are not displayed by the recipient's mail client (if there are any images). There can be many reasons why images are not being displayed by a mail client. For example, the mail client could initially be blocking the display of linked images until the user manually unblocks them (this is very common with current mail clients), the inline image attachments may have been stripped from the mail by the recipient's mail server, or the mail client could simply be unable to display any images at all (as may be the case with older mail clients). Because of this, it is important that you make sure that your message is understandable even if the images in the message are not displayed. This means that you should not put any crucial information/text solely into images.

Removing the check mark from either of these options will have the effect that the corresponding image type will no longer be displayed in the preview. This lets you check how the message would look if this image type were blocked (or stripped) by the recipient's mail client. (Each option only has an effect if images of this type are actually present in the message.).

Note: These options affect only the preview of the message. The actually delivered emails will always include the images (either linked or inline, depending on the type of each image), no matter how the options are set here on the preview tab.

Plain Text Content

An email can either be a HTML email (optionally with a plain text alternative) or a simple plain text email. To create a plain text email, you need to select the No Template -> Plain Text Content, Edited in LISTSERV Maestro choice from the template gallery. If you have a user-defined click-and-fill template that defines a simple plain text email, then you can also select this template.

Then you need to provide the message body in text format, on the Text tab. The Text tab shows a preview of the current plain text content. To edit it, click the Edit the text content link in the top left corner of the tab.

The same Text tab is also used for the plain text alternative for a HTML email. It is possible to have a HTML email without a text alternative, but this is not recommended. It is a best practice to always include a text alternative with a HTML email.

In the plain content, you can use merge fields, drop-ins, and conditional blocks to customize the content for each recipient.

Attachments

You can add any number of file attachments to your message. To add an attachment, switch to the Attachments tab and click the Add Attachment link in the top left corner of the tab. Once the attachment is uploaded, its file name and size will be shown on the tab in list form.

Note: The LISTSERV Maestro Administrator may limit the size of uploaded files, or limit the size of email messages. Exceeding these limits by including large or multiple attachments will cause a delivery error.

Each attachment has a delete link that allows you to remove the attachment from the job.

Each attachment has a download link that allows you to download the attachment as a file. Depending on the type of the attachment, it will either be saved to disk or opened directly in your Internet browser.

Attachments are optional.

Social Media Publishing

If the mail job recipients are based on a subscriber list dataset in the subscriber warehouse, then you have the option to enable the Forward to a Friend feature. To do so, click the Edit Settings link in the Forward to a Friend section of the Social Media tab.

If you have given LISTSERV Maestro access to your Twitter and/or Facebook account, then LISTSERV Maestro can automatically publish a message for you on Twitter or Facebook, at the same time as the mail job is being delivered to its normal recipients. To enable this Twitter and/or Facebook access, go to the Social Media Settings page, via the Utility menu.

Once you have enabled Twitter/Facebook access, you can define the messages that shall be published by the mail job here on the Social Media tab.

For Twitter: Click the Edit Message link in the Twitter section to enter the message you want to publish on Twitter. The message must contain the {{MessageURL}} placeholder. This placeholder will be replaced with a URL that points to a version of your email that can be viewed in a browser. The currently configured Twitter account is also shown. This account will be used to publish the message, unless a different account is configured before the delivery time of the mail job. LISTSERV Maestro will always use the Twitter account which is configured at the moment of delivery to publish the message. If no Twitter account is configured at the moment of delivery, then the job will still be delivered, but the Twitter message will not be published.

The Twitter message is optional. Simply leave it empty if you do not want to publish a message on Twitter for a given mail job.

For Facebook: Click the Edit Message link in the Facebook section to enter the message you want to publish on Facebook. A link that points to a version of your email that can be viewed in a browser will automatically be published together with your message, so in contrast to the Twitter message, you do not have to include a placeholder for this link as part of your Facebook message. The currently configured Facebook account is also shown. This account will be used to publish the message. You also need to select the Facebook page to which the message shall be posted. You have the choice between the personal page of the current Facebook account, as well as all other pages that this account is an administrator for (if any). LISTSERV Maestro will always use the Facebook account which is configured at the moment of delivery to publish the message. If the configured Facebook account is changed after the job was initially defined, the following will happen:

• If the message was supposed to be posted to the personal page of the originally configured Facebook account, and at the moment of delivery a different Facebook account is configured, then the message will be posted to the personal page of this new account.
• If the message was supposed to be posted to a Facebook page for which the originally configured Facebook account is an administrator, and at the moment of delivery a different Facebook account is configured, then the message will still be posted to the same Facebook page as originally configured, but only if the new Facebook account is also an administrator for that page. If it is not an administrator for the page, the message will not be published at all.
  The message will also not be published if at the time of delivery the originally configured account is still the same, but the account is no longer an administrator for the selected Facebook page.
• If no Facebook account is configured anymore at the moment of delivery, then the message will not be published.

If for any of the reasons described above the message is not published on Facebook, then the job itself will still be delivered normally. Only the Facebook message will not be published.

The Facebook message is optional. Simply leave it empty if you do not want to publish a message on Facebook for a given mail job.

Options

On the options tab, you can define the following content specific settings (the available settings depend on the current content type and recipients type):

• Language: Define the character encoding to be used to encode the email message.

  If LISTSERV Maestro is being used in a single language environment, either with plain English or with one of the common (West) European languages, then the safest choice is always the ISO-8859-1 (Latin 1) encoding. It contains all 26 common characters (both in upper and lower case), numerals 0 - 9, all the common punctuation characters and the more common special characters such as '@', '+', '*', and others. In addition, it contains many of the uncommon characters required for most West European languages, such as 'ö', 'å', 'ç' and others.
  See here for more information.

• Drop-Ins: Enable or disable drop-in content for the given job.

  If drop-in content is enabled, then you must define non-empty opening and closing tags.
  See below for more information.

• Alternative Text: Define if the HTML message shall include a plain text alternative (recommended) or not.
  (This setting is only available for HTML content.)

• Automatic CSS Inlining: Define if automatic CSS inlining shall be applied to the HTML content of the mail job. The CSS inlining will be applied just before delivery of the job.
  (This setting is only available for HTML content.)

  If the mail job's content is based on a template, then this setting is defined by the template and cannot be changed here. In this case, the CSS inlining (if enabled) will be applied to the HTML code of both the template and the user supplied editable blocks.

• Automatic Mail Format: Define if the full HTML message, including the plain text alternative, shall be sent to all recipients, or if the mail format for each individual recipient shall be defined automatically, based on a certain condition.

  If the condition is true for a recipient, then this recipient will receive the full HTML message, including the plain text alternative. If it is false, then the recipient will receive a plain text message instead, that contains only the text alternative.

  This can, for example, be used to let recipients choose the type of email they prefer (HTML or plain text).
  The condition must be specified in the standard LISTSERV condition syntax, similar to what is used in a LISTSERV conditional block of the type ".BB ... .EB". See the LISTSERV documentation if more information is required.

  Preferably, the condition should also contain at least one merge field from the recipient data so that the condition is a variable condition whose true/false result varies from recipient to recipient. Otherwise, the condition would evaluate to the same true/false result for all recipients; all of them receiving the same content type anyway, defeating the purpose of having a condition in the first place.

  Example:

  Assume that the recipient data contains a merge field named MAIL_TYPE and that a value of "html" in that field means that the recipient has opted to receive HTML email. If any other value is found, then the recipient wants to receive only plain text email. The condition you specify would be the following:

  &MAIL_TYPE = html

  (This setting is only available for HTML content with a plain text alternative.)

• Editor Mode: Define if HTML code protection shall be enabled or not. Only applicable for HTML content that is not based on a template.

  The HTML editor has two modes: Design mode and code mode. The design mode is usually the default and allows you to edit the content in WYSIWYG fashion. From this design mode, you can switch to code mode if you need to manually edit the underlying HTML code. However, when you then submit your changes (or switch back to design mode), the modified HTML code will be re-parsed by the editor and will likely be reformatted and may even be modified to make it compatible with the design mode editor. And if you later open the content for editing again, the editor will again be opened in design mode.

  If you do not want the HTML content editor to change the HTML code that you enter, make sure to enable the HTML code protection. While the protection is enabled, if you open the content for editing, the editor will always be opened in code mode and will never reformat or otherwise change the HTML code that you enter. Of course you will then not be able to use the WYSIWYG features of the design mode.

  Note: For content of the type "HTML Content, Edited in LISTSERV Maestro", HTML code protection is not enabled by default. For content of the type "HTML Content Created in External Editor (Uploaded)", HTML Code protection is enabled by default after the upload.

• RSS Abstract for LISTSERV List Submissions: Define the RSS abstract for the message. This defines how the message will appear in LISTSERV's RSS feed.

  The abstract will be added to the message in the form of a special attachment that is of the "text" type and that uses the filename "abstract.txt". This attachment will be recognized by LISTSERV when the message is posted to the list, and LISTSERV will retrieve the text from the attachment and use it as the RSS abstract for the submitted message.
  However, please note that this attachment will also be visible to all subscribers of the list who receive the message as a normal email. In this case, the attachment will be displayed in the same manner as the recipient's mail client usually displays attachments, and the recipient may chose to open and read the content of this attachment. Therefore, when writing the abstract, you should remember that both RSS feed readers and normal subscribers may read this text.

  The attached plain text file will be encoded using the same character encoding (language setting) that will be used for the main body of the message. Because of this, make sure that all characters in the abstract are actually displayable in the language setting that was chosen for the main message.
  Also, if you selected one of the "determine language setting automatically" options for the main message, then this auto-detect process will not include the text in the abstract. This means that the language detection will process only the main message, and the setting that was determined by this will also be applied to the abstract.

  (This setting is only available if the recipients type is a "standard submit" to a LISTSERV list or an advanced subscriber list.)

Mail Merging

LISTSERV and LISTSERV Maestro support mail-merging. Mail-merging is the processes of replacing special placeholder tags in the email body or subject with individual values that may be different for each recipient.

It is possible to use mail-merge placeholders in the subject line, the HTML body, or the plain text body of your message.

A mail-merge placeholder always has the form "&NAME;", where "NAME" is the name of the placeholder. Mail-merge placeholders are not case sensitive.

The available placeholders depend on the type of recipients you use and your LISTSERV setup:

• If the recipients are based on a subscriber list or dataset, then the profile field of that list/dataset define the available merge fields.

• If you upload the recipients from a file, then this file may contain a number of columns, where each column has a certain header name. You can use each header name (with the surrounding "&" and ";") as a mail-merge placeholder in your message.

• If you specify your recipients by using an existing LISTSERV list, and this list is DBMS-backed, then you may have additional columns for each recipient in your database. You can use the names of those columns as mail-merge placeholders.

In all cases, you can also use the predefined mail-merge placeholder names from LISTSERV, like &*TO; and &*DATE;. See the LISTSERV documentation for more information.

Drop-In Content

See here for a general description of drop-in content elements.

To use drop-in content in your email message, it must be enabled on the Options tab.

When enabling drop-in content, you are also required to define an opening and a closing tag. Tags are used by LISTSERV Maestro to identify the names of the drop-in content. Opening and closing tags can be any characters you like that do not contain any spaces. "{{" and "}}" are suggested as defaults, but you may change them.

To include drop-in content in your message, simply enter the name of the drop-in at the appropriate location, enclosed in the tags you have defined. For example, if your drop-in is called "sample" and you are using the suggested default tags, then you would include the text "{{sample}}" in the location where you want the drop-in content to appear in the message.

Whenever LISTSERV Maestro finds the opening tag followed by the closing tag, it will interpret all the characters in between as the name of a drop-in. LISTSERV Maestro will then look up the list of available drop-ins for a drop-in with this name. If the name is not found, delivery of the mail fails with an error message like "Drop-In with name 'XYZ' not found".

It is important to choose opening and closing tags with care, making sure that they do not otherwise appear in the message. For example, if you decide to use parentheses '(' and ')' for opening and closing tags, any text that appears between any set of parentheses will be interpreted as the name of a drop-in. Since parentheses have a high probability for use in the normal text of a message, using them as tags is not recommended because they may cause an error in drop-in name look up, leading to mail delivery failure.

If drop-in content is disabled, any drop-in placeholder names that might appear in the message will not be replaced with the corresponding content. Instead, the placeholder names will appear verbatim in the body of the message.