Template Editor

To access the template editor page of a standard template, select the node of the desired template in the templates tree. Then select Open Template Definition from the menu (or go via the right-click menu of the template node in the templates tree).

The template editor allows you to edit the user-defined template.

The editor consists of the main panel that displays the actual editor and an additional panel with various sections on the right.

In this panel on the right, 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 WYSIWYG (What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get) editor for a standard template has two modes:

In Design Mode you edit the HTML template in WYSIWYG fashion. In Code Mode you can edit the underlying HTML code directly. You can switch between the two modes at any time with the icons at the top left of the editor toolbar.

Use the other icons in the editor toolbar for access to various other editor function, for example to define formats and colors, to create links, add images, etc.

Note that the WYSIWYG HTML editor in LISTSERV Maestro supports only a subset of all possible HTML tags, which includes the most commonly used HTML features, especially for emails. See here for details about the HTML support in Maestro's editor.

For a template, the panel on the right contains the following sections:

Widget Hierarchy

This panel section shows you all the fluid design widgets that are currently contained in the HTML content, and also the hierarchy in which the widgets are nested into each other.

If you select a widget entry in the hierarchy, then the corresponding widget will be highlighted with a widget border in the main WYSIWYG editor panel. Double click the widget entry to open the widget's properties dialog or, for an already selected widget entry, click the properties icon near the right edge of the entry to open the properties dialog.

You can delete a widget by selecting its widget entry in the hierarchy panel section and pressing the DELETE or BACKSPACE key on the keyboard.

See below for more details about fluid design widgets and their properties.

Fluid Design Widgets

This panel section shows the available fluid design widgets that you can use in the HTML content.

Fluid design (often also called "responsive design") is a design principle under which the HTML content is created in such a fashion that it looks nice and readable on a variety of email clients, both with large and small screens, on computers or handheld devices.

To add a fluid design widget to your HTML content, place the cursor at the target location, then open the widget gallery dialog by clicking the Open the Widget Gallery link and insert the desired widget via this gallery. As a shortcut, you can also click on one of the widget icons below the link, to open the gallery dialog already with the desired widget section selected.

You have the choice between several different widget types. These widgets can also be nested into each other. See here for more details about the available widget types and how to use the fluid design widgets.

All widgets that you add to the HTML content will also be represented in the "widget hierarchy" panel section (see above for details).

One widget that is only available in the template editor is the editable block widget. When you create a template, then all HTML content that is outside of an editable block will be non-editable template content and only the content that is inside of an editable block will be editable by the user who later uses the template for the content of a mail job.

Note that an editable block cannot be nested into another editable block, but editable blocks can be nested into fluid design widgets.

See below for more details about the editable block widget and how to use editable blocks in your template.

Fluid Design Widget Default Font

This panel section allows you to select the default font that is to be used by the fluid design widgets. Simply click one of the available fonts to select it and select its default size at the top of the panel. This default font is then automatically applied to all widgets. More precisely: The selected font is set as the default for all widgets but does not affect any text that is not contained in a fluid design widget.

In the widgets, where necessary you can of course always override this default with individual font settings, for example for certain paragraphs or words.

Merge Fields

This panel section shows all available merge fields. Click on a merge field name to insert it into the editor at the current cursor position.

Drop-Ins

This panel section shows all available user-defined and system drop-ins. (Except for the social media sharing system drop-ins, see "Social Media" section below).

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.

Social Media

This panel section allows you to integrate social media sharing and publishing into your email. See here for more details.

Social Media Sharing

By embedding the social media sharing icons (or similar links) into your message, you enable the recipients to easily share your message with other people, on various social media.

You can either include the full {{*SocialMedia}} system drop-in or one of the specific ShareURL 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.

Editable Blocks

When you create a template, then all HTML content that is outside of an editable block will be non-editable template content. This means that the user who later uses the template for the content of a mail job (the "template end user") will not be able to edit or change this template content.

All template content that is inside of an editable block will be editable content. This means that the template end user can change and even remove or replace this content altogether.

Because this editable content can be changed or removed, you should be aware that all content in an editable block has only sample character. You should not put any important template elements that the user is not supposed to change into such an editable block. If you want, you can simply put something like "TODO" or "Content Here" into the editable block. Or you can supply more sophisticated sample content, to give the template end user an idea about what kind of content you, as the template creator, expect for a given editable block. Just remember that the sample content that you provide is only a suggestion that the template end user does not have to follow. He may well decide to supply different content instead.

While editing a template, such an editable block is represented by the template block widget, so wherever you put a template block widget into the template, there will be an editable block in the resulting template when it is used for a mail job.

An editable block widget has a properties dialog to define its settings. This properties dialog is automatically opened when you insert a new editable block widget and you can also open it again at a later time via the Widget Hierarchy panel section (just like the properties dialog for a fluid design widget).

In the properties dialog, you can define text and background colors for the editable block, as well as paddings and border styles. The colors that are defined here should be seen as suggestions for the template end user, because if he decides so, he can of course apply different colors to the editable content of the editable block.

You can also specify style sheet class names that shall be used by the editable block.

Also in the properties dialog, you can define if the editable block shall be cloneable and/or deletable. Defining an editable block (or another widget) as cloneable and/or deletable allows you to create templates that can be dynamically adjusted, as explained below.

In code mode, the editable block widget is represented by the <template-editableBlock> custom tag. See here for details.

Dynamic Templates

When defining a template, you can make the template dynamically adjustable by the template end user, by including cloneable and/or deletable editable blocks or fluid design widgets in the template, or by using changeable image widgets or editable button widgets.

Cloneable: A cloneable editable block or widget can later be cloned by the template end user (i.e. this cloning happens when the template is used for the content of a mail job). Whenever an editable block or widget is cloned, another block/widget with exactly the same content and settings will be inserted immediately after the original block/widget.

Any editable block or widget that is created through cloning is itself always cloneable too, and is also deletable (see below), in case the template end user decides that he does not want the cloned block/widget after all.
Deletable: A deletable editable block or widget can later be deleted by the template end user (i.e. this deletion happens when the template is used for the content of a mail job). Whenever an editable block or widget is deleted, it is removed from the copy of the template that is used in the mail job, together with all content in it. It is however not deleted from the original template. A deleted block/widget cannot be restored, except by re-selecting the same original template from the template gallery.
Image Changeable: With an image/video widget that has this option enabled, the template end user can later replace the image (or video) with one of his own (i.e. this replacement happens when the template is used for the content of a mail job). This allows the template creator to define certain images, that are otherwise outside of the editable blocks, to be changeable by the end user anyway.
Action URL Editable: This option is enabled if the "URL is supplied by the template end user" choice is selected. In this case, the button does not have a URL associated in the template but the template end user must later supply the action URL that the button points to (i.e. this URL is supplied when the template is used for the content of a mail job). This allows the template creator to define the URL of certain buttons, that are otherwise outside of the editable blocks, to be specified by the end user anyway.
Button Text Editable: This option is available for a button that has the "Action URL Editable" option enabled (see above). With a button widget that has this additional option enabled, the template end user can later edit the button's text, in form of a simple text input (i.e. this text input happens when the template is used for the content of a mail job). This allows the template creator to define that the text of certain buttons, that are otherwise outside of the editable blocks, shall be editable by the end user anyway (but only if the button's URL is also editable).

An editable template block widget can always be marked as cloneable and/or deletable. A fluid design widget can only be marked such, if the widget itself is outside of an editable block but in turn contains an editable block or a changeable image widget in its content box (except for an action button, which can be marked as deletable if its "Action URL Editable" option is set).

Examples for Cloning

Consider a template for a newsletter with multiple articles. All articles follow a similar structure that is however not 100% fixed (i.e. it shall still be modifiable by the template end user). Also, at the time of the template creation it is not known how many articles each individual issue of the newsletter will have. Different issues may have a different number of articles.

For this, the template would have a single editable block where the sample content in that editable block defines the standard article structure (with headline, sub-header, article body, etc.). Since this is inside of the editable block, it can be changed by the template end user, who can thus fill in the correct texts for the headline, body, etc., but who can also modify the article structure, if necessary. This single editable block would thus define the sample structure for a single article.

Of course the template end user could then simply copy&paste this article structure inside of the editable block to duplicate it as often as he needs (for however many articles there are supposed to be). With this method, all articles would then live in the same editable block, which is of course entirely possible. But this copy&paste method is a bit cumbersome and also a bit error prone (if you don't select exactly the right parts of the article structure to copy).

Instead, the editable block can simply be defined as "cloneable". So whenever the template end user needs to add another article, he would simply clone one of the already existing editable blocks. With this method, at the end there would then be multiple editable blocks, each of which neatly contains only a single article.

In our second example, we have a similar newsletter, but this time, the article structure is supposed to be fixed too, and not changeable by the template end user. Each article shall have an editable title and an editable body, as well as a stylish exclamation icon (this icon is supposed to be a fixed image that shall be the same for all articles). Also the arrangement of the title, body and icon shall be fixed.

This cannot be achieved by simply putting the title, body and icon into an editable block, because then they would be fully editable by the template end user. So instead, we use a fluid design widget to create this title, body and icon layout (or if necessary we even use several nested widgets). And in place of the title we put an editable block with the content "TODO: Title Here" and in place of the body we put a second editable block with the content "TODO: Article Text Here".

These two editable blocks are then not defined as cloneable. Instead, we define the outer widget that contains this title, body and icon layout (and the two editable blocks) as "cloneable".

Now, each time the template end user clones this widget, he clones the whole title, body and icon layout too, including the two editable blocks in it. So he can clone it as many times as he needs articles in the newsletter, and each clone will then have the same layout arrangement and fixed icon and two separate editable blocks for title and body, which he then only needs to fill out.

Example for Deleting

Consider a template with three editable blocks (or three fluid design widgets that in turn contain editable blocks): One for the header, one for the main content and another for the footer. The header and footer shall be optional, so those two editable blocks (or widgets) are defined as "deletable", so that the template end user can remove them if he doesn't want a header and/or footer in the mail job for which he uses the template. The main content shall not be optional, so that editable block (or widget) would not be deletable.

Conditional Widgets in Templates

You can use conditional content, especially widgets with conditions, in templates just like you would use them when editing a mail job content.

However, there are a few issues to consider when using widget conditions in templates:

Conditions With Merge Fields in a Template

Widget conditions make the most sense, if the condition formula is somehow based on a merge field, so that the result of the formula can differ for the various recipients, with the effect that the widget is shown for some recipients but hidden for others. Because a condition that is always true (or always false) for all recipients is usually not useful. If it is always true, then you could just as well simply remove the condition and show the widget unconditionally. If it is always false, then you could just as well simply delete the whole widget, as it will be hidden for all recipients anyway.

The problem with incorporating merge fields into the condition formula while editing a template is, that at the time the template is edited, the available merge fields are not yet known. The merge fields only become known in the context of a mail job, where the recipients definition also defines the available merge fields.

So, when creating a template with a condition that uses a merge field, you must be aware that this template can only be used for a mail job that actually has a merge field of this name. If used in a mail job that does not have this merge field, you will get an error during the delivery test and will not be able to complete the mail job's workflow to authorize it for delivery.

If the context in which the template will later be used is well understood, and already the template creator knows that a certain merge field will always be available in that context, then it is perfectly acceptable to already include a condition that uses this merge field in the template.

In other situations however, it may be necessary to defer the definition of the condition formula to the end user, who later uses the template in a mail job, and who then knows which merge fields are available, as explained below.

Condition Editable by Template End User

The condition of a widget that is outside of an editable template block, as well as the condition of the template block widget itself, can normally not be edited by the template end user, as this condition is then in the part of the template that by definition cannot be edited by the end user.

However, for such a widget, as well as for the template block widget, the template creator can set the Allow the template end user to define or change the condition option on the widget's condition page.

With this option set, the end user can then edit the widget's condition (in a dedicated popup dialog), even though the widget is located in the non-editable part of the template. The following combinations are possible:

Option set and formula supplied: The widget condition is enabled by default with the given formula, but the end user can change the formula or delete it altogether (to show the widget unconditionally).
Option set and formula left empty: The widget condition is disabled by default (the widget is shown unconditionally), but the end user can supply a condition formula to enable the widget condition.

An editable template block widget can always be marked as "condition editable". A fluid design widget can only be marked such, if the widget itself is outside of an editable block but in turn contains an editable block or a changeable image widget in its content box (except for an action button, which can be marked as "condition editable" if its "Action URL Editable" option is set).