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Documentation Wiki > ExactTarget > Content > Email Overview > Content Boxes > Content-Building Wizard

Content-Building Wizard

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    This page presents conceptual, scenario, and procedural information you can use to understand the functionality of the Content-Building Wizard. 

    Prerequisites

    The Content-Building Wizard is only for template-based emails. You must have created an email based on a template to use the Content-Building Wizard. 

    What Is the Content-Building Wizard

    The Content-Building Wizard is a window that leads you through the process of creating content for template-based emails. The wizard is designed to handle all content types, such as SMS and Smart Capture, regardless of the size or impact on the email.

    To use the Content-Building Wizard on an empty content area, click the Create button. To use the Content-Building Wizard to change the content in an existing content area, click the Modify button.

    Note: If you're using a Lock and Publish account and the lockIcon.png icon appears in the upper-left corner of the content box, your Enterprise administrator has locked the content box, and you cannot make edits.

    Why Use the Content-Building Wizard

    Use the Content-Building Wizard when you are ready to create content in a content box. The Content-Building Wizard walks you through adding text, images, or any combination of the two to a content box.

    Scenario

    Northern Trail Outfitters knows the content they want to include in an email so they begin by clicking the Create Content button in a content box.

    File:010_ExactTarget/020_Content/Email_Overview/Content_Boxes/Content-Building_Wizard/contentbox1.png

    The Select Orientation page appears.

    File:010_ExactTarget/020_Content/Email_Overview/Content_Boxes/Content-Building_Wizard/selectOrientation.png

    After selecting the orientation they desire (in this example, Image Only), they click the Next button. The Select Image page appears.

    File:010_ExactTarget/020_Content/Email_Overview/Content_Boxes/Content-Building_Wizard/selectImage.png

    Northern Trail Outfitters selects the folder they want to retrieve a photo from in the Look in folder field and selects the image. Because they want this image to be a link to their website, they enter www.northerntrailoutfitters.com in the URL field. They click next to display the Content Area Properties page.

    File:010_ExactTarget/020_Content/Email_Overview/Content_Boxes/Content-Building_Wizard/contentAreaProperties1.png

     

    Northern Trail Outfitters adjusts the properties of the content box they're working in. They click Next, and a preview of the content box appears.

    File:010_ExactTarget/020_Content/Email_Overview/Content_Boxes/Content-Building_Wizard/contentboxPreview.png

    Once they make a few minor adjustments to the layout of the picture, they click Save and the photo appears in the content box in the email. 

    File:010_ExactTarget/020_Content/Email_Overview/Content_Boxes/Content-Building_Wizard/contentbox2.png

    They repeat this step for every content box until they build their entire email.  

    How to Open the Wizard

    To open the Content-Building Wizard, click in an empty content box and click create content.

    If the content box has content in it, click modify.

    How to Use the Content-Building Wizard

    The following sections and links provide an overview of using the content-building wizard. The content-building wizard opens with the Select Orientation dialog box.

    Using the Select Orientation Dialog Box

    In the Select Orientation dialog box, choose the layout of the text and/or image that populates the content box or header.

    Orientation Selection Description What You Need to Do
    Text Only With this option, your content box contains text only, no images.

    Click the Next button.

    Note:  If you select this orientation, you can't insert a table into your content area.
    Image Only With this option, your content box contains an image only, no text.

    Click the thumbnail of the image you want to include.

    Use the Browse button to upload a new image. Once uploaded, you can use the image in the content box as well as in other emails.

    If you select this orientation, you can't insert a second image or table in to your content area.  If you want to insert multiple images or tables, select the Free Form Orientation.
    Image Top With this option, your image appears centered above the text.

    Click the thumbnail of the image you want to include.

    Use the Browse button to upload a new image. Once uploaded, you can use the image in the content box as well as in other emails.

    If you select this orientation, you can't insert a second image or table in to your content area.   If you want to insert multiple images or tables, select the Free Form Orientation.
    Image Bottom With this option, your text appears at the top, and your image centers below the text.

    Click the thumbnail of the image you want to include.

    Use the Browse button to upload a new image. Once uploaded, you can use the image in the content box as well as in other emails.

    If you select this orientation, you can't insert a second image or table in to your content area.   If you want to insert multiple images or tables, select the Free Form Orientation.
    Image Left With this option, your image appears in the upper-left corner, and your text wraps around the image.

    Click the thumbnail of the image you want to include.

    Use the Browse button to upload a new image. Once uploaded, you can use the image in the content box as well as in other emails.

    If you select this orientation, you can't insert a second image or table in to your content area. If you want to insert multiple images or tables, select the Free Form Orientation.
    Image Right With this option, your image appears in the upper-right corner, and your text wraps around the image.

    Click the thumbnail of the image you want to include.

    Use the Browse button to upload a new image. Once uploaded, you can use the image in the content box as well as in other emails.

    If you select this orientation, you can't insert a second image or table into your content area. If you want to insert multiple images or tables, select the Free Form Orientation.
    Free Form With this option, your content box contains no text or images; however, you can insert any combination of images, texts, and tables. Click the Next button to move on to the Edit content dialog box.
    HTML Only With this option, you can paste in HTML created outside the application.  The HTML is pasted as is, and no clean-up or formatting is applied by the editor.

    Click the Next button to move on to the Edit Content dialog box.
    • If you selected a Smart Orientation that included text, click on the Placeholder text to insert your own content.
    • If you selected the Free Form Orientation, add text and/or images to the content area.
    • If you selected the HTML Only Orientation, paste in your HTML.
    Note: If you choose to store a content box for reuse later, all of the settings you defined are stored with it. When you retrieve the stored content in a static content box, you can adjust all the settings for that particular email. However, when the stored content is pulled into a dynamic content box, you cannot adjust these settings in the email.

    Using The Select Image Dialog Box

    The Select Image dialog box is where you choose your content box or header's image and apply a hyperlink to the image. This dialog box is part of the content-building wizard, which you reach by choosing to create content for a static content box or to create a header.

    You can use an image that's stored, or you can upload a new image.

    The Select Image dialog box consists of the following options:

     

    Image Option What You Need to Do
    Use Image

    The dialog box displays the stored image folder specified in the Look in Folder section.

    • If the image you want is located in a different folder, navigate to that folder. 
      Note: If you're using a Lock and Publish account and you want to see the images stored by your Enterprise administrator, click Select Folder and then click the Display Global Folders link in the folder selection dialog box.
    • If the image you want is not yet stored, follow the steps in this table.
       
    Use an image that's not yet stored

    If the image you want is not yet stored, follow these steps. Please refer to the requirements and best practices for image files before you upload a new file.

    Note: Ensure that the Folder field is displaying the image folder in which you want to store this image. If it isn't, click Select Folder and select the appropriate folder.
    1. Click the Upload button to open the Upload Image dialog box. 
    2. Click the Browse button to find the image on your computer.
    3. Use the file-selection dialog box to navigate to your image so that the correct image path is shown in the Choose a File field.
    4. In the Name the File field, you can change the name of the image.
    5. The file must be uploaded before you can use it.
    6. Click the Upload button. The image is now stored in the image folder shown and is pictured at the end of the thumbnail images displayed.
       
    Specify email or web site address as image link (Optional) If you want the image to serve as a hyperlink, enter in the URL field the web page or email address to which you want to send the subscriber when the subscriber clicks the image.
    Choose whether to track click-throughs to image link If the optional conversion tracking feature is enabled in your account and your web site has been set up to take advantage of this feature,  you can choose to track the conversion rate for links to your web pages. To turn on this tracking, select the Conversion tracking link check box.

    In the content-building wizard, you click the Next button in the Select Image dialog box when done to move on to the Content Area Borders and Backgrounds dialog box.

    Using The Edit Content Window

    The Edit Content window is where you format all content for a content box in an email based on a standard template. This Edit Content window is opened at the conclusion of the content-building wizard or when you click the modify button for a static content box.

    This section describes what you can do in the Edit Content window.

    • Click the Save button to apply your changes and exit the window. 
    • Click the Cancel button to undo any changes and return to the email. 
    • Click the Clear Content window to remove all the content from the content area and return to the email.
    Line Lengths and Line Breaks

    When the system sends your email, it inserts hard line breaks into your email as necessary to break up long lines that may not be acceptable to the recipient mail servers. The system is configured to respect URLs and not insert a break in the middle of a URL. However, if your URL is long or if you want to specify for yourself where lines break in the email, please note that the maximum line length is between 700 and 980 characters.

    Default Font

    When you begin to create content for a new content box, you have the option to choose the default font size for the content box. You can change the font for all or part of the text in the content box when you are entering the text. Note that the fonts and sizes available in the text editor are the only ones that are web-safe, web-ready, and spam-safe.

    Using the Content Creation Tools

    The Edit Content window consists of three parts:

    • Content menu:  A series of drop downs that contains all the supported commands in the Edit Content Window.  Many of the commands are supported in the content toolbox.
    • Content toolbox: The top portion of the Edit Content window contains toolbars that you use to format text and insert elements into the content area.
    • Content workspace: The white area in the bottom portion of the Edit Content window is where you compose the content. The workspace is viewed in one of two modes:
      • Edit: In this mode, you're seeing the text as it appears in the email.
      • HTML: In this mode, you see the HTML code behind the text.

     To toggle between the modes, click on the icons in the upper right corner of the window.

    Type or Paste Text

    While in Edit mode, type into the workspace the text that you want to appear in the content box or header. You can also paste in copied text by pressing Ctrl+V on your keyboard.

    When pasting text, unless you specify the font that you want to use, the text in your emails will be displayed to recipients using the default font defined in the recipient's browser. The different font that you see on your pasted text is a reminder to you to select (in the text editor) the font that you want to use, to ensure that you control how your email will look to your subscribers.

    Tip: If you want to use single spacing between paragraphs rather than the default double spacing, press Shift+Enter rather than just the Enter key at the end of a paragraph.

    Type or Paste HTML Code

    If you want to use HTML code for your text, first switch to HTML mode by clicking the tab in the upper right corner of the window. 

    Then type your HTML code into the workspace or paste in copied HTML code by pressing Ctrl+V on your keyboard.

    Click the Edit mode tab in the upper right corner so that you can see how your HTML code has been translated.

    Apply Basic Formatting and Check Spelling

    The content toolbox at the top of the Edit Content window contains the standard Windows formatting buttons. Hover over a button to see a tool tip describing what it does.

    Here are a few of the buttons you'll see:

    Special_Character.png  Insert a special character from a list of supported characters.

    Spell_Check.png  Run the spell checker.

    copy_and_paste.png  Copy and paste images and text.

    This page was last updated by Adam Evans on Tue, 10 Jan 2012 13:25:06 GMT.

    If you require assistance with the ExactTarget application, please contact Global Support. If you wish to send Adam direct feedback, fill out the form below:

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