Using the Drag and Drop Template Editor

Using our Drag and Drop template editor, you can streamline the design process, making it easy for anyone to create professional and visually appealing emails without coding knowledge. With intuitive tools, you can customize layouts, add images, text, and buttons, and preview designs in real-time.

This approach saves time, enhances creativity, and ensures consistent branding across your campaigns.

Additionally our drag and drop editor includes responsive design features which guarantee that emails look great on all devices, improve engagement, and conversion rates.

This article will take you through the various options and elements in the Drag & Drop template editor.

Follow along to create your own template:

Click on the Campaigns menu in the top menu bar and then go to Templates.
Use the button to Add a Template.
Click the Start Designing button next to the Drag and Drop heading.
You now get to choose from a number of templates, from a range of categories. There are 'Branded' templates which will use your own brand attributes stored from running the brand analyzer (if you've used that). You can also choose from one of Transpond's many pre-made designs, or start from scratch with a blank template. For the sake of this article, it doesn't matter which you choose.

The Anatomy of the Drag and Drop editor

There are four key areas of Drag and Drop editor.

At the top you'll have settings and options for using the template such as its name, options to check your merge tags, edit history, and the most popular option - the Preview button.
On the left you have options for things to add to the template. This includes things like Elements e.g. text, images or buttons, but also whole Layouts, which is sections in your template with a specific configuration e.g. a set of three columns side by side, or an single full width column, with three smaller columns below. There are also options to add Blocks, both pre-configured and Saved Blocks.
In the middle is the template itself. It's comprised of the 'Stage' and inside it the layouts which in then contains the elements added to it. If you click just above the top most layout, you'll get to see the options to configure the design of the template as a whole e.g. standard styling for links, fonts, and buttons etc. There is overall styling setup here, but you can also configure the style of individual elements - more on that below.
On the right hand side is where you'll see all the options to configure a specific layout or element. If you've selected an image this section will let you choose what image to use, and how to style it. Any time you edit something in the template, review this section and have a look at the tabs in it, as there might be more than one. Images and text blocks will have a 'Style' option for example, where you can configure width, height, alignment etc. A column layout would instead have a tab for configuring how the columns are styled.

Template Elements

There are a range of elements you can use in your email templates. The options you have are:

Text - for writing any type of text in your template
Image - You can make images clickable by configuring a link for them.
Divider - to make a visual divider horizontal between blocks of content in your template
Button - for calls to action, leading either to a URL, an email address, phone number, a file or to a Form.
YouTube Video - which inserts a preview image for a YouTube video using the URL for the video, and when clicked links back to the video.
Social Media Icons - lets you add a set of social profile icons, where you can customize both shape and color-way.
Countdown - lets you add a timer counting down to a specific date & time.
Custom HTML - for any type of custom HTML content that doesn't fit the mold of the standard elements.
Poll - lets you ask your subscribers questions inside the email, the answers for which are then collated in your campaign analytics.
RSS Feed - for inserting content from an RSS feed, where the content can either be static or dynamic. When dynamic you can configure your email campaigns to automatically send anew whenever there is new content in the RSS feed.
App Marketplace - lets you add content based on connected apps, such as a Calendly block for contacts to book a time with you based on your Calendly availability.

Drag any one of these elements into your existing layouts. If you're working from a blank template, you'll need to first add at least one layout to, then drag your element into. Elements and layouts are available through the drop down menu at the top of the section on the left hand side.

Template Layouts

Layouts are used to configure how your elements are placed in your template. This is indicated by how many columns they have. You can have single column layouts for big blocks of text or striking images.

You can then setup multi-column layouts for when you want to display images or text side by side.

To view the layout options, click into the drop down menu in the section on the left hand side.

Styling options

Any time you've selected a layout or element inside your template, the panel on the right hand side will open up with your configuration options. The main section will have options for the element itself e.g. a section for writing if it's text, or the option to upload an image if it's an image element.

There is however almost always a second tab for Style. In this section you'll see all the styling options available.

Some examples of style options are:

Width & Height - choosing the size of the element with the layout block
Border - to give the element a solid or dotter border, and give said border a color.
Font - if it's a text or button element for example
Alignment - to left, center or right adjust
Rounded corners
Background color
Reduce size - which will reduce the size of the element based on its current configuration. This is especially important to use if your contacts use Outlook to view their emails
Hide - which lets you hide the element on mobile or desktop devices
Padding
Margin

Layout vs element style

If you click on a layout as opposed to a specific element then you can configure the style for the layout itself. To help you click on a layout rather than an element inside a layout, toggle the Show Guide Lines option in the top left corner to show where the layouts sit.

Template Blocks

Transpond has a set of predefined template blocks that you can use when you need a specific visual setup e.g. Image and Text combined, or a GDPR confirmation block, which includes a specific piece of text and two button options configured to specific merge tags.

Saved Blocks

If you find that you often re-use the same type of content or layouts then you can save a block which can be reused in future template.

To save a block, first set it up in your template, click the block as a whole (not an individual element) and then click the little star icon in the corner of the block. This will save it for future use.

Saved blocks are then found using the 'Elements' drop down menu > Saved Blocks

Some common uses for Saved Blocks include:

Company header
Signature footer
A greeting with conditional merge tags.
Frequently used image sets

How to check and preview your Template

When you're done with your template it can be helpful to check and make sure all your merge tags, links and the general look of your template are right before you use it for a campaign or automation.

At the top of the page you'll find options for just these things.

Check Merge Tags will show you a list of all the detected merge tags in the template, and indicate if they are valid or not.
Check Links will show you a list of all links found in the template, and try to make sure they are valid. If not then they'll be highlighted in red in the list, so you can go back and fix them up.
History will give you a history of all updates made to the template, and lets you go back to edits for a specific date & time, in case you want to go back to a previous version.
Preview will take you to a preview page where you'll be able to
- Review your template and toggle between Desktop, Tablet and Mobile view.
- You can also send yourself and your colleagues a test email.
- Use the option to Preview as a contact to see what the email will look like with the merge tags populated based on one from a sample of contacts.
- Download the template as a PDF