Newsberry

New HTML Editor

This entry was posted on August 26, 2009 by Natalie Nagele and is filed under News and Tips.

In the last few months, our existing WYSIWYG editor (HTML editor) has been causing some customers tons of grief. We realized quickly that we needed to find a better solution, but that’s not always so easy. Today we launched a new editor that we’re sure will make editing campaigns much easier, and in ALL browsers.

What’s Different?

We chose an editor that would still provide all the features in the existing one, but do them better and more effectively. You will notice that the icons are different in the new editor.

Old HTML Editor (top) compared to New HTML Editor (bottom)

Also different will be the windows that popup when you add a hyperlink, image or document. The following will explain how to use each.

Adding a Hyperlink

To add a hyperlink, first select the word(s) that you would like to link. Then, click the icon that looks like chain links. A window will popup where you can enter the full URL and select the Target (where you want the link to go).

You can also use this window to edit an existing link. If you want to remove a link from your campaign, simply highlight the word and click the icon that looks like a broken chain link (clever, we know) .

Adding a PDF Document

To add a document, first select the word(s) you’d like to link to the document. Then, click the icon that looks like a piece of paper  . The window that opens is the storage of all your documents. Here, you can upload and keep any PDFs that you would like hosted on Newsberry to be used in campaigns (and online versions).

Here you can create folders to organize your files, view all the files you have, and delete any that you don’t need anymore. When you want to add a new document, you can click on the Upload button. From here, you search your computer for the file, and then upload it into Newsberry. Once you are finished, the new document will appear in the main screen. Click the checkbox and then Insert (bottom left of the screen). The document will become attached to the word(s) you highlighted.

Adding and Editing Images

Just like with the document manager, the image manager also stores all your images that Newsberry is hosting. To access it, simply click on the icon that looks like a painting and the Image manager will open. Here you can edit any existing images, create folders or delete any images.

To upload a new image, click the upload button. If you are using Safari, you will need to select the Basic Uploader while we wait for the update for the missing button. Browse your computer until you find the image, then upload it. Once you get to the main screen, you can edit the image.

By clicking the UP arrow, you get to the edit page. Here, you can rotate, crop and even resize the image! This has been a HUGELY requested feature. No need to open Photoshop to change an image size, you can now do it right in Newsberry.

Once you are finished editing, simply click “Insert” or just click the image, and it will be added to your campaign.

In order to wrap text around the image, you need to select the image which you have inserted and then select one of the alignment options from editor menu.

We have something else for you!

Since we know how painful editing HTML can be using these WYSIWYG editors, we have been hard at work designing our own template editor. The new editor will allow you to make changes to your campaign without messing up the HTML, which is often what happens with these WYSIWYG editors. The new editor will ensure that any changes you make to your campaign will preserve the design of the template, and therefore make it look pretty in all email clients.

Here is a sneak peak at the new Template editor. We hope to have this available to you in a few weeks.