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What can I do to view html emails prior to sending

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Composing html emails to send to people needs a little bit of knowledge of design, but very little when it comes to composing html emails. In Theatre Manager, you have two options for sending out HTML formatted emails. You can either:
  • Format the emails in Theatre Manager an send them out as is. They will be sent in 'what-you-see-is-what-you-get' format (if selected during export).
  • Or you can have total control over the contents of the HTML and use and external tool to design a web page and then paste the resultant HTML into the form letter

 

Using externally composed HTML for an email

Alternatively, you can paste a FULL html web page into the word processor and send it as an HTML email. The rules are generally simply:

  • The first part of the <html tag must be the first 5 characters of the letter. IF there are parameters to the HTML tag, they can follow after the initial <html tag
  • and it must contain sufficient html tags to view as a web page. eg, something like:
    <html>
    <head>
    </head>
    <body>
    your stuff goes here and can include images, tables, etc.
    An HTML email can also contain Theatre Manager merge fields if you wish to customize the eblast. They can only be inserted into the HTML using the form letter editing tools.

    ie: click on the form letter html code where you want a custom field, then right click to insert a form letter field.


    <body>
    </html>

There are html editing tool to help you do this.

Or, your web designer, can post the email as a web page on the internet and you can view it with internet explorer, firefox, safari of other browsers. Or they could email the HTML and if you save the file on the desktop, just drag it onto your web browser to see it.

With this, every venue has the software to view an html email it on every workstation in the office.

Before sending, make sure the images are visible.... if they are, then:

  • copy and paste the text version of the HTML email into a Theatre Manager form letter
  • and blast it out.
  • make sure you do a test blast to yourself first to make sure its right
  • ... then send it to all people on a mail list