This page will show you how to create a Newsletter Entry.
(We try to maintain a consistant style to the Newsletter so please read carefully.)
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The Event
Do not start by opening the email editor.
An ‘Event’ must first be created and saved in Drupal, though it does not need to be ‘Published’. Larger Events with pre-booking will have been created inCiviCRM but may be viewed in Drupal.
Whilst you have the Drupal ‘Event’ node open, copy the URL to your clipboard.
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In a new browser tab, Open the CiviCRM ‘New Message’ dialogue
Give your mailing a name that will mean something if you try to find it in the future. Note: This is for SVA use, it is not the ‘Subject’ Line.
Add the groups who you want to send to and click ‘Next’ to go to Step 2
Leave step 2 at the default settings and click ‘Next’ to go to Step 3.
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From email Address
Leave this at the default setting unless you understand what the other available settings are.
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Subject Line
There must be a subject line or email will be flagged as SPAM
For consistency the subject line should be “SVA Newsletter – (Month) – (brief names)”
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HTML Format Content Editor Pane
The ‘Content’ that appears in the newsletter should really only be a ‘Teaser’ for the actual content that appears on the website. This ‘Teaser’ length is limited to 200 chr$ (including spaces)
(The above 2 lines about teaser length contains 195 characters and will take approximately 4 lines in the newsletter)
The layout of the text should be based on the Drupal ‘Event’ entry:
Line 1 Title of the Event (9pt Bold coloured) with inserted link to website 'Event' page node.
Type the ‘Title’ line and format it then select all the text and with the text selected, click the ‘Link’ button a dialogue box will open
Paste the URL that you copied from the Drupal ‘Event’ into the URL box. Click OK. The ‘Title’ should now have turned into an underlined link.
Line 2 Date and Time of Event followed by Teaser in 9pt medium type
e.g. Saturday 16 October — Teaser (No ‘st’, ‘nd’ or ‘th’, just the number. That’s followed by an em dash.
(You get ‘—‘ by clicking the insert special characters button in the editor.)
Images
Images should be left aligned. Text may be inline at the right or may be below.
The image width should be 135 pixel and the height does not need to conform but a height of 100 pixels looks good.
The image must be clickable and link to the respective Drupal ‘Event’ page.
Start by going to the Drupal ‘Event’ and copying the URL.
Switch back to the email editor and click the ‘Image’ button
