✏️ The Email Editor: Links, Buttons And Fonts

The email editor is where you write the body of every broadcast. It is a full rich-text editor with both toolbar rows always showing, a row of merge codes above it, and a one-click button maker that works in every inbox.

Everything you type shows up in the live preview on the right, wrapped in your template with the footer, so what you see is what your readers get.

Where to find it:

Emails, then Broadcasts, then + New Broadcast (or Edit on a draft). The editor is on the Start here step, under Email body. The template editor on Emails, then Templates uses the same toolbar and merge codes.

The toolbar:

The first row covers the things you change most.

• Paragraph menu: normal text or headings.
• Font: Arial, Helvetica, Georgia, Times New Roman, Tahoma, Verdana, Trebuchet MS and Courier New. These are email-safe: every inbox can show them, so your email looks the same everywhere.
• Size: 12px to 44px. 16px is a comfortable size for body text on a phone.
• Bold, italic, underline, text colour and highlight colour.
• Insert link and remove link.

The second row has bulleted and numbered lists, quote, align left, centre and right, outdent and indent, table, horizontal line, special characters, strikethrough, paste as plain text, clear formatting, undo, redo and the editor's own full screen.

Above the toolbar, Add Media inserts an image from your WordPress media library, and the Visual and Code tabs switch between the normal view and the raw HTML.

Adding a link:

1. Select the words you want to link.
2. Press the link button on the toolbar (or Ctrl+K).
3. Paste the address and confirm.

Merge codes work inside links too. A link such as https://yoursite.com/offer/?a={{tag.aff}} gives every reader their own address (see Merge Codes And Tag Codes). Every link is click-tracked automatically when the email goes out, unless tracking is switched off in Settings.

The one-click button:

A styled link on its own often looks different, or plain, in some inboxes. The Button chip at the end of the merge-code row builds a proper email button instead.

1. Put the cursor where the button should go.
2. Press Button.
3. Type the button text, for example "See the Bundle", and press Next.
4. Paste the full link and press Insert the button.

The button is built with table markup, the method email designers use so it shows as a real button in Gmail, Outlook and Apple Mail alike. It comes out as a solid coloured button with white bold text, centred, with a blank line after it. To change its colour, switch to Code and edit the colour value in the button's code.

Merge codes:

The Insert row above the editor drops a merge code at your cursor: {{first_name}}, {{last_name}}, {{email}}, {{site_name}}, {{today}}, {{unsubscribe_url}}, {{view_in_browser_url}}, {{tags}}, {{tag_1}} and {{tag.key}}. Hover a chip to see what it does. If you clicked into the Subject line or Preview text last, the chip goes there instead of into the body.

Templates, preview and full screen:

The row above the editor has the tools around the body.

• Start from a template: pick a built-in starter or one of your saved templates. If you have already written something, you are asked first, because the body is replaced. Choosing Blank canvas clears the body, again after asking.
• Write with AI and Score: write or rewrite the body with your AI, and check it for spam risks before sending (see AI Subject Lines, Rewriting And Inbox Score).
• Save as template: name the current body and it joins Saved templates in the template list on every broadcast.
• Preview email: see the finished email full size.
• Full screen: write with the whole screen, with the merge codes still above the editor. Press Esc or Done to come back.

A real example:

Anna is writing the Leafwise "December tips" email.

1. She picks Georgia at 16px for a warm, readable feel.
2. She writes three short tips as a bulleted list.
3. She selects "the full gift list" and links it to https://yoursite.com/blog/garden-gifts/.
4. She puts the cursor under the list, presses Button, types "See the list" and pastes the same link.
5. She ends with {{snippet.signoff}}, checks the Mobile preview, and saves.

Tips:

• Keep to one font for the whole email. Change size and weight for headings instead.
• One main button per email works better than three. Use plain links for anything secondary.
• Use paste as plain text when copying from a word processor, so stray formatting does not come along.
• Check the Mobile preview before every send. Most people read on a phone.
• If something looks odd, the Code view shows exactly what is there.