Creating messages in the visual editor

It's easy to create rich, responsive messages using the visual editor. Without touching any HTML code, your messages will render in many different email clients and across many screen sizes.

To create a message using the visual editor:

  1. Click from any page in Responsys Express.
  2. Click Messages.

  3. Click Create.

  4. Enter a Name and Description for your message. For transactional messages, click the Is this a transactional message? toggle.

    Important: Transactional Messaging is an add-on feature that must be ordered for your account. Please contact your account manager or Oracle sales.

    Tip: Use transactional messages for information that you want to send when a contact performs a specific activity. Transactional messages are typically used for purchase confirmations, account notifications, shipping notifications, password reset notifications, and so on. They have no automatic suppression, no footers, and no automatic opt-out mechanism.

  5. Select Start from blank as the method for creating the message, and select Visual editor as the editor to use.

    Screenshot of choices to make when creating a new message using the visual editor.

  6. Click Continue. The visual editor opens.

To design your message using the visual editor:

  1. With your message open in visual designer, enter a subject for your message.

    To personalize the subject line, click Image of the Actions menu and then select Personalization. Drag and drop personalization attributes to the subject line.

  2. Design the body of your message by dragging and dropping content and layouts.

    Screenshot showing how to drag and drop a content component from the General tab to the live view.

  3. Click the content component to configure it using the properties on the Style Image of the Style icon tab.

    Screenshot showing how to edit a content component using the poperties on the Style tab.

  4. When editing text, you can click the Personalization Image of the personalization iconbutton to add personalized content to your message body.

  5. By default, the visual editor starts in the Desktop view. Click Mobile to switch to a mobile view and edit your email content as it may appear on mobile devices.

    Screenshot showing location of the desktop and mobile toggle buttons, which change the live view between desktop and mobile views.

  6. As you make changes, you can undo or redo your changes using the toolbar or standard keyboard shortcuts.

    Screenshot showing location of the Undo and Redo buttons. Keyboard shortcuts are Ctrl+Z for Undo and Ctrl+Y for Redo.

  7. Click Save when you are done.

After you finish:

  • If your message has errors, a banner displays after you save. Click See details to open the Errors & Warnings panel. You can also check for errors by selecting Actions > Show errors and warnings.

  • Click Actions > Preview to preview your message. Personalized content is displayed in the preview. Use the Desktop and Mobile buttons to verify content for different screen sizes.

  • You can easily move a message created with the visual editor to the HTML source code editor. For example, you must move to the HTML source code editor if you want to create message variants. Note that after you move the message to the HTML editor, it can't be moved back to the visual editor. To move your message, choose Actions > Move to HTML editor, and then confirm your choice in the dialog.

Next steps

Working with content components and layouts in the visual editor

Changing default styles in the visual editor

Changing the background colors of components and layouts

Learn more

Visual editor

Messages

Personalization

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