EasyEditor is a powerful tool that allows you to create, edit, and style both email campaigns and landing pages without having to write a single line of code. The source code is available for you to edit if you want to, but the drag-and-drop functionality of EasyEditor allows you to build and style your content directly in the design view.

Before you start

Campaigns must include an unsubscribe link.
Campaigns must not contain links from other campaigns, for example a View in browser link originally generated for a different campaign. If your campaign does, you see the warning "Your campaign may contain links from another campaign. We recommend removing these links before continuing". Learn more in the If your campaign contains links from another campaign section.
If you edit a campaign in multiple tabs simultaneously, or if multiple people are working on a single campaign at the same time, changes may be overwritten. You can restore a previous version of your campaign if you need to.

Get to know EasyEditor

When you’re starting off from one of our free templates, there are a number of content blocks already added to the campaign. All you need to do is edit their content or position to your liking.

The EasyEditor toolbar is displayed above the design canvas. This toolbar is dynamic and changes depending on whether you're editing text or images. The relevant options for the content you’re working on become available to you automatically.

If you select a text area on your template, the toolbar displays options related to working with text. If you select an image, the toolbar switches to display image-related options. The Build tab also automatically expands the Images section.

The left side menu contains all the different building blocks you can add to your campaign in the Build tab and the Styles tab allows you to change colours, borders, padding, device display options, and more.

Above the main toolbar, there are a few other options available.

Here you can use the Undo and Redo tools, open a preview, perform a test send, or open the Utilities menu which allows you to access the source code, among other options.

You can also save your campaign or landing page using the Save button. For email campaigns, the Save & continue button takes you to the next step in the campaign creation process. You can also select any step in the breadcrumb menu to move to that step.

EasyEditor also autosaves your campaign one minute after any change. Saved versions and autosaves are kept for 60 days, and you can load any of them back into the editor from Utilities > Restore.

EasyEditor blocks

You can identify a block’s type by hovering over it. The block’s content type is displayed in the header:

Move a block

To move blocks around the EasyEditor design canvas, select and drag them by the header. A dashed line shows you where else on the canvas the block you’ve selected can be placed.

Add a block

Similarly, you can add a brand new block by selecting and dragging it from the left side menu and placing it onto the canvas. The Build tab of the menu contains all the different content blocks available to you.

Some block types can contain other blocks. For example, a column block can have other block types, such as text, images, or buttons, nested inside it.

Try to keep your design simple and avoid multiple layers of nested blocks, as this can significantly increase the HTML size of your campaign, which can cause it to be clipped in Gmail.

If a block won't drop onto the canvas

If a block won't drop where you want it, check the following in order:

Drag the block by its header, not by its contents.
Watch for the dashed line. It only appears where the block can be placed, so if no dashed line appears anywhere on the canvas, the block can't go there.
Open the campaign in a private browsing window. A browser extension may be stopping drag and drop from working. Learn more in the If EasyEditor stops responding section.

If none of these work, the campaign's HTML may not be compatible with EasyEditor. This is most likely if the campaign was copied from another campaign, or built from code pasted in from elsewhere. Build the campaign again from a blank template.

Edit the content of a block

Select a block to edit the content inside it, for example, to replace some text or change an image. Depending on the type of block you have selected, a range of options will be available to you in the left side menu.

Delete or copy a block

You can also duplicate or delete a block using the relevant icon in the block header.

Dotdigital AI

If the features are enabled on your account, then where you see the Dotdigital AI symbol in the header of a content block you can access our AI content tools to help you create and refine your email content.

Learn more about

Space and align your content

EasyEditor doesn't have a margin setting. You control all the space around a block's contents with padding and borders, and you set both on the block itself.

Change the space around a block

Select the block you want to change.
Select Styles from the left side panel.
Expand the Borders & padding section.
Enter the amount of padding in pixels you want.

By default, one value sets the left and right padding together, and one value sets the top and bottom padding together. To set each side separately, select the four side icon next to the Padding section title.

Padding is the space between the edge of a block and its contents. If you change the padding and the whole campaign moves instead of the one block, you've selected a container rather than the block inside it. Select the block itself and try again.

Change the space between text and an image

An image sits in its own image block, so the space between the image and nearby text is the padding on that block:

Select the image.
In the Styles panel, expand the Borders & padding section.
Enter the amount of padding in pixels you want on each side of the image.

If your image sits inside a text block, select Inline in the Alignment area of the top toolbar to display the image with text above and below it.

Align a block

The alignment controls depend on the type of block:

Images In the top toolbar, select the left, right, or centre icon.
Buttons Select the button block to open the Settings tab, select Button, then in the Alignment area move the button to the left, right, centre, or full width.
Text Use the alignment options in the text toolbar.

A button is always its own block, so it sits above or below a text block rather than inside it. To centre a button, set the alignment on the button block.

Learn more in:

If your campaign contains links from another campaign

A campaign can't contain links that were generated for a different campaign, for example a View in browser link from an earlier send. If it does, you see this warning:

"Your campaign may contain links from another campaign. We recommend removing these links before continuing"

This usually happens when a campaign has been copied.

You can still save a campaign that shows this warning, but we don't recommend sending it. Remove the link first.

To find the link:

Expand the Utilities drop-down menu and select Links.
Select the Preview icon next to a link. The campaign scrolls to that link and highlights it with a red outline.
Delete the link from your campaign.

If the campaign doesn't scroll to a link, or nothing is highlighted, the link is embedded in the campaign code rather than visible in the design. This happens when a content element has only been partially removed from a copied campaign.

To remove a link from the code:

Expand the Utilities drop-down menu and select Edit source.
Press CTRL + F, or Cmd + F on a Mac.
Enter the URL you saw in the Links window.
Delete the link, then save the campaign.

Learn more in Review tools for email campaigns: the Utilities menu.

More EasyEditor actions

Preview your campaign

Once your campaign has content in it, select Preview on the right of the top toolbar to see how the campaign should look in your recipients’ inbox.

The preview tool gives a good idea of how your campaign should appear to your contacts, however previews in a browser can only be approximate, so we strongly advise you to perform test sends to different mail clients and devices. You can also make use of our inbox testing tool.

The preview tool allows you to:

Switch between HTML and plain text versions of your campaign using the drop-down menu in the top left.
Check how your campaign looks on desktop, tablet and mobile. To do this, select the relevant icon in the top right of the Campaign preview window.
See the campaign with or without the images. To do this, toggle the Images switch to On or Off.
Preview the campaign as a specific contact.

To do this, select the Personalisation icon and search for the contact using their email address. Select Find, and then select the Preview icon for the contact you want to view as.

Alternatively, select Show recent to display the ten most recent contacts you’ve imported and preview each one in turn.

Select the dynamic content icon to preview any dynamic content, if you’ve added any.

Preview a split test campaign

Switching between split test version in a preview is only available when using the previewing tool outside of EasyEditor.

To do this:

Go to Campaigns > Email.
Select the Preview icon for the campaign you want to view.
Expand the drop-down menu in the top right of the Campaign preview window and select which content version you want to preview.

When inside EasyEditor, you can only preview the split test version of the campaign you currently have open in the editor.

Keyboard shortcuts

We've also included keyboard shortcuts so you can make even speedier use of the preview tool:

1, 2 and 3 switch between desktop, tablet and phone previews, respectively.
r rotates between landscape and portrait views when previewing in tablet and phone formats.
i switches between images being on and off.
h and t switch between HTML and plain text.
p opens the personalisation preview dialogue window.
d opens the dynamic content preview dialogue window.
Esc closes any dialogue window, including the overall campaign preview window.

Once you’re happy with your campaign preview, select Save & continue.

Plain text

Email campaigns are sent with both an HTML version and a plain text version. You choose the format when you set the campaign up, and a plain text only campaign has no HTML content at all. You can't change the format from EasyEditor.

Learn more in Campaign setup.

We automatically generate a plain text version of your campaign for you, and update it when you save any changes to the HTML version.

Plain text versions can’t be automatically generated for campaigns using Liquid markup.

A plain text version of your campaign is important for a couple of key reasons:

Some spam filters penalise emails for only being in HTML without a plain text alternative. The HTML and plain text versions are sent as a combined email, and spam checking software looks at the combined file and checks the copy in the HTML and plain text versions are consistent. Spammers don't usually concern themselves with this.

Contacts might want to receive plain text because they're partially sighted, or their email client or the older mobile device won't display HTML emails.

If you manually edit the plain text version of your campaign, then the plain text version no longer automatically updates to match any changes you make to your email content in the design view.

If you want to manually add or edit the plain text version of your campaign, then, on the Content step of campaign creation:

Save any unsaved changes to your campaign.
Expand the Utilities drop-down menu and select Edit plain text version.
Make any changes to the plain text version you want.
To return to the design view without making any changes, select Close.
Select Save & close.

To re-synchronise your HTML and plain text email versions, select Generate plain text version.

You see a confirmation message that any existing plain text will be replaced with a newly generated version. Select OK.

If EasyEditor stops responding

If the editor freezes, an image sticks to your cursor, or the campaign won't save, your work isn't lost. EasyEditor autosaves one minute after any change.

Select Save, even if the editor seems frozen.
If the campaign still won't save, expand the Utilities drop-down menu and select Restore.
Expand the Select a version drop-down menu and choose the most recent version. Autosaves are indicated in brackets.
Select Restore.

Why EasyEditor stops responding

Freezing, a stuck cursor, an image that won't drop, and blocks that won't drag are most often caused by a browser extension adding code to the editor. Writing assistants are the most common cause.

To check:

Open the campaign in a private browsing window, which turns extensions off, and work there.
If the editor behaves normally, turn the extension off for Dotdigital in your browser.

If the problem continues in a private window, open the campaign in a different supported browser.

Every campaign must include an unsubscribe link. A campaign without one can't be saved.