We recommend trying to work with your template, rather than against it. Email clients have different demands on our boilerplate, and we are trying to please as many as we can – which means we might end up feeling a bit restricted at times.
A boilerplate contains blocks, which in themselves contain elements – like a text or a button. By adding, removing or moving elements and blocks around you can create different layouts. No matter which blocks and elements you have access to, these are some generell guide lines for usage of boilerplates:
- You can edit and copy a boilerplate but make sure that everything is behaving the way it should before making several versions of the boilerplate. If anything is modified and/or broken in several boilerplates, it is much more time consuming for the Symplify team to fix this. Likewise, if a fix or change is requested, adding these to several boilerplates will result in a larger order. We recommend to make a copy of the boilerplate Symplify delivered, before editing the boilerplate so you can go back to the original boilerplate in case your changes break the boilerplate.
- Never add margins/padding/border to the right or left of blocks. Adding them to elements is done at your own risk. However, adding top and bottom margins/padding/border is fine, just be sure to check how the template renders on smaller screens.
- Never change the width of responsive images. A different width can display the email in Outlook and/or other email clients wrong. You can order a new block if you want a different image size.
- Always add a width to images. Height is not necessary.
- Do not use images in .svg format - Use .png, .jpg or .gif instead.
- If Symplify, or yourself, has made a change to the template – you will need to “Create new” in order to see these changes. Autos and Transactionals need to be updated. If you keep opening or copying a draft, you will not be able to see the updated template.
- In general, if your method of working with email is to copy an old draft/sent – do get into the habit of creating a new email every now and then. This way you remove excess old formatting and code which can be collected from other drafts and documents that might have been copied into the email. If you copy and paste a lot from other documents, try using the Remove formatting button.
- You may rename your boilerplate in Symplify, but keep in mind that in contact with support and production we need to know which template you are referring to. Always provide us with the delivery ID or boilerplate ID, you can find the boilerplate ID next to the boilerplate’s name under Account > Templates.
- Symplify does not offer support for changes made by clients in the boilerplate, even if the changes are made in Symplify.
- When using Import content from another campaign (Import wizard)– make sure that both campaigns are using the same boilerplate. If you import blocks/content from another boilerplate you may experience rendering issues in different clients/devices, even if you don’t see this in the editor.