Using the HTML Wizard
The HTML Wizard is a function within PPS that allows you to construct basic HTML formatted e-mails. It can be accessed by opening a new or existing activity template through Tools > Activity Templates. In the E-mail tab there is a button labelled HTML Wizard.
At the bottom of the Wizard screen you'll see two preview buttons. The first, Preview, will open a screen that gives you an accurate display of how the template will look when sending to client. Pressing Autopreview will expand the screen to display a live preview screen that gives a depiction of how the template will appear as you make changes to it.
The HTML Wizard gives you three customisable sections; the header, the body, and the footer. There is also the option to include a border around the email, which defaults to a black with a width of 700. We recommend leaving the width between 500 and 750. To change the colour, click on the rectangle to the right of the ‘Border Colour’ and this will give you the option to select a new colour, or to remove it completely by selecting Cancel.
Editing the E-Mail Header
The header section of the HTML Wizard allows you to select an image to display at the very top of the e-mail. You will need to make sure that the image is the correct size before inserting it into the template as it cannot be altered through PPS. Begin locating the image by pressing the '...' browse button.
In the 'Select Image File' screen you'll see any images you have already used in other HTML templates. This is useful in case you have one header image that should be used in all templates.
If the image you want to use is not already present then choose Select and Image from another location and browse to it on your machine. If you're using a Hosted system and are having difficulty locating the file then the following guide may be useful: Local Drives.
When you've located the image choose Select.
Once the image is selected choose the left, centre, or right justify options to position it.
Editing the Message Body
The message body is where your main e-mail text will go. Type the text that you wish to be displayed here. Please be aware that text cannot be copied from programs that use "rich text" formatting as this will conflict with the HTML formatting required.
The below example shows text using a merge field that will automatically populate the client's name whenever this e-mail is sent. Merge fields can be accessed here via the Merge Field button, select the one you want to use and then click into a place in the text to paste it there.
You also have a certain amount of formatting available for the text, which can be controlled from the formatting box just above the message body.
The options are as follows:
F – this allows you to set the font that will be used in the HTML email. By highlighting a section of text and clicking this button you can set the font, the style, and the size for that selection.
B, U and I – these set the highlighted section of text to bold, underlined, or italics respectively.
A – this allows you to change the font colour.
You can also right, centre, and left justify your highlighted text using the buttons to the right. A combination of all of these can be used throughout the template.
Creating the E-Mail Footer
The top part of the footer section works in the same way as the header. You can select the image that you require, if any, and this will appear at the very bottom of your HTML email. This can again be positioned to the left, right, or centred.
Alternatively, if you have a snippet of HTML code that you wish to include you can select the HTML Code Snippet option and choose the file containing the code in place of an image.
The footer also gives you the option to include further text below the footer image in the ‘Message Footer’ box. Text entered here can be formatted using the same options available in the main message body section. If you are using a border this text will display at the very bottom of the e-mail with a line above it. Setting the border colour to ‘none’ will remove this line.
Saving your HTML template
Once you have completed the HTML template and are happy with the layout you can then click on Close. The Wizard will automatically save the changes that you have made and you will see that there is now an HTML document listed in the HTML style email section of the activity template.
Choose Save here once done.