Product

Creating reusable email designs

Jason McCay

Oct 12, 2023 • 4 min read

Enveloop allows you to design your content once and, then, share everywhere.

Enveloop allows you to design once, then share everywhere.

When you are first set off to create content for an email message, you often take time to ensure that the design and layout matches the tone of the content and that the structure is optimized for your users. This takes time to craft (and Enveloop provides you with all the adjustment controls you need to make it perfect.)

However ... once you've put in the effort to establish your design, you'd like to easily reuse those styles in new email content. Sometimes that needs to happen on a large scale and sometimes it occurs on a smaller scale. In either case, Enveloop gives you the flexibility you need.

Enveloop is a developer-focused email and text message builder and API that makes it easy to design & send beautiful emails and texts from your app using one simple implementation. You can sign up for free at: https://app.enveloop.com.

Here are a couple of highlights:

Duplicating an email template

Large scale, first! If you've created an email template and would like to duplicate it, in its entirety, and modify the new one – it takes only a moment.

From the Gear icon at top right, you can access Template Settings. From there, you have the ability to Duplicate Template. Once selected, Enveloop will ask you what name you'd like to give the new template.

A view of a drop-down settings menu in Enveloop and a red pointer is highlighting the words "Create a Copy". — Clicking "Create a Copy" on the Template Settings area in Enveloop allows you to easily duplicate an entire message template.

Once completed, you are set. All the design, content, and template settings are carried over. The only change made is that the template will get a new, unique slug name, to access it via the Enveloop API.

Copying a Section

When you roll over each section, a small label/header will appear in the top-right bounds of the section. It shows the name of the section and the border makes it easy to see what all content is located within the Section.

Also located in the label/header, you'll notice an icon that looks like two documents overlaid on each other. Click that icon and it copies the section (including its design and content) and all of that information is now available to be pasted elsewhere in the email template.

An animation of a cursor, selection a section of text, and choosing an icon that copies and, then, pastes the section into a email template. — You can copy entire sections in Enveloop. It will include all the content and design properties for the section and the elements that reside in it.

You'll notice that when you clicked the Copy icon, a Paste prompt appeared. It's letting you know the the copied content is standing by. Click into the area you'd like the content pasted, click the Paste prompt and the Section will be added.

Copying an Element

Now the small scale! Similar to the Copy and Paste for a Section, you can perform the same set of actions for individual Elements within your email.

When you roll over each element, a small label/header will appear in the top-right bounds of the element. It shows the name of the Element and the space it takes up in your content stack.

Similarly, in the label/header, you'll notice an icon that looks like two documents overlaid on each other. Click that icon and it copies the Element (including its design and content) and all of that information is now available to be pasted elsewhere in the email template.

An animation of a cursor, selecting an element of text, and choosing an icon that copies and, then, pastes the element into a email template. — You can copy individual Elements in Enveloop as well. It will keep all the content and design properties for the Element.

You'll notice that when you clicked the Copy icon, look for the same Paste prompt. It's the content copied is stored and ready to be pasted in. Click into the area you'd like the content pasted, click the Paste prompt and the Element will be added.

Copy locally, paste globally

Once you've copied a section or element in one of your message templates, you can paste it in a different spot in that template. Also, you can leave the template, return back to your Templates list, select a different template, and then paste the section or element there as well.

In fact, you can effortlessly select a template in a separate project in Enveloop and paste the section or element in a template there as well!

The content you copied follows you around in the app.

Moving it around

Once pasted, even if you happen to paste it in the wrong spot, look at the list of elements or sections on the right-side of the page and click-drag to reorder the location.

Change your mind? Simply click the Trash Can icon in the header of the section or element to remove it from your template.

Shared Sections

What if you have a section of content that needs to be consistent across multiple templates? Instead of copying and pasting individual sections in each of your templates, you can use a Shared Section instead.

Shared sections are managed at the top-level of each project you have. You can find out more in the article: Shared Sections in Enveloop.

That's it – a fast, but powerful way to extend all the hard work you put into perfecting your email messages.

Happy sending!