Send email

This workflow item will send an email from the address [e-mail] 

To - typically this will be populated by the {LearnerEmail} variable, but can be populated with any email address. You could also retrieve email addresses captured within Learning Locker attributes by using the Get attribute item. Separate multiple email addresses with a semi-colon.

Note: Including multiple addresses in the To field will result in a separate email being sent to each recipient. The purpose of this is to avoid exposing the email addresses of the other recipients to a recipient. To include multiple recipients in the same email, utilize the CC and BCC fields as desired in the Show additional options section.

Subject - subject of email (can also be populated with variables).

Body - this is the editor for the content of the email (can also be populated with variables).

Email template - set a template to be applied to this specific email. See the email template guide for more info. 

Customising your emails

Automation allows you to design and format professional looking emails to send out as part of your workflows. If you’re familiar with Rapids, our lightweight e-learning authoring tool, then you’ll see that the Automation email template editor utilises a lot of the same features and interface. To use custom email templates you’ll first need to create at least one email template. This template can then be applied to your new and existing email workflow items.

Managing email templates

The email templates menu lets you create, edit, view, and manage your email templates.

1. Click the Email Templates icon on the dashboard to access this menu.
2. Click the Create new template button to create a new email template.
3. Click on the name of an existing template to edit it.

Customising your template

When editing an email template, whether new or existing, the top of the view offers the ability to Name the template, provide a Description for the email template, and define the Email from name that will be included in the emails generated using the template.

Just below those fields along the right side of the page, you'll see three icons:

will make the email design editor full screen.

will open preview mode, removing all of the editing options
from view and allow you to see how the design will look for users.

will open the appearance menu.

1. Clicking this will open a colour picker to change the background colour of the page from the default white.
2. Clicking this will open a colour picker to change the text colour for all of the widgets on your page.
3. You can type in the name of a Google font to be used on the page, or you can click on the dropdown and select a font from the list.
    

Sections and layouts

Directly below the name and the description sections, you will be presented with the editor. The initial template will display the header area, email body area and the footer area. When hovering over each of the header and footer sections you have the options to add a selection of widgets for that area or, if you wish, additional sections.
 

1. To create a new section, press the blue + icon. You will be prompted to select a layout for your new section.

2. There are six possible layout to choose from:
• 1 column
• 2 columns (50/50)
• 2 columns (33/67)
• 2 columns (67/33)
• 3 columns
• 4 columns

These are represented by images (see picture) rather than listed out. Each column in the layout allows for a widget to be added to it.

3. If you hover your mouse over the edge of a section, three buttons will appear on the right:

Lets you move your section around to a different place on the page.

Toggles the section between fixed-with and full-width.

Deletes the section.

Adding a widget

Once a section has been added to the page, you can then click on the + icon within the section to choose a widget.

There are four widgets available to choose from. Hovering over the icons will reveal their names. Clicking on an icon will add the widget to your page.

Text

When text has been added to the widget, you can highlight any part of the text to display some formatting options.

This will allow you to add paragraph breaks in and set the text to bold or italics. You can also create a hyperlink, add bulleted lists or numbered lists, as well as choose the alignment of the text or add a block quote.

Image

There are a few different ways of adding an image to your page:

1. You can add an image by dragging and dropping it on the image area.

2. Click Paste a URL to open a context menu. This will allow you to enter a URL for an image as well as some alt text.

3. Alternatively, you can click add a random placeholder to add an image from a small library of images. The image will be added and displayed in its native dimensions, unless it is bigger than the container and then it will be scaled to fit inside of it.

If you use a smaller image and want it fill the container, click on the edit icon on the right side of the widget container. In the context menu, click Scale to fit.

Video

To add a video into the widget, simply paste the embed code from YouTube, Vimeo or Brightcove and hit enter. The video will then be displayed within the widget.

Text on image

1. Click into the widget to begin adding your text.

2. Click on the edit widget icon on the right hand side to open the context menu.
3. Drag and drop an image into the upload box or click on browse to open the file picker and select an image. Alternatively, you can enter the URL of an image in the Image URL field.

4. Use the other options to customise your image:

• Font - Click on the dropdown and select from a list of pre-selected fonts. Alternatively, you can type in the name of a google font.
• Background colour - Set the background colour on the widget.
• Text Colour - Set the colour of the text in the widget.
• Minimum height - Set the minimum height of the widget to allow you to choose how much of the image you want visible.
• Padding - Allows you to add some padding around the text to allow you to position it within the image.

You can also make adjustments to the text in the image by highlighting the text to open an editor. Using the editor, you can add bold, italics, etc.

Applying email templates

There are four ways to apply your email templates to email workflow items:

 

1. Create a template and set is as default. When you create or edit an email template, you will have the option to set it as default. If you do, it will be applied to all emails sent by Automation unless a different template is applied at the campaign, workflow, or workflow item level.

2. Apply the template at a campaign level. Open the settings page of the campaign and choose the email template you would like to use. Every email from this campaign will have this template applied to it, unless you apply another template at the workflow or workflow item level.

3. Apply the template at a workflow level. Open the setting page of the workflow and choose the email template you would like to use. This will apply the template to every email sent by this workflow unless you apply another template at the workflow item level.

4. Apply the template at a workflow item level. When you’re adding an email workflow item, you can select the template that you want to apply to it by using the Email template option.