List Messenger Cheat Sheet, Version 2.2
Lantern clients can access their email newsletter list tool by going to http://myurl.com/list. Your username and password will be the same as CMS.
Once you are logged in, you'll see the list of subscribers. At the top of the page is a menu of options for sending a message. To the left is a menu of options for managing users and groups.
The left menu (for managing users and groups) is pretty straightforward. Click "Add Subscriber" to add a new subscriber. Click "Manage Groups" to manage your mailing lists. ("Group" is the equivalent of a specific mailing list.) You can add new groups at any time, but don't remove a group unless you're sure you want to remove all of its subscribers from your database.
Your message sending options are in the menu across the top. To send a message, click "Compose Message" in the top menu.
On the "Compose" screen, you can give the message both an internal title (for your reference) and a subject (for the public). Then fill in the text. There are two fields, one for plain text and one for HTML. The reason there are two is that some email systems still only display email in plain text format and do not display HTML (formatted) email. This email system allows you to enter both, so that users who can't see HTML will see the plain version, but those who can see HTML will automatically see the HTML version.
We recommend spending most of your time on the HTML version, since that's the nice version that most users will see, but it's also a good idea to put something in the plain version for the few users who can't see HTML. (What we usually do is write the message in HTML, and once we have a final draft, we paste a very simple version of it into the plain text field. The plain text version can't have HTML, so instead of writing links with a href="", you just have to copy the link itself and paste it into the text. I recommend putting links on their own line to make it easy for readers to click on them. You should also remove any code related to bold, italic, or images--plain text means just that, only text.)
For the HTML version, the system includes a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor. It's similar to a text editor like Microsoft Word--you can use it to automatically make text bold, italic, underlined, indented, multi-colored, etc. You can also add links (highlight the text you want to link and click the button that looks like a chain link) and add images (click the button that looks like a picture of a tree). You can even add tables, if you want very formatted newsletters. Hover your mouse over the various buttons to see what their functions are.
If you want to format your HTML in a different program and copy it directly into this system, you can do so. Simply click the "HTML" button and paste your code into the box that appears.
You can use custom variables, which are listed at left--for example, if you use [email] it will input the invidivual's email address at that part of the message. We don't recommend relying on these, since for most subscribers the only information you have is email and lastname, and if you try to use variables that many don't have (such as city), users that don't have a city listed will see a blank spot at that part of the message.
You can also add file attachments, but we don't recommend this. Many email systems reject mass emails that contain attachments, and it could get you flagged as a spammer. Generally if you want your subscribers to see a file, you should upload it to the website and send them a link. (Images are files, but you also don't need to actually send the images that you use in the message--just use the "image" function in the WYSIWYG, because it automatically uploads your images to the server and creates the HTML code to display them in the message.)
Once you've composed a message, click "Proceed." This takes you to a page where you can preview the HTML and text versions. Once you're ready, click "Proceed" again.If you want to preview the message in your own email account first, put your email address in the "Send To Subscriber" field, then click "Send." When you're ready to send it for real,Ê select the group you want to send it to (hold your control key to choose multiple) and click "Send." This sends the message.
You can compose messages in advance and save them for sending later. To do this, just click "Save as Draft" on the message page, or click "Proceed" but don't follow through on the sending process. This saves a copy of the message, which you can get back to by clicking "Message Centre" from the top menu. When you're ready to send it, go to "Message Centre" and select the message, then follow the steps to send it.
If you want to check the progress of a message that you're sending, click "Queue Manager." This will update you on the server's progress in sending the message.
