dada ~ send a rich text message (formatted like Microsoft Word)

To do this, you need to have a certain version of the mailing list software and the special FCK EDITOR installed. If you have an older installation of Dada Mail (pre March 2006), you’ll need an upgrade to do this.

1. Log in to Dada Mail
2. Click on Send A List Message in the menu
3. In the top right hand corner, click the Advanced…. link. (If it says Basic, you’re already in Advanced mode - stay where you are)
4. In the Subject field, type in what you’d like the Subject of the mailout to be.
5. At the Attachment 1 option, you can send out an attachment if you want to. Simply click the Browser button to find the file you want to attach. If you don’t want to attach anything, skip it. Remember, don’t make your attachments too big (more than 1 or 2mb) and don’t send out attachements that people won’t be able to open. Remember, not everyone owns Microsoft Word).
6. Options - Apply the list template to the HTML message. We strongly suggest you tick this box (unless the design of your website doesn't lend itself to wrapping around your newsletter - please ask us if you're unsure.) When you do, the mailing list software will automatically surround your mail out with the header, footer and navigation of your website - so the mailout will look like your website. It will also give people the opportunity to visit any page on your website just by clicking on the links in their email. Using this option saves you the hassle of adding images, contact details and links to your website, as it’s all done for you.
7. In the Text Version box, you should supply a plain text version of your message. As cool as the HTML version will be, some people turn off the ability to receive HTML email messages and you want them to be able to read your mail out in a simple format.
8. In the HTML Version box, the magic starts to happen. If you have the FCK EDITOR installed, you will now see the following:
   
9. While you can just type up your Message in Microsoft Word and copy & paste it over, it’s not very successful. I strongly suggest you use all the little buttons in the FCK EDITOR (above) and type up your message from scratch from within Dada mail. If you have a large amount of text and you don’t want to type it up again, copy and paste the text in to Notepad (you’ll find it under Start > Programs > Accessories) first, then copy and paste from Notepad to the Dada mail program. You will lose all formatting in Notepad and only be copying over raw text with no formatting. This is exactly what we want.
10. Once your message is typed in, it’s a really good idea to send a test copy first to make sure you haven’t made any mistakes (we all do it!). Scroll down and click the SEND TEST MESSAGE button. A new window will pop up confirming the message has gone through.
11. Once you have checked your test message, you want to send the real one. Close the pop up window from the test message & click the SUBMIT MAILING LIST MESSAGE button.
12. DON’T CLOSE THE WINDOW YET!
13. To double check your mailout goes smoothly, Dada will only send out your message in batches. Most websites I have set up to send 25 messages per minute. You will receive an email at the end of each batch of 25 messages and another one at the end of the final batch. Keep the window open until you receive the last email saying your message is complete.

You can insert images in to your messages, but unless you’re a bit of a wiz with Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro, you risk making your mailouts super huge, filling up your hosting space and annoying a whole bunch of your clients. If you wish to add images to your mail outs, please contact us and we’ll write a tutorial to show you how.

MORE DADA TUTORIALS