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BigSender Administrator Guide
Converting Plain Text > HTML & HTML > Plain Text
BigSender's powerful "convert" function will insert or remove HTML tags depending on which box ("plain text" or "html text") contains text and which one is empty.
Note: BigSender will broadcast plain text-only email but, because many of your recipients' email clients do not support rich email, pure HTML messages (with the plain text box empty) are converted automatically so BigSender can send its exclusive Hybrid™ message that is universally readable by known email software and web-based email systems.
Converting Plain Text > HTML
Composing your message first in the "plain text" window will most resemble the way you already compose your email messages... You type (or paste) the body of your message into the "plain text" box inserting line breaks, URLs and email addresses wherever you would normally. BigSender has an "insert" selector that will append any text in the plain text box with the special "personalization" code (name and email address) and your signature.
Then, making sure the "html text" box is empty, click the "convert" button.
A message will be returned to you indicating whether the requested action was taken along with the Message Composer below it containing both the original plain text message and the newly converted HTML text in the box below.
Further massaging of your HTML code may be needed and you might insert font attributes such as colored, bold, underscored, or italicized text, image tags, and additional formatting such as centering, if you like.
Tip: While some email software your recipients use offer support for the full HTML specification, many provide only limited support (Eudora, for example) and will ignore advanced tags such as background colors and images, tables, forms, JavaScript and embedded files such as Flash and QuickTime, etc. – it's often best to stick to the more basic HTML so your message doesn't end up looking amateurish because it was not interpreted correctly by the recipient's software. Just as with building a website, you should experiment and view each message with many different kinds of email software.
Be sure you do not put any HTML tags in the plain text window as BigSender will strip them out.
When satisfied with your message, send a test email or broadcast to your recipients.
Converting HTML > Plain Text
Method One: Most BigSender users who are broadcasting a newsletter, e-zine or other online publication, first compose the HTML version of their message using a separate text editor or an HTML editor. That way, they can perform local tests on their code to make sure the document's appearance is to their liking. They can also make sure all their image source and URL links function correctly. (Those all must begin with http:// or the images will not render in your email and the links will not work.)
Once you are satisfied with the appearance and content of your rich text message, simply select the source code between the two ;<BODY> and </BODY> tags. Copy to your clipboard (control+c) or (command+c) then click on the the "html text" box in the BigSender Message Composer and paste (control+v) or (command+v).
Method Two: You may use the HTML window to compose your message and, if you're intimate with HTML code do handcoding along the way. BigSender has "insert" and "HTML helper" selectors that will append any text in that box with special "personalization" code (name and email address), your signature and some commonly used HTML formatting code along with some specific to your list, such as any of your three logos (if you set them in the Configurator).
Make sure the "plain text" box is empty and click the "convert" button. BigSender will attempt to perform the rich text-to-plain text conversion and return the result of that action to you in the resulting page along with the Message Composer so you can inspect the results and, when satisfied, send a test email or broadcast to your recipients.
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