Create and Edit Legacy Transactional Templates
Creating email templates involves a mix of content writing, HTML, and CSS expertise. Email templates should look good on different email clients and be responsive for mobile devices. Many non-technical customers will hire a front-end or email template developer to build their templates. We also suggest testing your templates with rendering applications like Litmus before sending them to your customers.
The maximum number of transactional templates and versions per user ID is limited to 300. This means you can have 300 templates with 1 version each, or fewer templates with more versions of each template.
Transactional templates are account and Subuser specific. Templates created on a parent account will not be accessible from the Subuser accounts.
Creating a template
- Open the Legacy Templates page and then click Create Template.
- Add a unique template name in the dialogue box and then click Save.
- Open the Actions drop-down menu to create a new version.
- Click Add Version.
The editor opens. From here, you can change the subject and the body of your email template.
The easiest way to get started with a new template is to use one of your previous email templates or a free template from the internet, and then modify it to fit your needs.
Editing your HTML template
Email templates are table-based HTML with inline or header styles, because some well-known email applications will only read table-based HTML.
To add a template:
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Open a new template in the Code Editor or Design Editor by clicking Actions and selecting New Version.
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If you selected the Code Editor, copy and paste your HTML code into the code editor.
If you paste in an email template, it is likely that you will overwrite the default basic HTML provided in the code editor. If you selected the Design Editor, use the WYSIWYG editor with drag & drop modules to create your email template. -
When you’re done editing, click Save.
Please double check that the content is formatted correctly before you send an email using this template.
Preview and test your template
SendGrid suggests previewing and testing your template once you have created it to ensure that the format and layout look the way you expect.
To preview your template:
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Select Preview.
A window pops out with a preview of the email that you’re going to test, with the option to view the template formatted for both mobile and desktop platforms. -
Click Send Test to send a test email using your new template.
- Fill in the recipient and subject line fields and then click Send.
Any Substitution tags will not be populated in this test, but you will be able to confirm the layout and format of your template.
Managing templates
From the main template view on each template group, you will see an actions menu. From this menu, you can choose to edit the name of your template, add a version, preview, test, or delete the template. You will also see an action menu for each template version. Clicking this presents a menu that allows you to preview and test, edit, duplicate, and delete the template version. You can also use the preview function to send a test.
When you delete a template you will delete all the versions of your template.
Activate your template
To activate your template:
- Navigate to the template you wish to use and select the action menu.
- Select Make Active.
A template can only have one active version at a time. If you’ve created a new version with different HTML that you want your customers to start receiving, you’ll need to make that version “Active.”
Duplicate a Template
To duplicate a template:
- Navigate to the template you wish to use and select the action menu.
- Select Add Version.
The app creates a clone, giving it a name that starts with "untitled". You can give the template a unique name by selecting the action menu next to that version and clicking Edit. Once the editor has opened, enter a unique name in the Template Name field. This duplicate version will not be active until you activate it.
Adding unsubscribe links to a template
For more information about unsubscribes, check out our unsubscribe documentation.
Additional Resources
Need some help?
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