The Messages List is where you manage all the messages that have been created by anyone in your organization. You'll use this page to create, edit, and delete messages, as well as perform other administrative actions to manage your messages. Using folders, you can also organize your messages by theme or type.

To access the Messages lists:

1. Access the Admin interface.
2. Navigate to Messages > List.

TIPS: On list pages, click a column header to sort on that column; click again to reverse the sort order. Click the columns count below the list to add and remove columns in the current view.

Available views

This page includes five views to make it easy to filter and manage messages based on their status: In-Progress (default), Review, Sent, Triggered, and Scheduled. To access these views, click the down arrow to the right of the page title and select a status.

NOTE: To learn about managing (editing, copying, tracking, etc.) your Sent Messages, see Manage Your Sent Messages (Communications Professional).

TIP: On all of these List pages, you can click-and-drag a column divider in the list header to resize the width of the column; the new widths will remain in effect until you change/re-size them.

Create a message

To begin the creation process, click the plus sign to the right of the page title.

NOTE: If your Communications Professional account has legacy mailing types available, pick the type you want to create. In this section, we'll provide guidance for the latest message-creation editor (Message Designer [MD2]) and each legacy type.

Message Designer (MD2)

See Create Messages (MD2) to learn how to create messages with Message Designer.

From HTML

See Create Mailings From HTML to learn how to create messages from HTML.

Mailing Designer (MD1)

See Create a Mailing to learn how to create messages with Mailing Designer.

QuickMail

See QuickMail to learn how to create messages via QuickMail.

NOTE: QuickMail is an older mailing system. Originally designed as an alternative to newsletters, it is meant to contain one story or announcement, and is designed to be sent easily. There is currently no development work to support QuickMail emails.

Snag Mail

See Snag Mail to learn how to create messages with Snag Mail.

Message folders

You can organize your messages by grouping similar or related messages into folders. Because the Messages List displays all of your messages by default, organizing your messages into folders enables you to isolate a group of messages to more easily work with and manage them.

TIP: Create folders and organize your messages from the beginning; otherwise, it will be a more time-consuming and difficult task doing so after dozens of messages have been created. When creating your messages, you'll be able to select which folder to store it in.

NOTE: Learn more about using folders to manage your messages.

Edit a message

1. Because messages are grouped by status in separate lists, click the down arrow to the right of the page title and access the appropriate list for the message you want to edit.

2. Select the message and click Edit.

TIP: You can double-click a message on the In Progress, Triggered, and Scheduled pages to access the editor.

NOTE: If you're editing a sent message, there may be an extra step to begin the editing process. For example, in Message Designer, you'll need to click Edit Mailing. A prompt will display letting you know when the message was sent, and that changing its content will update the Online Version of the mailing. To continue editing the message, click Edit Mailing again.

3. You'll be taken to the associated message type's editor. For example, in the Message Editor, you'll be on the Design tab, where you can edit the template, formatting, and message content. Refer to the Create a Message section above for more information about each message editor.

Delete a message

1. Because messages are grouped by status in separate lists, click the down arrow to the right of the page title and access the appropriate list for the message you want to delete.

2. Select the message and click Delete. Click Delete again in the dialog to confirm the deletion.

NOTE: A few extra steps are necessary to delete Scheduled messages. To do so, you need to select the message, followed by Cancel Send from the More menu.


Next, confirm the cancellation to move the message back to an In-Progress status. It can now be deleted from the In-Progress list.

Search messages

At the top right, you can use the search feature to quickly find messages.

• Click the magnifying glass icon to expand a search field, allowing you to find specific messages. The list will automatically update with each typed character and display all records (visible and hidden) that contain a match against all list fields. Click the X to clear the search field to restore the original list.

The Preview Panel

Select a message to view additional details in its Preview Panel. (Click the message again to deselect it and close the Preview Panel.) The contents will vary depending on the message's status. In-progress and Sent messages provide especially useful information.

In-Progress

For these messages, the Preview Panel provides a checklist of tasks you should complete for each of your messages. For example, does a message include targeted subject lines or story level targeting? While none of these are required, Higher Logic considers these marketing best-practices for successful messaging, and this checklist makes it easy to check the "health" of each of your messages before they're sent.

Sent

The funnel at the bottom displays the latest snapshot of the message's statistics, enabling you to quickly check how your messages are performing.

See Manage Your Sent Messages (Communications Professional).

Copy and move messages

Select a message to enable the More menu at the top right. Click this menu and:

• Select Copy to display a dialog where you can enter a name and click Copy to make an identical copy of the selected message. This is a great way to re-use messages that contain content and/or configuration settings you want as the foundation for similar messaging (e.g., quickly creating your 2019 conference message using the 2018 message's content).
• Select Move to display a dialog where you can move the message to any of your existing folders. To do so, just select a folder and click Move. Refer to the Manage Folders section above to learn more about folders.

Copy to Child (MD2)

NOTE: This functionality is unique to Message Designer (i.e., MD2) type messages. See Child Accounts (Communications Professional) to learn more about Child Accounts.

You can copy messages from a parent account to any of its child accounts.

• When a message is copied, its associated template will also be copied.
• The message and the template will be copied to the Main folder in the child account.

To copy a message to a child account:

1. On the Messages > List page select a Message Designer type message.
2. Click More and select Copy to Child.

In the dialog, the name of the message is preceded by Copy of.

3. Accept this name or specify a different name for the message. (Required)
4. Check a box to select a child account; you can select more than one. (Required)
5. Click Copy.

A notification confirms whether the copy was successful.

Notes

Below are a few things to keep in mind when copying messages to a child account.

The Copy to Child option:

• is available under the More menu for Message Designer messages in all of the Messages > List pages.
• will not display for accounts that do not have child accounts.

You cannot:

• copy messages from a child account to its parent account.
• simultaneously copy multiple messages (i.e., no multi-select option).
  If you select multiple messages, the Copy to Child option will not display in the More menu.

The copy will retain all the formatting and configuration selections of the original message.

The copy will not retain:

• story-level targeting; this will have to be reconfigured in the copy.
• the following links; these will have to be re-linked in the copy:
• Unsubscribe Landing Pages
• Form Landing Pages
• Content-Only Landing Pages

Images in the template and the message retain their reference to the images in the parent account's asset manager.

If you copy two messages that use the same template, each copy creates a new instance of the template in the child account.

The message calendar

When working with a marketing team that sends numerous mailings, staying organized is key, especially regarding keeping your sender reputation in good standing - you don't want to schedule and send too many mailings at or around the same time.

The mailing calendar will help you and your team stay on top of all outbound messaging. To access it, click the calendar icon above any of the lists.

See the Mailing Calendar section of the Mailings View article to learn more.

Export a list of Messages

You can export messages from each list to a CSV file.

The exported file will contain all of the list columns, irrespective of which currently display on the page.

To export the list:

1. Click the down arrow to the right of the page title and access a Messages list.

2. Click the export icon at the top right.

3. Navigate to where you want to store the file, give it a memorable name, and click Save.

TIP: Navigate to the saved file and review it.