This article...
- Describes how to create, edit, delete, undelete, copy, and move messages on the Messages List pages.
- Explains the organization of messages by folders and status views.
- Details searching and filtering to find messages, and how to export lists of messages.
- Outlines the multi-select actions (e.g., move, delete, undelete) that make message management quicker and easier.
- Emphasizes the importance of using the message calendar to coordinate sending messages.
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, delete, and undelete 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:
- Access the Admin interface and click the Communications tab above the search field.
- 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.
NOTE: Message Names are hyperlinks. If you click a message Name, you will navigate away from this page, so consider the following options when managing your messages.
- Click a message Name to open the message's associated editor in the current browser window.
- Right-click a message Name and choose the "new tab" option to open the message's associated editor in a new browser tab (keeping this list open in the current window).
- Click anywhere on the row other than the Name to select and manage the message as described in this article.
Available lists
This page includes five lists that make it easy to manage messages based on their status:
- In-Progress (default list, described in this article)
- Review (see Manage Your In-Review Messages (Thrive Communications))
- Sent (see Manage Your Sent Messages (Thrive Communications))
- Scheduled (see Manage Your Scheduled Messages (Thrive Communications))
To access these lists, click the down arrow to the right of the page title and select a message status.
List pages features
On all of the list pages, you can manage the contents and appearance of the list.
- The All folders dropdown, to the right of the page title, is a quick way to access your list of folders and to then filter the list to one folder's contents.
- 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 create a message, click the plus sign icon to the right of the page title.
See Create a Message with Message Designer (Thrive Communications) to learn how to create messages with Message Designer.
Message folders
You can organize your messages by grouping similar or related messages into folders. Because the Messages List pages display all messages of the same status, organizing them into folders enables you to isolate groups 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 a message, 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
Messages are grouped by status so be sure you're on the In-Progress list.
- Locate the message that you want to edit and then:
- Click the Name to open Message Designer in the current browser window, or...
- Right-click the Name and choose the "new tab" option to open Message Designer in a new browser tab (keeping this list open in the current window), or...
- Click anywhere on the row other than the Name and then click Edit.
Delete a message
Messages are grouped by status so be sure you're on the In-Progress list.
- Click to select the message you want to delete.
- Select Delete from the More menu.
- Click Delete in the confirmation dialog.
Undelete a message
You can undelete (individually or in-bulk) any messages that have been deleted.
TIP: In addition to In-Progress messages, you can undelete Sent messages that have been deleted.
The easiest way to locate one or more In-Progress messages that have been deleted is to:
- Click the filter icon in the upper right to open the Filter dialog.
- Check the Show Deleted box and click Apply.
The list displays deleted in-progress messages only, which is easily verified because:
- the names of the messages are in red text and
- there's a green-circled checkmark for each message in the Is Deleted column.
TIPS: Click the columns count below the list to add the Is Deleted column if it currently doesn't display.
- Click a message to select it, click More, and click Undelete.
- Click Undelete at the confirmation prompt.
The message no longer displays in the filtered list.
Repeat these steps to undelete other messages.
- To restore the original list, click the filter icon, uncheck the Show Deleted box and click Apply.
TIP: You can also simultaneously undelete multiple deleted messages by using the multi-select feature. To learn how, refer to Multi-select message actions, below.
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 in which you can specify a search term.
- The list automatically updates with each typed character and displays 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.
Queried fields
On these Messages List pages, the search feature queries the following columns.
- Name
- Template
- Subject
- Modified by
- Type
- Folder
- Created by (Review, Sent, and Scheduled messages only)
- Send at (Scheduled messages only)
- Review Initiator (Review messages only)
The Preview Panel
The Preview Panel slides in from the right when a Message is selected. The Preview Panel has different information, options, and functionality on the different Messages lists.
The In-Progress list does not have a Preview Panel for each message. It does have a flyout panel for multi-select actions, Move and Delete.
Copy and move messages
Messages are grouped by status so be sure you're on the In-Progress list.
- Click to select a message and to enable the More button above the list.
- Select Copy to display a dialog where you can specify a name and click Copy to make an identical copy of the selected message. This is a great way to re-use message content and/or configuration settings for similar messaging (e.g., quickly creating this year's conference message using last year's messages content, and then making a few updates).
- 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.
Learn how to access, create, and manage folders to manage your messages.
Filter a list
You can apply one or several filters to each of the Messages lists to refine the list and more easily find the messages that you want to manage.
To filter a list:
- Click the filter icon to open the Filter dialog.
- Optionally, check the Show Deleted box to include deleted messages when the filter is applied.
- Click the dropdown to select a field by which to filter.
NOTE: The available filters depend on which Messages list you're viewing.
- Type a value in the adjacent text field.
NOTE: You cannot filter on multiple values (e.g., typing "David" and "Jeff" won't work).
- Optionally, click Add to apply additional filters. In-use filters are not available.
TIP: Filters that are already applied are not available.
- When you have specified the filters you want, click Apply to apply the selected filtering and return to the list.
The list now displays only those messages that match the applied filters.
Other options
While working on the Filter dialog, you can click:
- A minus sign to the right of a filter to remove that filter.
- Cancel to discard any selections, close the dialog, and return to the original list.
- Clear Filter (and then Apply) to remove all filtering that has been applied, close the dialog, and return to the original list.
Multi-select message actions
While most of the actions discussed above can only be taken on individual messages, you can perform some actions in-bulk by selecting multiple messages ("multi-select") as described in this section. The multi-select actions are:
- move,
- delete, and
- undelete.
Multi-select notes
The multi-select actions are now available in the flyout panel.
NOTE: If the list is filtered to deleted messages (described above in Undelete a message), the Delete button is replaced with Undelete.
After you've selected at least two messages:
- The Select All/Deselect All checkbox appears next to Name in the header row. Check the box to select and act on all messages in the current list view.
- With messages selected, you can navigate to additional list pages. If you do, note that:
- Messages you've already selected will remain selected.
- Message checkboxes on the subsequent list pages will be unselected but available.
Multi-select actions
When you've selected multiple messages, the following actions are available in the flyout panel.
Action | Steps |
---|---|
Delete | Click Delete to delete the messages. At the confirmation prompt, click Delete. |
Undelete | Click Undelete to undelete the selected deleted messages. At the confirmation prompt, click Undelete. |
Move | Click More > Move to move the messages to a different folder. In the dialog, select a folder and click Move. |
Clear Selections | Click Clear Selections to close the flyout panel and return to the list with no messages selected. |
View Selected | Click View Selected to remove all other messages from the list. Click View All to restore the list. |
How to multi-select messages
To select multiple, non-consecutive messages:
- Select a message.
- Press and hold the Ctrl (Windows) or command (Mac) key.
- Select each of the additional messages that you want to manage.
To select multiple, consecutive messages:
- Select a message.
- Press and hold the Shift key (Windows and Mac).
- Select click the last message in the consecutive run that you want to manage.
TIP: You can combine these methods to select/deselect groups of and individual messages.
The message calendar
When working with a team that sends numerous messages, it is imperative that the team members are well organized. This is especially important so that you don't send too many messages at or around the same time; this could negatively impact your sender reputation.
The message calendar is a good way for you and your team to keep track of all outbound messaging.
- To access it, click the calendar icon above any of the lists.
Export a list of messages
You can export each of the lists of messages from its own list page.
- Exported lists are in the .CSV format.
- The exported file reflects the state of the list at the time of export. It:
- contains only those columns that display on the page when the export is executed and
- reflects any filtering that was in effect on the list at the time of the export.
To export a list of messages:
- Verify that you're on the correct list page.
- Click the down-arrow icon above the list.
The file is saved to your default "download" location.
TIP: Before leaving the page, navigate to the file and review it to ensure that the list of messages is as you expect.
Customize the exported data
The export file contains the same data as the page in the Admin interface, but you can customize the data to suit your needs. For example, you can:
- move columns and rows
- delete columns and rows
- rename column headers