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Compose a New Email

Clicking People > Group Email > Compose displays the Group Email form. There are three sections of the form that will help you send and manage email.

Note: You must have Email Author security access rights to access email.

Properties

The Properties section of the email must be completed before you can send an email. Type a Subject to proceed. You can also add your recipients from this area.

Delegates

If you need to send email on behalf of another user, have them sign into Fellowship One and make you a delegate. See Delegates for detailed instructions. If you have been made a delegate, the From field will display as a drop-down list from which you can choose the correct account to send from.

Recipients

Clicking Add recipients allows you to choose who to send the message to. You can send messages to individuals or groups you have previously created. See Adding Recipients for directions.

Body

The Body section of the email is where you will compose your email message. You can use a variety of features on the toolbar to help you with your message including the following:

• Attach a file—click to locate a file for attachment. You can attach a single file up to 512K.
• Paste as Plain Text—this button allow you to copy text from another source such as an email message or a Word document and paste it into the body of your email message. It will strip all formatting that was available in the source document as you paste into the email editor.
• HTML—this button allows you to open the HTML editor where you can write or paste HTML code.

Additional tools are available on the toolbar to format your text font, color, and size as well as paragraph positioning. Use the tool bar to format your email using text fonts/sizes and color to display your message in the way you want your recipients to read it. If you are typing a longer email, you should periodically click Save draft in the Actions area to prevent accidental loss of work. See Drafts for details.

See Using Images and Links in Email Messages to view directions on inserting images and links into your email message.

Working with Microsoft Word

You can copy from a Microsoft Word file and paste it directly into the body of your email message. This action will remove the proprietary formatting used by Microsoft, however, it will retain the look and feel of the text you have created.

Note: The font used in your Word document must be in the supported font list in the Fellowship One email editor. If it is not, the font will revert to Times New Roman when sent from the email editor.

Note: Hidden table borders will sometimes copy from Word as solid table border lines. You can click the HTML button and change the border="1" property to border="0" to turn borders off again.

Actions

The Actions bar on the right side of the email editor provides you with the following actions:

• Save draft—click to save any changes. Drafts are automatically saved every three minutes; however, you may want to save periodically if your message is long or contains detailed formatting.
• Preview email—click to see a preview of your message as you are working. The email will display in a new window. Notice that any merge fields you decide to use will appear as the merge field rather than the dynamic text that will replace it when the email is sent. Remember that it is always a good idea to send a test email to yourself to see how the message will appear.
• Email templates—click to use a previously saved template. See Email Templates for more information.

Merge Fields

Merge Fields allow you to insert a dynamic placeholder into the email message that will be replaced with actual information at the time the email is sent. For example, if you want your email to begin with "Dear Bill", you need to insert either the First Name or the Goes By/First Name merge field just after the word "Dear". The available merge fields are:

• First Name and Last Name—replaces the merge fields with each recipient's first or last name as it appears on the individual record.
• Household Name—this option is made up of a combination of two household members: Head and Spouse. For example, John and Jane Smith. If the person marked as spouse uses a different last name than the Head, the household name will appear with the first and last names of the Head and the first and last names of the Spouse. For example, John Smith and Jane Baker. This option is typically used in conjunction with the Send to unique email addresses only check box option.
• Goes By/First Name—this is the typical choice as it will first look at the recipient's individual record to see if there is a goes by name. If no goes by name exists, the first name is used instead.
• Prefix—this option is typically only used in very formal email messages. It will replace the merge field with the option selected in the Prefix field on the individual record (Mr., Mrs., etc.). Used in conjunction with the Last Name merge field. Make sure all recipients have a Prefix available before using this merge field.

To use a merge field, simply place your cursor into the body of the message where you want the name to appear. For example, if you want to insert a greeting line, type "Dear" and a space and then click the Goes By/First Name merge field.

Testing your Email

ACTIVE Network Faith highly recommends sending a test email before you send your email to all of your recipients. In fact, if you can send it to several different email account types, that is even better! For example, send a test to an email account that uses Outlook, one that uses Gmail, a Yahoo account and so on.

Use the Would you like to send a test email field to type in your email addresses. Separate different email addresses with a comma and then click the Send test email button.

Note: If you use merge fields in your email, the first recipient's information will be sent in the test. This is how the email will appear to the selected recipient when it is delivered.

Sending the Email

The Send area allows you to do several things. First, determine if you want to send a confirmation email to yourself or anyone else. This option will send a simple text message to the individual advising them that the email message has been sent.

Next, determine whether or not to create a closed contact item based on your email. In some instances, it may be nice to maintain a record of a sent email on an individual's record. If you would like to do this, simply click the Create a closed contact item for each recipient check box. Additionally, if the email is of a confidential nature, select the Contact item is confidential check box.

The email message will appear on the individual's record in the Contact Items widget. If you selected the Contact item is confidential check box, users will need the Email, View Confidential security access right to view this email on an individual's record.

Lastly, select the When emailing a list of people that contain identical email addresses from the same household, send only one email to each unique email address check box to prevent duplicate emails from being sent to the same family.