Swiftpage template - distorted font sizes

[Krawl]

 

Hi. I am having major problems with my Swiftpage email template. Although the text looks perfectly laid out within Template Editor, it ends up distorted when I do a test or a live-send.  The size fluctuates and even the actual font changes mid-paragraph (and then changes back again). One paragraph sometimes contains three different fonts and two or three different sizes!

Even more frustatingly, the fluctuations are not consistent. One recipient sees a different layout from another.

I have attached an image.

Any idea what I am doing wrong? Is is something to do with re-using previous templates or copying and pasting text from Word?

Thanks

[Krawl]

I should have mentioned that I am using SAGE ACT! Pro 2013

[gmartin]

Re-using a template should not have this effect on the formatting unless there were multiple formats included in the previous text. Copying from Word may be introducing unexpected formatting.

Unfortunately, the way to test this is to create a new template to test entering the data manually. I would create a basic template with the information from the single window and send it as a test.

If a new template does not resolve the issue, can you provide additional information:
- Browser used to edit template?
- E-mail system used to view test email?
- Operating system of computer?

[inlinestyle]

This is a consistent problem with the template editor. The html parsing and code placement is pretty dire and illogical. Updating a highlighted section of can break the whole layout easily. The editor seems to randomly use span tags and will always nest tags leaving previous tags in the html which causes further problems. The font scripts also often crash the browser (tried with chrome, ie and ff). 

Why does the editor put dotted lines around table cells after every save in Chrome?

Are there any plans to review the editing engine? It really needs some bug fixing.

[PumpKing]

A quick search returned this post.

I too am finding a random element with font sizing and type, typically fonts are shown and selected as Arial and the preview email comes through with Times New Roman.  I have edited a standard template to start with.

Considering all the effort that's gone into make things easy to do to fall down on this basic requirement is a tad odd.

Act: Act! Pro Version 16.2.14.0, Hot Fix 2
OS: Windows 7 32bit
Email: Outlook 2007 SP3
Database: Shared via server

[PumpKing]

Just an update on the situation, I've found a solution to my issue and that's to use MailChimp. For a small company like ours their free package is more than enough.

[john_f]

I can't comment on 'inlinestyles' statements of the e-marketing editor causing html issues but it is true what he is saying in that if random <span> tags are added in all over the place, this will mess up your text and resize font-size etc.

Don't copy from Word, ever! All sorts of formatting can be picked up and with code extra formatting causes issues. If you have a lot of text in a Word doc that you don't want to have to re-type out in your template then copy from Word, paste into notepad or textedit then copy from notepad or textedit and paste into your template. A text editor removes all formatting and although most people will probably never use notepad that is built into all Windows machines, for me it is the most important piece of software that is on there!

Send me an online link to the template and I can sort this out for you if you like.

[john_f]

@PumpKing - that is one solution but for the people who want to keep everything on one place and be able to integrate their email marketing with the Act software, stick with Act e-marketing and just don't use their editor if it causes issues. You should be coding a template in specialist software then saving that as a template and importing into e-marketing.

You will only cause yourself headaches otherwise.

[PumpKing]

I never use anything but plain text editors to paste from.

Don't disagree John that's how we use to do it as my previous job, the reality is small companies tend to lack the resources or time to hard code a template themselves and as such the integrated functionality that comes with Act was a pleasant surprise up until the point you realise it falls over on something basic like retaining formatting.

Ideally yes I would prefer to keep everything all in one place but exporting and managing Act contacts to MailChimp (or probably any other email service) was fast, the returned stats were useful and Google Analytics integration automatic.  Pair that with being able to replicate my Act design within Mailchimp in about 2 hours (less if I had knew what I was doing) and it arrive in my inbox as seen on screen = no brainier in my book.

Don't get me wrong I would prefer to use Act but I can't afford to waste time on it. (I wasted the best part of a week trying to figure out workarounds)

[john_f]

Fair do's then PumpkinKing, we all have to do what works for us.

Although I would say, to get things done correctly outsource it! As you say, small companies don't have the time (or often the interest) and instead have their own business to be getting on with, this is why we, as developers, are here. A 2 hour job for you is an hour for us most likely.