The Legacy Email Composer is still available for teams who prefer its familiar tools and workflows. This guide walks you through the options for creating, editing, and sending emails using the legacy experience, and when each option is most useful.
For the most up-to-date way of creating emails in Act-On, see the Email Composer.
Some features are not available when sending from a CRM or Act-On Anywhere.
Legacy Email Options
When you go to Outbound > New Message, the following tiles let you start a legacy email:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Draft Message | Start a new message using a previously saved draft. This creates a new email using the draft’s design and content as a template. |
| Template Message | Start a new message using one of your legacy email templates. |
| Sent Message | Start a new message using a copy of a legacy email that has already been sent. This imports its design, content, and settings. |
Additional starting points are available under Create a message with the legacy email composer:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Blank message | Start a new message using your default header and footer with an empty body. You can customize the style of your blank message. |
| Plain text email | Create a plain text email with no styling. Plain text emails do not include open or click tracking but may be required by older email clients or strict security policies. |
| Upload HTML code | Import a pre-designed email from a .txt, .htm, .html, or .zip file, or copy from a URL. This creates a raw HTML block you can continue editing. |
Address
Begin building your email in the Address tab. Here you set the Message Title, Subject Line, Preview Text, sender details, and your recipient lists or segments.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Message Title | A label for internal use only. This appears in listing pages and reports. |
| Subject Line |
The line your contacts will see in their inbox.
See Tips for Email Subject Lines. |
| Preview Text |
The supporting text displayed next to the subject line in most inboxes.
For guidance, see Litmus’ guide to preview text. |
| Sender |
The From address shown to recipients.
From addresses can be personalized if configured. |
| Reply To |
Where replies will be sent. This does not need to match the Sender.
To use a no-reply address, add it to your account’s From addresses. |
| Recipients | Choose lists, segments, or specific individuals to send to. Options vary depending on user permissions. |
| Suppress Against |
Select lists or segments to exclude from receiving this message.
Suppression overrides inclusion by default. For best results, use segmentation rather than suppressing large lists. Learn more in Defining a Segment. |
| Subscription Category | Allows contacts to opt into or out of specific categories (requires Subscription Management to be enabled). |
| Act-On Campaign | Add this message to a Campaign for consolidated reporting. |
| Attach 'Sent' Note to CRM Leads/Contacts | Adds a “Sent” note to Leads or Contacts in your connected CRM. |
| Advanced Custom Analytics | Append custom parameters to clickthrough links for extended tracking. |
Design
The Legacy Email Composer’s drag-and-drop editor lets you build your message on the left while adjusting design tools on the right.
Stationery
Stationery provides the framing and styling for your message. Choose from Act-On’s built-in options or create custom Stationery to match your brand.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Stationery | Choose an available Stationery or create your own to ensure branding consistency. Selecting No Stationery or Plain Text Only limits additional styling options. |
| Responsive Design | Allows your message to adapt to different screen sizes. Enabled by default—recommended for mobile readability. |
| Align Logo | Position your logo left, right, center, or remove it entirely. |
| Message Width | Set a fixed pixel width or choose Use 100% for an adaptive layout. |
| Align Message | Align your message to the left or center of the screen. |
| Background | Set outer and inner background colors using Hex values or predefined palettes. |
| Border | Adjust border color, width, and corner radius. |
Content
Drag blocks and sections into your email to build your layout. Blocks include text, images, polls, files, dynamic content, and more.
| Block | Description |
|---|---|
| Greeting | Insert a personalized greeting with a configurable fallback. |
| Rich Text | Create formatted text with the WYSIWYG editor. |
| Signature | Insert a default or custom signature block. |
| Media File Download | Insert a downloadable file with optional expiration and custom labels. |
| Form Link | Insert a link to a Classic Form. |
| Time & Place | Insert event details including date, time, place, and teleconference info. |
| Multiple Choice | Create a simple poll with options and optional comments. |
| Image | Insert an image with optional alt text, description, and clickthrough URL. |
| Business Card | Insert a downloadable vCard-style contact block. |
| Spacer | Add vertical spacing to separate blocks. |
| Dynamic Content | Create conditional content variations based on contact data. |
| Custom Content | Insert or upload custom HTML. |
| Social Share | Insert customizable social sharing buttons. |
| Sections | Create one-, two-, or three-column layouts with editable properties. |
Additional Options
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Undo/Redo | Quickly revert or reapply recent design changes. |
| Message Styling | Control fonts, spacing, colors, and padding for your message, header, and footer. |
| Edit Plain Text Version | Create and customize the plain text version of your message. Update it after editing the HTML. |
| Validate Clickthrough Links | Ensure all URLs are reachable and correctly formatted. |
| Download Creatives | Download the HTML and CSS files for external use. |
| Check Spelling | Run a spell check across all text areas. |
Email Header and Email Footer
See Email Headers and Email Footers for details.
Review
After designing your email, use the Review tab to preview, validate, and test before sending.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Preview Your Message | Preview your email in HTML, Text, and Mobile formats. |
| Sample Preview | View personalization as it appears for individual contacts. |
| Validate Message | Check for required elements such as sender, subject line, content, and opt-out links. |
| Spam Score | Evaluate your message against common spam filters. Scores range from 0–15; lower scores reduce spam risk. |
| Test with Litmus | Preview your message in popular email clients. |
| Check Account Limits | Ensure your account has available sending capacity. |
| Check Full Personalization | Detect and resolve personalization issues before sending. |
Send
Under the Send tab, choose when and how your message will be delivered.
Learn more in Choosing an Email Send Method.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Send now | Send immediately. |
| Send at the following time | Schedule delivery at a specific date and time. |
| Send in the recipient's time zone | Deliver at a set time based on each contact’s time zone. Includes an optional fallback time zone. |
| Send over time | Distribute sends over a defined window instead of all at once. |
| Use Adaptive Sending | Use predictive intelligence to send at the optimal engagement time. |