Should I use Rapidweaver to help me build pages in 'Smartershot'? Urgent help please

Hi all,

I’m not sure that Rapidweaver CAN help me, but I’m hoping that you guys can advise me on the way forward, I’m in a bit of a rush for answers on this one too.

My client wants me to take over his email campaigns using ‘www.smartereshot.co.uk’, so that I create the campaigns which then get sent out via email to his clients.

I believe that the previous designer was somehow ‘fetching content’ from his own server, (see pic 1 with blue graphics) so he was able to make email campaigns that had lots of graphics and html text intermixed.

My options are to do the same, or to start from scratch inside the software. Looking at the basic Smartershot html edit page (see pic 2), I don’t see how I can easily create the sort of graphics that were done before, so I can keep the majority of text as html, (I’m no expert when it comes to html layouts). My gut instinct would be to stick to flat jpgs but the client might not be happy with that.

What’s the best way forward. Can I build these pages in Rapidweaver and fetch content? Does it even work that way? I need the simplest option which allows for html content and graphics but doesn’t overcomplicate the process.

Many thanks, and I apologise if this is an innapropriate post for this forum.

:-(.

keep it separated! A newsletter is a newsletter, a website is a website. Different audience, different approach. You can create links in the newsletter ( i use MadMimi or Mailchimp for clients) to the website, to generate traffic. Images used on the website can easily be integrated in newsletter (just by donwloading from the site, and uploading to the newsletter system of choice. The newsletter system will generate unique links for all your links, so you can track down the stats of the campaign in the dashboard.
So, don’t make the mistake that a newsletter is a page from your website. It isn’t, it shouldn’t be.

All the best.
Dick Sijtsma

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Thanks all for your responses so far. I don’t want to commit to an extreme learning curve on this one, and it seems that using external sources mean just that…so Im initially tempted to just learn how to html it from inside the simple html work panel and just try and work out columns and colours etc so I can keep text html, and add in flat jpgs where appropriate.

Are there any sources which would help me with that?

Actually I realise it’s mostly learning the basics of html, so I think I just gotta do a lot of googling. Thanks all :slight_smile:

The images I have as jpgs from photoshop. I’ve got a stupid question. If I design a master template page in rapidweaver, in a blank theme, can I not just copy the source code into the html editor in Smartershop?

Hi Kris, thanks for your input. I’ve had a look for Adobe Reflow but am I right in thinking that it’s only available for Photoshop CC, not an older Photoshop CS6? In which case I can’t follow that lead unfortunately. I love the idea though ;-).

What about CKeditor? I found that in my applications folder, and it looks like you can use a WYSIWYG option to help style the page? http://ckeditor.com/demo#inline
Would that do it?

Ooh that’s interesting, does that mean I can create the layouts in photoshop, and then use the url to import into the campaign software, and it will read it correctly AND keep the text as editable html? I don’t see mention of that.

Will do, thanks so much for your input :wink: