TimeSaver # 9 – Expanding the Body of an email with an HTML using Letterhead Template

So, I thought I’d pass along this hint for Salesforce – I am not sure if it saves you time if you just live with the issue, but it certainly saves you time if you wanted to send templated emails without needing to know HTML!  Of course, many use email templates during their day to day use.  However, the HTML body size is locked to 550 pixels when you’ve set up a template using the HTML (using Letterhead).  This works fine if you create your letterhead to fit to 550 pixels or less.  What happens if you have a letterhead where the footer is longer than the body size though?  Your email ends up looking cut, and not quite great looking.

The text does not stretch to the full space of the header...

So, how can we get around this? With four quick steps, you can actually stretch the HTML size within this template.

1) Create an image: With this step, you can use your favourite online image editor – I personally use Online Image Editor. If you use this site, simply use the Create Canvas section to create a new image.  The width should be the same width as your header or footer (in this instance it is 700 pixels), and the width you can make as 5 pixels.  And finally, ensure that the colour matches the background colour of your email template (the body section of the email template).  Click the Create Canvas button, and then save your custom made image (don’t worry – you can’t see it that well, especially if it is white!) to your local computer.

2) Store your image in the Documents folder:  Now, in Salesforce you are going to go into the Documents folder, and store the image you just made as a file.  Store it in a shared folder, and ensure it is marked off as an externally available image.

3) Edit your Email template: Now, for the final step.  Go into the email template you made, and go to the bottom of the HTML body area (the area where your email body is written).  Click the image button on your HTML toolbar.  Add the image you just created to the end of your email template (in this case, I called the file white space filler).

So, now you’ve stretched your email body so that it is the same length as the header you utilized was.

Now, while there is some steps involved with this ‘timesaver’, it does allow you to reuse the filler image you have added in future templates, and of course lets you utilize the ease of the HTML (using Letterhead) template type, instead of having to use the Custom HTML template type, in which you need to know how to write HTML code.  Hope this helps some of you out there!

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