An email template is a reusable visual layout — typically including your community's logo, a color scheme, a header, and a footer — that wraps around your message content. Templates let you maintain a consistent, professional look for every email without redesigning from scratch each time.
How Templates Work
When you compose a message, you can optionally select a template from the Template dropdown in the Email Content section. When the email is sent, the system inserts your message's message body into the template at the location you have marked with the [%message%] placeholder (see "Creating and Managing Email Templates").
Without a template, the email is sent as plain content with no additional styling.
When Templates Are Applied
The template is applied at two separate points:
- Email delivery — the template is combined with your message at the moment the email is sent. This is what lands in recipients' inboxes and cannot be changed after the fact.
- Preview and bulletin display — the template is re-applied live each time a message is previewed or displayed on the bulletin board. This means editing a template will change how previously sent messages appear in Preview and on the bulletin, even though the original email already delivered to inboxes is unaffected.
If you update a template after a message is scheduled but before it sends, the delivered email will use the updated template.
Template Visibility
Templates can be marked as visible or hidden. Only visible templates appear in the dropdown when composing a message.